While British idealism had, at the turn of the century, nurtured hope for a rapprochement between modern philosophy and the Christian tradition, the analytic philosophy that subsequently emerged in the early decades of the twentieth century was less accommodating of theology and its metaphysical suppositions. Those Anglican scholars who were committed to the task of philosophical theology soon found themselves sidelined by both the logical positivists and those theologians who, inspired by Karl Barth, doubted the integrity of human reasoning in theological practice. From between these two poles, Alan Sell has retrieved four voices that sought to articulate a ‘reasonable’ faith: W. G. de Burgh (1866–1943), first professor of philosophy at the University of Reading; W. R. Matthews (1881–1973), dean and professor of philosophy at King's College, London, and later dean of St Paul's; O. C. Quick (1885–1933), professor of theology at Durham prior to being elected Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford; and H. A. Hodges (1905–76), de Burgh's successor at Reading.

Sell's approach is ad hominem, elucidating chapter by chapter how each thinker perceived the role of reason in relation to faith, and the influence of psychology, epistemology and ethics in shaping their respective theological methods. Sell is careful to distinguish between the four philosophers, and includes a final chapter that compares and contrasts their approaches. Each thinker, unsurprisingly, offers a broader vision of human reasoning than that of their contemporary logicians, and it is clear that none of them perceived the noetic effect of sin as bleakly as Barth and his followers. Shared, too, is that typically Anglican eirenicism that results in a theological approach which is suggestive rather than prescriptive, that values encounter with God more highly than the text, and which perceives faith as trust rather than propositional assent.

This more peaceable reasoning, contrasted with the more raucous activity of their continental peers, is perhaps why so little has been written about these philosophers before now; and, certainly, consideration of context, both institutional and theological, would have been helpful, along with an assessment of the philosophers' influence beyond their respective spheres. None the less, this valuable account of four neglected Anglican philosophers is essential for any seeking to understand how Christian thought sought to negotiate the intellectual shifts that followed the First World War. Alan Sell has deepened our understanding of twentieth-century philosophical theology in Britain and, more specifically, the Church of England.