Vision of God

Kenneth E. Kirk was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Sheffield, and St. John's College, Oxford. After serving as a chaplain in France and Flanders during World War I, he returned to Oxford to become Tutor at Keble College, Fellow of Magdalen College, Fellow and Chaplain of Trinity, and in 1933 Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology and Canon of Christchurch. He was Bishop of Oxford from 1937 until his death in 1954.

• ForewordPrefaceLecture I. The Vision of God in Pre-Christian Thought1. The Vision of God2. Formalism and Rigorism3. Jewish Anticipations4. Pagan Anticipations5. Philo of AlexandriaLecture II. The New Testament1. Rigorism and Eschatology in the Teaching of Jesus2. New Testament Variations3. The Origin of New Testament Rigorism4. The Vision of God in the New TestamentLecture III. Formalism1. The Beginnings of Codification2. Codification in the New Testament3. The Dangers of Formalism4. The Motive of Reward in the GospelsLecture IV. Rigorism1. The Beginnings of Monasticism2. Monasticism and The Vision of God3. The GnosticsLecture V. The Reply to Rigorism (I. - Discipline)1. Rigorists & Humanists2. The Two Lives3. The Reform of MonasticismLecture VI. The Reply to Rigorism (II. - Doctrine)1. Naturalism and Christianity2. St Clement of Alexandria3. St Augustine4. St Bernard of ClairvauxLecture VII. Confusion and Order1. The Twelfth Century2. The School of St Victor3. St Thomas Aquinas4. St Ignatius of Loyola5. St Francis de SalesLecture VIII. Law and Promise1. The Reversal of Tradition 2. 'Worship' and 'Service'3. Disinterestedness and Pure Love4. ConclusionIndex

It could be argued that Kirk's Vision of God is the single most significant essay on moral theology written by an Anglican in the twentieth century. It is effectively a prolegomenon to virtue ethics, which, since the advent of Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue, has once again taken pride of place. But Kirk's argument also directs us towards an integrated vision of theology, where moral, ascetic and doctrinal thought coalesce within one context.