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The Kernel and the Husk
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TO THE READER
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TO THE READER
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398 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 23, 2013
2 people are currently reading
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About the author
Edwin A. Abbott
210 books832 followersPeople best know British theologian and writer Edwin Abbott Abbott for his imaginative satirical novella
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
(1884).
This English schoolmaster authored of the mathematical satire.
He was educated at the city of London school and at college of Saint John, Cambridge, where he as fellow took the highest honors in classics, mathematics, and theology. In 1862, he took orders. After holding masterships at school of king Edward, Birmingham, and at Clifton college, he succeeded G.F. Mortimer as headmaster of the City of London School in 1865 at the early age of 26 years. He was Hulsean lecturer in 1876.
He retired in 1889, and devoted himself to literary and theological pursuits. Liberal inclinations of Abbott in theology were prominent both in his educational views and in his books. His Shakespearian Grammar (1870) is a permanent contribution to English philology. In 1885 he published a life of Francis Bacon. His theological writings include three anonymously published religious romances - Philochristus (1878), Onesimus (1882), and Sitanus (1906).
More weighty contributions are the anonymous theological discussion The Kernel and the Husk (1886), Philomythus (1891), his book The Anglican Career of Cardinal Newman (1892), and his article "The Gospels" in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, embodying a critical view which caused considerable stir in the English theological world. He also wrote St Thomas of Canterbury, his Death and Miracles (1898), Johannine Vocabulary (1905), Johannine Grammar (1906). Flatland was published in 1884.
Sources that say he is the brother of Evelyn Abbott (1843 - 1901), who was a well-known tutor of Balliol College, Oxford, and author of a scholarly history of Greece, are in error.
This English schoolmaster authored of the mathematical satire.
He was educated at the city of London school and at college of Saint John, Cambridge, where he as fellow took the highest honors in classics, mathematics, and theology. In 1862, he took orders. After holding masterships at school of king Edward, Birmingham, and at Clifton college, he succeeded G.F. Mortimer as headmaster of the City of London School in 1865 at the early age of 26 years. He was Hulsean lecturer in 1876.
He retired in 1889, and devoted himself to literary and theological pursuits. Liberal inclinations of Abbott in theology were prominent both in his educational views and in his books. His Shakespearian Grammar (1870) is a permanent contribution to English philology. In 1885 he published a life of Francis Bacon. His theological writings include three anonymously published religious romances - Philochristus (1878), Onesimus (1882), and Sitanus (1906).
More weighty contributions are the anonymous theological discussion The Kernel and the Husk (1886), Philomythus (1891), his book The Anglican Career of Cardinal Newman (1892), and his article "The Gospels" in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, embodying a critical view which caused considerable stir in the English theological world. He also wrote St Thomas of Canterbury, his Death and Miracles (1898), Johannine Vocabulary (1905), Johannine Grammar (1906). Flatland was published in 1884.
Sources that say he is the brother of Evelyn Abbott (1843 - 1901), who was a well-known tutor of Balliol College, Oxford, and author of a scholarly history of Greece, are in error.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 9, 2020
A testament to the power of free thinking. Frequently becomes mired in theological minutiae, but whenever it rises from that mire it soars on winds of genuine spirituality. Of the truth in the kernel of the perennial nature of human spirituality that Abbott quite successfully shucks from the husk of superstition, mythology and bad history that makes up much of his faith.
But is it truly a five star book, if for long stretches it dwells on matters of no interest to anyone outside of those considering ministry work?
Well, perhaps not, but as of this writing I am the first person to review this book on Goodreads, and one can't help but love most what is one's own.
But is it truly a five star book, if for long stretches it dwells on matters of no interest to anyone outside of those considering ministry work?
Well, perhaps not, but as of this writing I am the first person to review this book on Goodreads, and one can't help but love most what is one's own.
Displaying 1 of 1 review