John Colenso

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John William Colenso (24 January 1814 – 20 June 1883) was a Cornish cleric and mathematician, defender of the

Bishop of Natal. He was a scholar of the Zulu language. In his role as an Anglican theologian
, Colenso is now remembered for views of the Bible that set off intense controversy.

Early life and education

Colenso was born at St Austell, Cornwall, on 24 January 1814 the son of John William Colenso and Mary Ann Blackmore. His surname is Cornish and possibly originates from Colenso in the parish of St Hilary, near Penzance in West Cornwall. It is a place name from the Cornish language Kelyn dhu, meaning "dark hollies".[dubious – discuss] His father (John William Colenso) invested his capital into a mineral works in Pentewan, Cornwall, but the speculation proved to be ruinous when the investment was lost following a sea flood. His cousin William Colenso was a missionary in New Zealand.

Family financial problems meant that Colenso had to take a job as an

Longmans of his copyright interest in the highly successful and widely read manuals he had written on algebra (in 1841) and arithmetic (in 1843).[2]

Career

Colenso's early theological thinking was heavily influenced by F. D. Maurice to whom he was introduced by his wife and by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

In 1846 he became

Bishop of Natal.[3]

Life in Africa

Colenso was a significant figure in the history of the published word in 19th-century South Africa. He first wrote a short but vivid account of his initial journeying in Natal, Ten Weeks in Natal: A Journal of a First Tour of Visitation Among the Colonists and Zulu Tribe of Natal.

Magema Fuze, Ndiyane and William Ngidi.[8] He also translated the New Testament
and other portions of Scripture into Zulu.

John William Colenso, by Carlo Pellegrini, 1874

Religious debate

Anglican Clerics' protests against Bishop Colenso — reprinted from The Times, 18 December 1862.[9]

Through the influence of his talented and well-educated wife, Sarah Frances Bunyon, Colenso became one of only a handful of theologians to embrace

Frederick Denison Maurice, who was raised a Unitarian but joined the Church of England to help it "purify and elevate the mind of the nation".[10]
Before his missionary career Colenso's volume of sermons dedicated to Maurice signalled the critical approach he would later apply to biblical interpretation and the baleful impact on native Africans of colonial expansion in southern Africa.

Colenso first courted controversy with the publication in 1855 of his Remarks on the Proper Treatment of Polygamy;[11] one of the most cogent Christian-based arguments for tolerance of polygamy.[12]

Songs were written by Samual Stone as a direct response to the schism within the Church of South Africa caused by John William Colenso, first Bishop of Natal. When the bishop was deposed for his teachings, he appealed to the higher ecclesiastical authorities in England. Then Samuel Stone became involved in the debate. It inspired him to write a set of hymns titled Lyra Fidelium; Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles' Creed (1866). Also written by Stone was the famous song "The Church's One Foundation" a hymn written in the 1860s by Samuel John Stone.

Colenso's experiences in Natal informed his development as a religious thinker. In his commentary upon St Paul's

Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua, from 1862 to 1879.[15][16] The publication of these volumes created a scandal in England and were the cause of a number of counter-blasts from those (clergy and laity alike) who refused to countenance the possibility of biblical fallibility. Colenso's work attracted the notice of biblical scholars on the continent such as Abraham Kuenen and played an important role in the development of Old Testament criticism in Britain.[17]

Colenso's biblical criticism and his high-minded views about the treatment of African natives created a frenzy of alarm and opposition from the

Bishop of Natal.[2] In view of this finding of ultra vires there was no opinion given upon the allegations of heresy made against Colenso. The first Lambeth Conference
was convened in 1867 to address concerns raised by the Privy Council's decision in favour of Colenso.

His adversaries, though unable to remove him from his episcopal office, succeeded in restricting his ability to preach both in Natal and in England. Bishop Gray not only excommunicated him but consecrated a rival bishop (William Macrorie), who took the title of "Bishop of Maritzburg" (the latter a common name for Pietermaritzburg). The contributions of the missionary societies were withdrawn, but an attempt to deprive him of his episcopal income and the control of St Peter's Cathedral in Pietermaritzburg was frustrated by another court ruling. Colenso, encouraged by a handsome testimonial raised in England to which many clergymen subscribed, returned to his diocese.[2] A rival cathedral was built but it has long been sold and moved. The new Cathedral of the Nativity, beside St Peter's, honours both Bishop Colenso and Bishop Macrorie in the names it has given to its halls.

