Hewlett Johnson
Hewlett Johnson | |
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Stalin Peace Prize | |
Notable ideas | Christian socialism |
Hewlett Johnson (25 January 1874 – 22 October 1966) was an English priest of the
Early life
Johnson was born in
He worked from 1895 to 1898 at the railway carriage works in Openshaw, Manchester, where two workmates introduced him to socialism,[2] and he became an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.[3] After deciding to do mission work for the Church Mission Society, he entered Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, in 1900 and later attended Wadham College, Oxford, where he gained a second in theology in 1904. The society rejected him because of his increasingly radical theological views, so he concentrated on training for priesthood and was ordained that same year.[4]
He became curate in 1905 and in 1908 a vicar of St Margaret's Altrincham. He and his first wife organised holiday camps for poor children and a hospital for returning World War I wounded soldiers in the town. His unconventional views on the war caused him to be refused employment as an army chaplain on active service but he officiated at a prisoner-of-war camp in his parish.[3] He became an honorary canon of Chester Cathedral in 1919 and rural dean of Bowdon, Greater Manchester, in which area his parish lay, in 1923.[2]
An avowed
The Socialist Sixth of the World
Johnson came to public prominence in the 1930s when he contrasted the economic development of the
Johnson defended his positive accounts of life in the Soviet Union, emphasising that he had visited "five Soviet Republics and several great Soviet towns", that he had wandered on foot "many long hours on many occasions and entirely alone" and that he saw "all parts of the various towns and villages and at all hours of day and night".
World War II
During
Johnson was arguably the most prominent of the Western church leaders who are said to have persuaded
Post-war
At the end of the war Johnson was awarded the
His influence began to wane, particularly after public sympathy for the Soviets in Britain declined dramatically after the
The headmaster of the
His biographer Natalie K. Watson, in
Personal life
Johnson was twice married. While still a student at Oxford in 1903, he married Mary, daughter of Frederick Taylor, a merchant of
Later life
Johnson retired as Dean of Canterbury in 1963, the year of his 89th birthday, but settled in the town where he lived at the Red House in New Street.[13] While maintaining his interest in Communist world developments, he engaged in psychical research and completed before his death his autobiography, Searching for Light (posthumously published in 1968).[14] He died, at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital in 1966 aged 92. He was buried in the Cloister Garth at Canterbury Cathedral.[2]
Collections
In 2007 Johnson's personal papers were deposited at the University of Kent Special Collections & Archives by his family. The archive includes photographs, extensive correspondence, newspaper cuttings and copies of his published and unpublished writings. Illustrated travel diaries by Nowell Johnson are also contained within the collection, featuring hand-drawn artwork from the couple's time abroad.[15] [16]
Published works
- The Socialist Sixth of the World, 1939
- Searching for Light: an Autobiography (London, V. Gollancz, 1939)
- The Secrets of Soviet Strength, 1943
- Soviet Russia since the war (New York, Boni & Gaer, 1947)
- China's New Creative Age (London, Lawrence: 1953)
- Eastern Europe in the Socialist World (London, Lawrence and Wishart: 1955)
- Christians and Communism (London, 1956); Russian translation – Хьюлетт Джонсон. Христиане и коммунизм. М., Изд. иностранной литературы, 1957, 154 с.
- The Upsurge of China, 1961
- Searching for Light (autobiography), 1968 (posthumously published)
References
- ^ Moore, Charles (25 December 2011). "The priest who thought Stalin was a saint". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34202. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b "Biographies of local people". Altrincham Area History. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013..
- ^ Oxford University Calendar 1913. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1913. p. 150.
- ^ "Hewlett Johnson Papers: Biographical information". University of Kent. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
- ^ a b c d Mount, F (2012). "To the End of the Line: Review of The Red Dean of Canterbury: The Public and Private Faces of Hewlett Johnson by Butler, J." London Review of Books. 34 (8): 27–28. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ Wright, John G. (February 1941). "The Dean of Canterbury's Soviet Power". Fourth International. pp. 56–59.
- ^ "Communists and Suspected Communists". Archived from the original on 6 January 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
- ISBN 9780807827369.
- ISSN 2055-7035.
- ISBN 9780313289699.
- ^ Talantov, Boris. "The Moscow Patriarchate and Sergianism". Orthodox Christian Information Center.
- ^ Crockford's Clerical Directory. Oxford University Press. 1963–64. p. 640.
- ^ Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1961–1970. Oxford University Press. 1981. p. 592.
- ^ "Hewlett Johnson Papers". Special Collections and Archives - University of Kent. 6 December 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
- ^ University of Kent Special Collections & Archives. "Hewlett Johnson Papers: Diaries". University of Kent Special Collections & Archives Catalogue. Retrieved 25 March 2024.