Robert Lawrence Ottley

1856-1953. Anglican theologian. Born at Richmond, Yorkshire, he was educated at Canterbury and Oxford, where he was successively vice-principal of Cuddesdon College, dean of divinity at Magdalen College, principal of Pusey House, and regius professor of pastoral theology. He contributed the article on Christian ethics to Lux Mundi,* pleading for a recognition of personality in the sphere of economics. His book The Doctrine of the Incarnation (1896) is an essay in both historical theology and kenotic Christology, while his Bampton lectures, Aspects of the Old Testament (1897), followed by The Hebrew Prophets (1898) and The Religion of Israel (1905), introduced advanced critical ideas to a large section of the Anglican clergy. A liberal High Churchman and a severe critic of liberal Protestantism, Ottley devoted his later years to writings on Christian morals and ethics. His Studies in the Confessions of St. Augustine (1919) is a notable product of this period.