John William Colenso

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John William Colenso

Denomination	Church of England
Senior posting
See	Natal
Title	Bishop of Natal
Period in office	1853–20 June 1883
Predecessor	none
Successor	Arthur Hamilton Baynes
Religious career
Previous post	rector of Forncett St Mary
Personal
Date of birth	24 January 1814
Place of birth	St Austell, Cornwall
Date of death	20 June 1883
Place of death	Durban, Natal Colony

John William Colenso (1814–1883), first Anglican bishop of Natal, mathematician, theologian, Biblical scholar and social activist.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Family 1.2 Life in Africa 2 Controversy 3 Death and legacy 4 Bibliography of Colenso's works 5 See also 6 References and bibliography 6.1 Footnotes 6.2 Bibliography 7 External links 7.1 Books written in response to Colenso's views on the Pentateuch

Biography

Colenso was born at St Austell, Cornwall, on 24 January 1814. 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 was William Colenso, a missionary in New Zealand.

Family financial problems meant that Colenso had to take a job as an usher in a private school before he could attend University. These earnings and a loan of £30 raised by his relatives paid for his first year at St John's College, Cambridge where he was a sizar scholar. In 1836 he was Second Wrangler and Smith's Prizeman at Cambridge, and in 1837 he became fellow of St John's.^[1] Two years later he went to Harrow School as mathematical tutor, but the step proved an unfortunate one. The school was at its lowest ebb, and Colenso not only had few pupils, but lost most of his property in a fire. He returned to Cambridge burdened by an enormous debt of £5,000. However, within a relatively short period of time he paid off this debt by diligent tutoring and the sale to Longmans of his copyright interest in the highly successful and widely read manuals he had written on algebra (in 1841) and arithmetic (in 1843).

His early theological thinking was heavily influenced by Frederick Maurice to whom he was introduced by his wife and by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

In 1846 he became rector of Forncett St Mary, Norfolk, and in 1853 he was recruited by the Bishop of Cape Town, Robert Gray, to be the first Bishop of Natal.^[2]

Family

He married Sarah Frances Bunyon in 1846^[3], and they had five children, Harriet Emily, Frances Ellen, Robert John, Francis "Frank" Ernest, and Agnes.

Life in Africa

Colenso was a significant figure in the history of the published word in nineteenth century South Africa. Using the printing press he brought to his missionary station at Ekukhanyeni in Natal, and with William Ngidi he published the first Zulu Grammar and English/Zulu dictionary. His 1859 journey across Zululand to visit Mpande (the then Zulu King) and meet with Cetshwayo (Mpande's son and the Zulu King at the time of the Zulu War) was recorded in his book First Steps of the Zulu Mission. The same journey was also described in the first book written by native South Africans in Zulu - Three Native Accounts (with accounts written by Magema Fuze, Ndiyane and William Ngidi). He also translated the New Testament and other portions of Scripture into Zulu.

Controversy

Religious Debate

Through the influence of his talented and well-educated wife, Colenso became one of only a handful of theologians to embrace Frederick Maurice, who had been raised a Unitarian but had deliberately joined the national Anglican church in order to help it "purify and elevate the mind of the nation."^[3]

Before his missionary career Colenso's volume of sermons dedicated to Frederick Maurice signalled the critical approach he was interested in applying to biblical interpretation.

Colenso first courted controversy with the publication in 1855 of his Remarks on the Proper Treatment of Polygamy; one of the most cogent Christian-based arguments for tolerance of polygamy.^[4]

Colenso's experiences in Natal informed Colenso's development as a religous thinker. In his commentary upon Paul's Epistle to the Romans (1861) he countered the doctrine of eternal punishment and the contention that Holy Communion was a precondition to salvation. Colenso, as a missionary, would not preach that the ancestors of newly-Christianised Africans were condemned to eternal damnation. The thought provoking questions put to him by students at his missionary station encouraged him to re-examine the contents of the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua and question whether certain sections of these books should be understood as literally or historically accurate. His conclusions, positive and negative, were published in a series of treatises on the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua, over a period of time from 1862 to 1879. The publication of these volumes created a scandal in England and were the cause of a number of anguished and patronising 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 contribution in the development of biblical scholarship.^[5]

Colenso's biblical criticism and his high-minded views about the treatment of African natives created a frenzy of alarm and opposition from the High Church party in South Africa and in England. As controversy raged in England, the South African bishops headed by Bishop Gray pronounced Colenso's deposition in December 1863. Colenso, who had refused to appear before this tribunal otherwise than by sending a proxy protest (delivered by his friend Wilhelm Bleek), appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. The Privy Council eventually decided that the Bishop of Cape Town had no coercive jurisdiction and no authority to interfere with the Bishop of Natal. 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 of Natal (W.K. Macrorie), who took his title from Pietermaritzburg. The contributions of the missionary societies were withdrawn, but an attempt to deprive him of his episcopal income and the control of the 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.

