| Abstract: | R. J. Campbell was arguably the most renowned British religious figure of his generation, a prominent promoter of reform as a leader of non‐conforming Protestantism in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. He is generally regarded as a promulgator of pre‐war optimism, a universalist who courted personal fame and who sparked an intra‐Protestant sectarian crisis when he initiated a new reformist movement, the “New Theology.” Most of the analysis, including Campbell's suspect retrospective memoir, treat this religious ferment as rooted in Protestant/Christian perturbation. This perspective does not allow for a wider consideration of the vibrant religious milieu of enquiry then in vogue which brought Campbell into contact with a variety of esoteric ideas and philosophies and their interlocutors. Absent this focus, important figures participating in that religious colloquy are marginalised. My article seeks to fill out the commonly accepted version of events. Material not previously examined is interrogated towards illuminating Campbell's wider interests. It postulates that Campbell was one of a number of contributors to a broad discussion on religious ideas and their relationship to Christianity, one of a number of figures shaped by, as much as shaping, the contemporary discursive environment. |
