Two Philosopher-Bishops

N August of 1953, the United States lost one of its great social and religious thinkers, and the Methodist Church one of its forthright champions. Two hundred years earlier, Great Britain lost one of its philosophical geniuses and the Anglican Church one of its liberal leaders. Though their lives were separated in time by two centuries, their religious insights, philosophical perspectives, and dominant interests were remarkably akin. The recently deceased American of the twentieth century is Francis J. McConnell, and his eighteenth century counterpart was George Berkeley. Both men were bishops in their respective churches and both were philosophers. Though Plato's ideal of a "philosopher-king" may never have become incarnate in history, there can be little doubt that the term "philosopher-bishop"I may be applied meaningfully to these two men. While both had a dual vocation, Bishop Berkeley is remembered more as an original philosopher than as a great ecclesiast, while Bishop McConnell is remembered more as a great bishop than as a philosophical innovator. In studying the lives and writings of these two leaders, many striking parallels may be noted. Both were of Irish descent. Both were recognized as brilliant when young. Both were admitted to the church at about the same age; Berkeley took his orders at 24, and McConnell was accepted "on trial" at 25. Both began writing at an early age. Before he was thirteen, McConnell wrote the pamphlet: "A Boy's Life of Garfield," of which ne hundred copies were printed.2 At 22, Berkeley published "Arithmetic Demonstrat d without Euclid or Algebra." McCon ell's next work was his doctoral dissertation on Shadworth Hodgson in 1899. He did not publish again until he was thirtyfive.3 But in the forty-six years that followed, in addition to many articles, a total of thirtyone books came from his pen. Though Berkeley wrote up to the last year of his life, by the time he was twenty-eight, he had finished the work on which his position in the history of philosophy chiefly depends. Both bishops were concerned with the promotion of education. From 1909-1912, McConnell served as President of DePauw University and in later years was a lecturer at Columbia, Boston, Drew, Garrett, and Yale. Berkeley put forth a tremendous effort to promote an educational program for the Indians of Bermuda who he thought were neglected by the colonial settlers. He drew up a proposal for a university and the British Government under Robert Walpole voted him ?20,000 to establish the school. Berkeley came to America zealous for the opportunity, but the money which had been voted was never sent. Disheartened after a threeyear wait, he returned to England in the same month and year that George Washington was born. But his sojourn in America was not without influence educationally speaking.4 He was a personal friend of Samuel Johnson, President of Yale University, and he sent gifts of books from his own library to that school and to Harvard. Upon leaving America, he bequeathed his farm at Newport, Rhode Island, for the perpetual sustentation of three scholarships to Yale. In commenting on Berkeley's educational interests, McConnell once wrote: "A scholar and divine of high order, he early became * WARREN E. STEINKRAUS is Associate Professor and Acting Head of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Iowa Wesleyan College. Recent publications include an article on the history of philosophy from Bowne's point of view and an article of criticism entitled "Bowne and Helsel," both of which appeared in The Personalist.