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Illtyd Trethowan (12 May 1907 – 30 October 1993), born Kenneth Trethowan, was an English Benedictines, Roman Catholic priest, philosopher, theologian, and author.
Trethowan was the author of several religious books and many learned articles, translations and book reviews. From 1946 to 1952 and again from 1960 to 1964, he edited The Downside Review. He served as sub-prior of Downside Abbey between 1958 and 1991 and, when he retired, was given the honorary title of "Cathedral Prior of Ely". He was also a visiting professor in theology at Brown University. Obituary: Awareness of God, leaderu.com, accessed 27 August 2021
Trethowan died at Bath, Somerset, on 30 October 1993, having said shortly before that he was happy to die. An obituary said of him:
Trethowan’s main contribution to the philosophy of religion is the argument that human awareness is intelligent and that the transcendent (divine, absolute, infinite) is implicit in it. "Illtyd’s proposal is that only in so far as we are (already) cognitively aware of infinite, transcendent reality can we sensibly talk of relations between things in the world and such reality."A. Baxter, "Illtyd Trethowan as Thinker: An Appreciation", The Downside Review, volume 112, issue 387, p. 77 He argued that our knowledge of God is not a matter of propositional reasoning on the basis of empirical experience; the recognition of God’s presence to the mind was like waking up to what it meant for a human being to be intelligently aware of things, and he was content with a broadly Platonist or Augustinianism approach to explaining that.David Foster, Contemplative prayer : a new framework (London: Bloomsbury, 2015, ), p. 3 Consequently he bridled at any argument for God’s existence he suspected of being inferential. "There is available to all humans a cognitive awareness of God that is direct, albeit arising in and mediated by self-awareness (not immediate): a contact thus with God to which one can point people, but which is not susceptible of strict 'description', or again 'proof'."Baxter, p. 77
The concepts at the core of his thinking (preconceptual, direct but mediated awareness) are illustrated in the phenomenological example he gave in Mysticism and Theology: This kind of certainty fascinated Trethowan; it is the basis of his claim that our knowledge of God is given in experience. In the 1950s he defended it against criticisms of Modernism, but he felt the position was vindicated by Vatican II.Baxter, p. 84
It was a position that took its distance from the standard empiricism of his day which characterized much English-language academic philosophy of religion e.g.. Trethowan had been educated in an Oxford dominated by ethical intuitionists like H.A. Prichard and W.D. Ross, and their non-natural theory of value was close to his own appreciation of the absolute in ethical experience, articulated most clearly in his books Absolute Value: a study in Christian theism and The Absolute and the Atonement. As noted by Baxter, Trethowan firmly held that:
But Trethowan argued no less tirelessly against efforts made in various forms of Thomism (as he saw it) to ground faith in reason rather than experience. His familiarity with several French thinkers of the nouvelle théologie was unusual in English theological circles before the Vatican Council. Bellenger noted that Trethowan was "particularly influential in introducing French Catholic philosophy to an English audience and in breaking the stranglehold of Thomism. Henri de Lubac (1896-1991) and Henri Bouillard (1908-1981), both victims of the official hostility to it in 1950, were important interlocutors for his own work; Dominique Dubarle (1907-1987) is another, a Dominican Order in fact, whose analysis of the modernist crisis interested him especially at the end of his life.
In relation to the mid-20th century tensions about the relation of philosophy to theology, Trethowan found a fellow spirit in Maurice Blondel (1861-1949). Like Blondel, Trethowan argued that left to its own resources philosophy can only reach an impasse, the only way out of which is to accept the notion of the transcendent, which opens the mind to the possibility of faith, the thesis of theology. (Trethowan’s contributions to Maurice Blondel may be found in The Letter on Apologetics and History and Dogma which Trethowan translated and edited with Alexander Dru). This approach to the concept of the supernatural is close to that of Henri de Lubac in his Surnaturel and to the early Karl RahnerBaxter, pp. 103-104
His first book on the theology of the Eucharist, as well as Christ in the Liturgy, anticipated issues that were to loom large in the Roman Catholic liturgical movement and at Vatican II. A reviewer of this book wrote that it "awakens hopes of a Christocentric synthesis the formulation of which would call forth his best from one who is by vocation a liturgist, is a theologian by trade and a philosopher by inclination." In his maturity he focused more on Christology than on Liturgy. His preoccupation for Christ’s human freedom seemed to bring him close to Nestorianism, but in other respects his approach, especially in soteriology and his discussion of sacrifice reflected classic Alexandrian preoccupations.Baxter, p. 78
"Loving awareness of God" is Trethowan's definition of mysticism.Baxter, p. 79 He notes that "faith is the 'seed of glory' and so the seed of mysticism: it must therefore have a mystical character. It must involve a sort of seeing."Trethowan, Mysticism and Theology, p. 47 He wrote that:
His interest in Walter Hilton reflects his interweaving of Augustinians biblical and liturgical spirituality with the English mystical tradition linking the Cloud of Unknowing and English Benedictine life revived in the 17th century in people like Augustine Baker. Trethowan understood the apophatic tradition but, like Cuthbert Butler (1858-1934), Abbot of Downside (1906-1922) an influential voice in that tradition, always understood contemplative prayer as an interplay of light and darkness. A reviewer summarized the work of Trethowan by noting:
Philosopher
A fearless thinker, Trethowan argued the centrality of contemplation and also that philosophical certainty about God was possible. He also worked to gain a greater audience for some less well-known writers, including Maurice Blondel and Dominique Dubarle. For philosophical inspiration, he looked to Augustine of Hippo.Aidan Nichols, "Catholic Theology in Britain: the Scene since Vatican II", New Blackfriars 80, Issue 944 (1999), pp. 451-471, accessed 27 August 2021 For over twenty years, he was in dialogue with Eric Mascall, with whose work Louis Bouyer draws comparisons, calling Trethowan "a born Augustinian, but of exceptional intellectual acuity".Louis Bouyer, The invisible Father: approaches to the mystery of the divinity (Petersham, Massachusetts: St. Bede's Publications, 1999, ), p. 80
Theologian
As a monastic thinker Illtyd Trethowan moved easily between the fields of theology, literature, and philosophy.
Published works (selected)
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Categories: 1907 Births, 1993 Deaths, Alumni Of Brasenose College, Oxford, English Benedictines, 20th-century English Roman Catholic Priests, People Educated At Felsted School, Clergy From Salisbury, English Male Non-fiction Writers, 20th-century English Philosophers, Mysticism Scholars, 20th-century English Male Writers
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