The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1953-07-31
Just Among Ourselves
Posing Comment considered or tnconsidersfs

The Reverend William Ralph Inge (he says, Il
rhmye with thing sting not with hinge cringe),
formerly Dean of ST. Pauls Cathedral in London, is
SO years of age. He resents the fact that people
call him gloomy and says he does not deserve the
name. Yet one would have to be far advanced in
sene beneyoence, or faulty, to call the cheer
full.
Like every person who ever lived, the Gloomy
Dean has had, and doubtless has still, some quail
tiles that pleasing, aspects in which he APP
pears attractive and kable. No image of God
ever so wholly perverse as TO be utterly despic-
able. AS remarked here (at least before, in
quoting Arnold Lunn there must have been some
thing pretty nice about Judas or the other disciples
would not have tolerated his company. Fiction alone
paint picture in solid black and give us
character of whom the only praiseful remark that
could be made at his death that boy he
had been the best speer in school. O. Henry's "A
Municipal Report" will tell you about that lad.
Not that the former Dean of St Psuls is to be
compared with this master OF the spelling book.
But he is certainly deserving of some harsh sdjec.
tives and few strong nouns He has shown himself
in his writings mpressvely ignorant about things
Of which he speaks freely. He examples prejudice
and bgotry really remarkable in man who claims
10 culture and education. He is given TO tossing off
wild and irresponsible remarks which may be ex
planned but certainly cannot be Excused, by the
claim that he is easily irritated
Alfred Noyes who has sometimes had the Dean
and his lady as house guests, is so charmed by the
mans personality and conversation that he seeks to
excuse everything obnoxious about him. Noyes ex-
plains away particularly ferocious and insane
attack upon the Catholic Church by saying But the
Dean simply did not mean it,. This Is kind OF Noyes
but after ALL sane people are expected 10 mean
aIlx tkaKe kIfnlt
and in print.
Noyes says, Il think that his occasional eiaculs-
tions against Rome we're, more often than not, caus
ed by the irritstions of personal controversy They
were political. rather than religious" Whatever
their cause they not TO be justified 1t is inter
estine 10 note that Noyes uses The past tense IN
referring to the absurd fulminations Of Dean lnge
Is he suggesting that the aged cleric has reformed
and that he doesn't do so any more?"
Another point to consider in that quotation from
Alfred Noyes is the cautious phrase, More often
than not" II suggests the current ads which seek
TO persuade us to buy Product because seven
out of ten" find it the best thing ever offered
Soidy democratic training inclines MS to consider
that velled minority report; we wonder what those
three people found wrong with Product X; we'd like
TO have their detailed opinion before rushing out
tas the advertiser excitedly suggest) to buy some
What then of those occasions when Dean lnge
was not controversially irritated and not political
rather than religious, in his irenzied attacks on
the Catholic Church? Noyes offers no explanation
here lie feels that neither Chesterton nor Belloc
understood the Dean. in their day, but he acknowl-
edges also that the Dean did not understand them
And while he thinks that Belloc, in his open letter
which answers one of the Deans more outrageous
diatribes was really writing to the Little Man
Who Wasn't There, he declares that the letter fur
nishes some Of the most superb pages In the English
language And he adds. that letter leaves the mag
mary character uhe misunderstood Dean, who
simply did not mean it, absolutely defeated
Inge is strange contradiction. Deeply read in
Catholic myStics, he hates the Thing they loved
Devoted to ST. Augustine, and TO the Neo-Thomists
he actually ignores the soul and center of their
teaching Apparently teacher OF Christianity, he
is himself dubious or unbeeving OF the truths of
Christianity Willing TO lead others, he is coniessedly
one who knows not whittier he is tending. Fond of
Catholic friends he holds views about their dearest
loyalteS which must reduce them in his eyes to
mbecileS of whom normal person could be fond
Apparently dedicated to the Anglican Church, he
sees IL merely as an exclusive club of the aristoc
racy He confesses that he has love for the human
race lie declares himself baffed by the problems
of life and concludes that other person will
ever olive them. He the former Dean of ST. PAUL.
has all the queer and prideful Inconsistencies of a
blatant agnoStic.
He thinks says recent review, that his life
has not been wasted. Yet he thinks also that the
world is no better for his having been in it, His un-
wasted life has not benefited the world ii has not
benefited himself for he is still utterly baifled
by its meaning and purpose and waits, despond-
entity TO see what the outcome will be He doesn't
even know whether there is after-lite I'm the
sense in which the church teaches H." He doesn't
enyiSion heaven welcoming God Apparently,
he doesn't enviSion God IN judgment How, then,
is this "a life that has not been wased?" Maybe the
Dean simply does not mean II.
Even Alfred Moves tender as he is of this pecul-
lar Dean who is a Christian, and not Christian, a
believer and an unbelieVer, a teacher and con
fessed ienoramus. no lover of mankind and hearty
haer of things Cathoe,-eVen the charitable NoyeS
writes that III must be admitted that some of Dean
inge's remarks appeared outwardly TO confirm a
wicked little limerick on a Lambeth Conference:
God foreasmuch as without Thee.
Our Bishops and Deans cannot doubt Thee,
Give us grace in Thy name