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. 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 Zulus against Boer oppression and official encroachments. He was a prominent critic of 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. Colenso's campaigns revealed the dark, racist foundation underpinning the colonial regime in Natal and made him more enemies among the colonists than he had ever made among the clergy.

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 that eventually became the African National Congress.

Death and legacy

He died at Durban on 20 June 1883. His daughter Frances Ellen Colenso (1849-1887) published two books on the relations of the Zulus to the British (History of the Zulu War and Its Origin in 1880 and The Ruin of Zululand in 1885) that explained recent events in Zululand from a pro-Zulu perspective. His oldest daughter, Harriette E Colenso (b. 1847), took up Colenso's mantle as advocate for the Zulus in opposition to their treatment by the authorities appointed by Natal, especially in the case of Dinizulu in 1888—1889 and in 1908—1909.

In the film Zulu Dawn Colenso is sympathetically portrayed (Freddie Jones acts the role) as a principled critic of the decision to declare war on Cetshwayo and the Zulus. Patrick Wright of Windhoekt has argued that Colenso's career provides an interesting example of 19th century Liberation Theology and that he is a precursor of the kind of Liberation Theology found in 20th century Latin America.

Bibliography of Colenso's works

• Commentary on the Romans (1861)
• Critical Examination of the Pentateuch (1862-1879)
• Ten Weeks in Natal. Elibron Classics - recent re-print. Orig. 1855 via Google Books
• The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined. Elibron Classics, 2003 re-print; "People's Edition" (1865) via Google Books
• Lectures on the Pentateuch and the Moabite Stone (1873) via Google Books
• Natal Sermons. Four vol.
• Village Sermons
• Zulu-English Dictionary (1861) via Google Books
• First Steps in Zulu (4th ed., 1890) via Google Books

See also

• KwaZulu-Natal Province
• Colenso

References and bibliography

Footnotes

Bibliography

• Colenso, Frances Ellen (1958); Rees, Wyn (ed.) Colenso Letters from Natal. Pietermaritzburg
• Colenso, Frances E., assisted in those portions of the work that touch on military matters by Lieut.-Colonel Edward Durnford (1880) History of the Zulu War and Its Origin, London: Chapman and Hall (Elibron Classics, 2004 re-print)
• Cox, Sir G. W. (1988) Colenso's Life. 2 vols. London
• Cross, F. L. (ed.) (1957) The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. London: Oxford U. P.; pp. 308-09
• Draper, Jonathan A. (ed.) (2003) The Eye of the Storm : Bishop John William Colenso and the Crisis of Biblical Interpretation. Cluster Publications, Pietermaritzburg, 2003
• Colenso, J. W. (2003); Draper, Jonathan A. (ed.) Commentary on Romans by Bishop John Colenso. Cluster Publications
• Guy, Jeff (1979) The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom: the Civil War in Zululand, 1879-1884. London: Longman
• Guy, Jeff (1983) The Heretic: a Study of the Life of John William Colenso. Pietermaritzburg
• Guy, Jeff (2001) The View Across the River : Harriette Colenso and the Zulu Struggle Against Imperialism. Oxford, UK, Claremont, S.Africa, & Charlottesville US, 2001
• Hinchliff, Peter. John William Colenso : Bishop of Natal. London, 1964
• Morris, Donald R. (1965) The Washing of the Spears: the Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation. New York: Simon & Schuster
• Rowse, A. L. (1989) The Controversial Colensos. Redruth

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.

External links

• Project Canterbury ELIZABETH COLENSO Her work for the Melanesian Mission

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

• Christ or Colenso? : or, A full reply to the objections of John William Colenso to the Pentateuch. Micaiah Hill. Hamilton, Adams, 1862.
• Moses right and bishop Colenso wrong, lectures in reply to 'Bishop Colenso on the Pentateuch' . John Cumming. 1863.
• Plain possible solutions of the objections of John William Colenso. George Vallis Garland. Rivingtons, 1863.
• The pretensions of Bishop Colenso to impeach the wisdom and veracity of the compilers of the Holy Scriptures considered. James Robert Page. Rivingtons, 1863.
• The Scriptures defended : being a reply to Bishop Colenso's book, on the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua. J. M. Hirschfelder. H. Rowsell, 1863.
• The age and authorship of the Pentateuch considered : in further reply to Bishop Colenso. William Henry Hoare. Rivingtons, 1863.
• The Pentateuch vindicated from the aspersions of Bishop Colenso. William Henry Green. J. Wiley, 1863.
• Our old Bible : Moses on the plains of Moab. Alexander Moody Stuart. J. Maclaren, 1881.
• Bishop Colenso's criticism criticised : in a series of ten letters addressed to the editor of the "Record" newspaper. Joseph Benjamin M'Caul. Wertheim, Macintosh, and Hunt, 1863.

Religious titles
Preceded by first incumbent	Bishop of Natal 1853–1883	Succeeded by Arthur Hamilton Baynes