The promised series for Lent begins tomorrow, with a healthy excerpt from the first chapter of Fr Harton’s Life in Christ, which is entitled “Sons of God.” That excerpt will be free to all. But after that, the excerpts will be for paid subscribers only. So this is a good time to become a “paid sub” so that you will not miss out on this great devotional text.
Who is Father Harton? I have a brief biographical sketch, which sadly (and oddly) is the only thing I could find about him:
Frederic Percy Harton (10 June 1889 – 3 November 1958) was an Anglican priest and author during the twentieth century. He was the husband of writer Sibyl Harton.
Hetrained for the priesthood at King's College, London (spending time at Bishop's College, Cheshunt); and ordained Deacon in 1913 and Priest in 1914. After curacies in Hornsey and Stroud Green he was Vicar of Ardeley from 1922 to 1926. He was at St Paul, Colombo from 1926 to 1927 then Warden of the Sisters of Charity, Knowle, Bristol. He was then Vicar of Baulking from 1936 to 1951.
Later he served as Dean of Wells (1951–1958). He is known essentially for a frequently republished guide to the spiritual life addressed to an Anglican readership.
Also, I wanted to share the book’s Preface. It is short, but helpful:
PREFACE
That the Christian is essentially a new creature whose life is not only for but in Christ is the teaching of the New Testament and the Fathers and the spiritual teachers of the Church; nevertheless it has been and still is much obscured, so that, in some cases, Catholics1 tend to regard Christian living as little more than the exterior observance of the Church’s precepts and Protestants to think of it as a human imitation of the perfect example of Christ. But if Christianity is to fulfil God’s purpose for it in our distracted generation it seems to me that it is urgently necessary that Christians should realize the implications of their spiritual relationship to Christ in the Church,2 and it is these implications that I have attempted to elucidate in the following pages.
This book has been evolved out of two courses of sermons and no doubt it still bears some marks of its origin; nevertheless its purpose is neither homiletic nor hortatory, still less controversial; it is an attempt to explain to the ordinary Christian something of the fundamentals of his life and being,3 and as such I offer it to all who care for the things of God.
F. P. Harton
Baulking
September, 1937
[proceed to chapter 1]
The sense of “Catholic” here is in the broad, creedal sense of all Christians who consciously participate in the historical-sacramental Church which celebrates the Seven Sacraments; hence the Nicene Creed: “I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” Fr Harton himself was Catholic in the Anglican tradition (a priest in the Church of England) which is also called “Anglo-Catholic,” and so this is a strong criticism that applies to the Christian stream of which he is a part.
His second criticism, of Protestant attitude, is milder than his of Catholic attitude. But rather than Christian living as “a human imitation of the perfect example of Christ,” Fr Harton in this book will teach in what he regards as a deeper, more meaningful way: about life in Christ, that is, as baptized members of His Body (which is the Church). Hence S. Paul: “Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2.20).
Because Fr Harton aims at conveying the “fundamentals of life and being” of ordinary Christian living, he has written an ideal book for Lent reading. Compare with this teaching from Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury: “The life of a Christian is a continual response to the fact of his baptism.”