A study of the doctrines of freedom and immortality in the works of Ian Thomas Ramsey and Austin Marsden Farrer

Abstract

The thesis examines the doctrines of freedom and immortality as they are found in the works of Ian Thomas Ramsey and Austin Marsden Farrer. Chapters I and IV provide the background' to the work of Dr .Ramsey and Dr. Ferrer respectively. The background is examined in both its historical and philosophical perspectives in order not only to trace the influences behind the works of these two sholars but also to set their work in the wider intellectual scene. Chapters II and III trace the development of the writings of I. T. Ramsey on these subjects up to the delivery of his Forwood lectures on Freedom and Immortality in 1957 while chapter III examines his work from 1957 until his death in 1972. Chapters V and VI repeat the process for the works of A. M. Farrer, chapter V examining his work up to the delivery of his Gifford Lectures on the Freedom of the Will in 1957 while chapter VI examines his work from 1957 until his death in 1968. Thus, not only are we enabled to see the contribution of each of the se scholars in relation to each other and to the wider contemporary intellectual scene but we are enabled also to trace the development of their thoughts on these subjects with regard to their own intellectual development. The thesis traces their reactions to the restatement in the mid-years of this century of the two hundred year old challenge of David Hume to theology and metaphysics. Such an examination of different approaches of Christian, apologetic to a common problem may therefore suggest a way forward for a renewed; apologetic in the face of a radically secularised society, which takes account of both the methods and results of scientific: enquiry but which nevertheless does not compromise the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith and which provides a significant place for theology and metaphysics in the intellectual schema.