William Palmer

Description

This is a fascinating account of a failed
“journey to Orthodoxy” that should provide food for thought to all who
may follow this path in the future and offer grounds for reflection to Orthodox
believers on how to remove unnecessary stumbling blocks that can arise on the
path to their Church.

This book charts the eccentric career of William Palmer, a fellow of Magdalen
College and deacon of the Anglican Church. Seemingly destined for a conventional
life as a classics don at Oxford, in 1840 and 1842 he travelled to Russia to
seek communion with the Russian Orthodox Church. In interactions with
Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret (Drozdov), the lay theologian Khomyakov, and
others, he sought their affirmation that the Anglican Church was part of the
ancient Catholic and Apostolic Church world-wide. Their discussions clarify the
mutual misgivings and sincere theological disagreements that ultimately ended
Palmer’s quest.

After some years in ecclesiastical limbo, Palmer followed the example of his
Oxford friends such as John Henry Newman, and was received into the Roman
Catholic Church in Rome in 1855. He lived in Rome as a Catholic layman until his
death in 1879.

This is a new edition of the work previously entitled
Palmer’s Pilgrimage: The Life of William Palmer of Magdalen,
published by Peter Lang in 2006.