Eric Lionel Mascall was born on 12 December 1905 in London. A Church of England clergyman and theologian, he was a philosophical exponent of the Thomist tradition. In 1931, he was ordained at Ely Theological College. He served in several London parishes until 1937, when he was appointed Sub-Warden at Lincoln Theological College. He joined the Oratory of the Good Shepherd in 1938, a community of Anglicans devoted to chastity, responsible spending, and direction of life. He also served at Christ Church, Oxford, and King’s College, London.
Fellow of the British Academy in 1974, he was awarded honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. He was a leading theologian in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, and he preached, lectured, and published on wide-ranging philosophical and theological topics. Notable works include ‘Three Modern Approaches to God’, Theology (1937), Death or Dogma: Christian Faith and Social Theory (1937), Man: his Origin and Destiny (1940), He Who Is: A Study in Traditional Theism (1943), the Christian and the Church (1946), Existence and Analogy (1949), and The Importance of Being Human (1958).
