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John William Colenso: Pioneer in the Quest for an Authentic African Christianity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Ephraim Mosothoane
Ephraim Mosothoane
Affiliation:
Private Bag XI Unitra Umtata Republic of Transkei
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Extract

There are, for purposes of this paper, two remarkable facts about Christianity on the African Continent. The first is its antiquity. There seems to be every likelihood that it was as early as its very inception that Christianity, as part of its rapid sweep across the first century Graeco-Roman world, reached Africa as well. The New Testament contains a number of hints that suggest that places such as Ethiopia, Egypt (particularly Alexandria) and Cyrene could vie with each other for first position. In any case, by the second and third centuries, the African Church could boast of such great leaders and thinkers as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian and Cyprian; and a century later of the highly influential Augustine of Hippo. The significance and influence of these men extended well beyond Africa. After that, with the exception of Egypt and Ethiopia, there is a lacuna in our knowledge of Christianity in Africa. The next significant centuries are the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in respect of North, West and Central Africa, and the nineteenth century in respect of virtually the entire Continent. In short, Christianity is not a newcomer to the African Continent. Ups and downs of various kinds it has experienced here as it has done elsewhere; so also, in respect of a number of areas, major gaps affecting its continuous and unbroken existence down the centuries. Nevertheless, a newcomer to the Continent it is not.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , May 1991 , pp. 215 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1991

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References

1 See e.g. Acts 8.26–40; 2.10; 11.20; 18.24f; Mk. 15.21 as well as, possibly, the Epistle to the Hebrews.

2 Cited by Warren, Max in his ‘The Church Militant Abroad: Victorian Missionaries’ in Symondson, A. (ed.) The Victorian Crisis of Faith (London, 1974) p. 68.Google Scholar

3 Sofola, Zulu, ‘The Theatre in the Search for African Authenticity’ in Appiah-Kubi, K. and Torres, S.(eds.) African Theobgy en Route (New York, 1979) p. 126.Google Scholar

4 'Zulu Sofola, ibid.

5 'Zulu Sofola, ibid.

6 See Hinchliff, P.John William Colenso, Bishop of Natal (London, 1964), p. 115.Google Scholar

7 See P. Hinchliff op cit. Chapter 6.

8 His Natal Sermons, later to be published, date from this period.

9 He published the remaining five parts of The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically examined as well as the no-less pioneering Lecturers on the Pentateuch and the Moabite Stone.

10 See e.g. P. Hinchliff op cit. Chapter 7.

11 The same paper also appeared under the title ‘Foreign Missions and Mosaic Traditions.’ It has recently been reissued in Edgecombe, Ruth (ed.) Bringing Forth Light (Pietermaritzburg and Durban, 1982) pp. 205–233.Google Scholar

12 Colenso, J. W., Ten Weeks in Natal (Cambridge, 1855), p. 1Google Scholar

13 Hinchliff, P. ‘A Letter from South Africa’ Theoloy 62 (1959) p. 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Colenso, A Letter to an American Missionary p. 3.Google Scholar

15 Guy, J. J. “The Religious Thinking of J. W. Colenso: The Theology of a Heretic” Religion in Southern Africa 4 (1983) p. 4.Google Scholar

16 Colenso, ‘Foreign Missions and Mosaic Traditions,’ p. 8.Google Scholar

17 Farrar, F. W. “Aptitudes of Races” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London V (ns. 1867) p. 119.Google Scholar

18 Farrar, op cit. p. 120.Google Scholar

19 Colenso, Ten Weeks in Natal, p. 33.Google Scholar

20 See Colenso op cit. pp. 25f., 66,260; idem, ‘Church Missions among the Heathen in the Diocese of Natal,’ p. 2; ‘Foreign Missions and Mosaic Traditions’, p. 17; Remarks on the Proper Treatment of Cases of Polygamy, pp. 15f; A Letter to an American Missionary, p. 62; The Pentateuch and Books of Joshua (People's Edition), pp. 324, 326.