Advocacy of native African causes

Colenso devoted the latter years of his life to further labours as a biblical commentator and as an advocate for native Africans in Natal and Zululand who had been unjustly treated by the colonial regime in Natal. In 1874 he took up the cause of Langalibalele and the Hlubi and Ngwe tribes in representations to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Carnarvon.[19] Langalibalele had been falsely accused of rebellion in 1873 and, following a charade of a trial, was found guilty and imprisoned on Robben Island. In taking the side of Langalibalele against the Colonial regime in Natal and Theophilus Shepstone, the Secretary for Native Affairs, Colenso found himself even further estranged from colonial society in Natal.

Colenso's concern about the misleading information that was being provided to the Colonial Secretary in London by Shepstone and the Governor of Natal prompted him to devote much of the final part of his life to championing the cause of the

Sir Bartle Frere's efforts to depict the Zulu kingdom as a threat to Natal. Following the conclusion of the Anglo-Zulu War he interceded on behalf of Cetshwayo
with the British government and succeeded in getting him released from Robben Island and returned to Zululand.

He was known as Sobantu (father of the people) to the native Africans in Natal and had a close relationship with members of the Zulu royal family; one of whom, Mkhungo (a son of Mpande), was taught at his school in Bishopstowe. After his death his wife and daughters continued his work supporting the Zulu cause and the organisation[20][21] that eventually became the African National Congress.

Polygenism

Colenso was a

polygenist; he believed in Co-Adamism, i.e. that races had been created separately. Colenso pointed to monuments and artefacts in Egypt to debunk monogenist beliefs that all races came from the same stock, i.e. from Adam and Eve. Ancient Egyptian representations of races, for example, showed exactly how the races looked today. Egyptological evidence indicated the existence of remarkable permanent differences in the shape of the skull, bodily form, colour and physiognomy between different races. Colenso believed that racial variation between races was so great, that it was impossible that all the races could have come from the same stock just a few thousand years ago. He was unconvinced that the climate could change racial variation. With other biblical polygenists, Colenso believed that monogenists had interpreted the Bible incorrectly.[22]
Colenso said "It seems most probable that the human race, as it now exists, had really sprung from more than one pair." Colenso denied that polygenism caused any kind of racist attitudes or practices; like many other polygenists, he claimed that monogenesis was the cause of slavery and racism. Colenso claimed that each race had sprung from a different pair of parents, and that all races had been created as equals by God.[22]

Death

Portrait by William Biscombe Gardner

Colenso died at

Dinizulu in 1888–1889 and in 1908–1909.[2]

Personal life

Colenso married Sarah Frances Bunyon in 1846,

Frances Ellen, Robert John, Francis "Frank" Ernest, and Agnes. (In the marriage register, her name is spelt Bunyan. There had long been variations in the spelling of a surname that goes back at least to the 12th century in England and in Normandy.)[citation needed] Sarah's sister Harriette McDougall
was a missionary.

In popular culture

A minor town in the province of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa is named after him. The town's name is Colenso.

The Zulu people of his era nicknamed him "Sobantu", a name that translates to (Father Of The People). The township (black suburb) Sobantu in the city of Pietermaritzburg is named after him.

Published works

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b "Colenso, John William (CLNS832JW)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911.
  3. ^ Guy 2002, pp. 299-.
  4. ^ Colenso 1855b.
  5. ^ Colenso 1861, p. 5.
  6. ^ Colenso 1890.
  7. ^ Colenso 1860.
  8. ^ Colenso 1901.
  9. ^ "Ecclesiastical: Protests Against Bishop Colenso", The (Hobart) Advertiser, (18 February 1863): reprinted from The Times, (18 December 1862), p. 3.
  10. ^ a b Morris 1998, p. 182.
  11. ^ Colenso 1855a.
  12. ^ Kaplan 1995, pp. 11–12.
  13. ^ Colenso 2003.
  14. ^ Colenso 1863, pp. 8–10.
  15. ^ Colenso 1862.
  16. ^ Colenso 1865, pp. 19–.
  17. ^ Larsen 2004, pp. 60–.
  18. ^ Draper 2003, pp. 306–325.
  19. ^ Frere 2000.
  20. ^ "John Colenso Bishop of Natal Vanity Fair Print". Medals And Memorabilia. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  21. ^ "Sobantu Village". pmbtourism.co.za. 20 May 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  22. ^ a b Kidd 2006, pp. 153–156.
  23. ^ Colenso 2011.
  24. ^ Colenso 2012.

Sources

Books written in response to Colenso's views on the Pentateuch

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John William Colenso.
Anglican Church of Southern Africa titles
New diocese
Bishop of Natal

1853–1883 		Succeeded by
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