21 Reade, W. Winwood ‘Efforts of Missionaries among Savages’ The Anthropological Reviews 3 (1865), p. clxv.Google Scholar

22 Colenso, “On the Efforts of Missionaries among Savages” The Anthropological Review 3 (1865), p. cclxxii.Google Scholar

23 See Colenso Ten Weeks in Natal, p. 238.

24 See Colenso op cit., pp. 93, 130f, 142.

25 See Colenso, Remarks on the Proper Treatment of Cases of Pohgamy, p. 19.Google Scholar

26 Colenso, , “Church Missions among the Heathen in the Diocese of Natal” in Edgecombe, R. (ed.) op cit., p. 2.Google Scholar

27 See Colenso A Letter to An American Missionary, p. 62, 65.

28 See Colenso, “Church Missions among the Heathen in the Diocese of Natal” in R. Edgecombe (ed.), p. 2.

29 See Colenso, “On the Efforts of Missionaries among Savages,” p. cclxiii.

30 See Colenso Ten Week in Natal, p. 125.

31 See Colenso ‘On the Efforts of Missionaries among Savages’ p. cclxxxi.

32 See White, EdwardThe Theolog of Missions (London, 1855), p. 6.Google Scholar

33 Colenso ‘On the Efforts of Missionaries among Savages’ p. cdv.

34 See Colenso op cit., p. ccliv.

35 Colenso op cit. p. cclxvii. Underlining mine. See also his Natal Sermons, Series II, p. 188.

36 See Gray, Charles (ed.) Life of Robert Gray (London, 1876), pp. 288f.Google Scholar

37 See e.g. Marx Warren Social History and Christian Mission; Louise Creighton Missions — Their Rise and Development Ch. 5: Horton Davies and R. H. W. Shepherd South African Missions 1800–1950 Ch. 12, 13 and 15.

38 Louise Creighton op cit., p. 165; see also pp. 95, 97; and Max Warren op cit., p. 113.

39 See Oliver, RolandThe Missionary Factor in East Africa (London, 1965), p. 211.Google Scholar

40 Colenso op cit., p. ccixiv.

41 See Hastings, Adrian: Church and Missionin Modern Africa, (London, 1967), p. 80Google Scholar. For example Spring Vale mission in Natal, established by Callaway, Henry, is described as a ‘little colony’ in Callaway's biography, Henry Callaway by Benham, M. S. (London, 1896), p. 67.Google Scholar

42 Se Hastings ibid.

43 See Strayer, Robert W.The Making of Mission Communities in East Africa (London, 1978)Google Scholar, Ch. III — V; R. Oliver op cit;, Ch. 2; Max Warren op cit., Ch. 6; J. B. Peires The House of Phalo (Johannesburg, 1981, pp. 74–78, 106–108. For a classical criticism of the mission station approach see Roland Allen Missionary Methods – St Paul's or Ours (London, 1912), Ch. VI.

44 See Colenso “Church Missions among the Heathen in the Diocese of Natal” in R. Edgecombe (ed.) op cit., pp. 4ff; Ten Weeks in Natal, pp. 70ff; for Gray's own outline of this plan see Charles Gray (ed.) ibid.

45 See Colenso Ten Weeks in Natal, p. 74.

46 See Colenso ‘Church Missions’ p. 9 and 26 n. 28; also his ‘First Steps of the Zulu Mission’ p. 53, footnote.

47 See Colenso ‘Church Missions’, p. 7; P. Hinchliff John William Colenso, p. 62.

48 See Colenso. ‘Church Missions’, p. 8,17f.

49 See Colenso ‘On the Efforts of Missionaries among Savages’ p. cclxiii. My underlining.

50 Colenso op cit. p. cclxiv; also his Remarks on the Proper Treatment of Cases of Polygamy, p. 21.

51 See Colenso ‘On the Efforts of Missionaries among Savages’ pp. cclxvii f. (underlining) mine.

52 See Colenso op cit., p. cclxx.

53 Theodor Wangemann Geschichte der Berliner Missions — gesellschaft und ihrer Arbeiten in Sudafrika (Berlin, 1875), p. 74. My translation.

54 See Colenso Ten Weeks in Natal, p. 238.

55 See Colenso St Paul's Epistle to the Romans, p. 106.

56 Colenso ‘On the Efforts of Missionaries among Savages’, p. cclxxiii. See also his St Paul's Epistle to the Romans, pp. 46, 55, 56, 58 and The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined (People's Edition), p. 324.

57 Colenso Ten Weeks in Natal, p. 59.

58 See Colenso op cit., p. 115.

59 This has not been the subject of this paper; it is, however, an indisputable fact that he was one of the nineteenth-century pioneers of biblical criticism whose contributions have as yet to be given their due recognition.