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Ethics, Evolution and Biblical Criticism in the Thought of Benjamin Jowett and John William Colenso

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Peter Hinchliff
Peter Hinchliff
Affiliation:
Balliol College, Oxford OX1 3BJ
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Extract

With one minor exception, it was not much more than a series of coincidences which linked Jowett and Colenso. The one exception was when Colenso was in England after being excommunicated by Robert Gray, bishop of Capetown, as metropolitan. Samuel Wilberforce refused to allow Colenso to function in the diocese of Oxford but Jowett invited him to preach in Balliol chapel, which was not under the bishop's jurisdiction. Apart from this there seems to be no evidence of direct personal contact between the two men.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 91 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 Abbott, E. and Campbell, L., Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett, London 1897, ii. 64.Google Scholar

2 Jowett, B., Sermons: Biographical and Miscellaneous, ed. Fremantle, W. H., London198.Google Scholar

3 For an account of early scientific developments in the college and university see Smith, T.. ‘The Balliol Trinity Laboratory’, in Priest, John (ed.), Balliol Studies, London 1982, 187–222,Google Scholar based on a dissertation submitted by the same writer for the honour school of Natural Science (Chemistry).

4 Faber, G., Jowett: a portrait with background, London 1957, 140.Google Scholar

5 , Faber, Jowett, 226.Google Scholar

6 Barr, J., ‘Jowett and the “original meaning” of Scripture’, Religious Studies xviii (1982), 433-37, at p. 435.Google Scholar This article and another by the same writer, ‘Jowett and the reading of the Bible “like any other book“’, Horizons in Biblical Theology iv (1982), 1–44,Google Scholar are of very great importance for understanding Jowett's essay.

7 Jowett, B., ‘On the interpretation of Scripture’, in Essays and Reviews, London337.Google Scholar

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10 Ellis, I., Seven Against Christ, Leiden 1980, 16.Google Scholar

11 I am indeed for this idea to Professor Hans Frei of Yale.

12 I am grateful to a former pupil of mine, Mr J. G. D. Nye, for undertaking the very boring job of checking these registers.

13 Jowett, B., College Sermons, ed. Fremantle, W. H., London 1895.Google Scholar

14 , Jowett, College Sermons, 24f.Google Scholar

15 Jowett, B., Sermons on Faith and Doctrine, ed. Fremantle, W. H., London 1901, 1–22.Google Scholar

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17 The lectures were founded by G. J. Romanes in 1891 and were to be given annually by a man ‘of eminence’ on a scientific or literary topic. Gladstone gave the first lecture in 1892.

18 Jowett to Huxley, 18 April 1893; Imperial College, London, Huxley Papers: Scientific and General Correspondence vii. fo. 91. There is a copy of the letter in Balliol College, Typescript copies ofJowett Letters [3].

19 Helfand, M. S., ‘T. H. Huxley's “Ethics and Evolution”: the politics of evolution and the evolution of polities’, Victorian Studies xx (1977), 159-77 at p. 160.Google Scholar

20 The three lectures referred to are probably ‘On the natural inequality of men’, ‘Natural rights and political rights’ and ‘Government: anarchy or regimentation’, all delivered in 1890-see Huxley, T. H., Method and Results, London 1893, 290–430Google Scholar.

21 All three of these letters are in the Huxley Papers at Imperial College, London, Scientific and General Correspondence, Jowett to Mrs Huxley, 3 February 1892, vii. fos. 81-2; Jowett to Huxley, 9 February and 8 July 1892, fos. 83-4 and 88-9. Copies are also in Balliol College.

22 , Helfand, ‘T. H. Huxley's “Ethics and Evolution’”, 177.Google Scholar

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27 Moore, J. R., The Post-Darwinian Controversies, Cambridge 1979, 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Colenso, J. W., St Paul's Epistle to the Romans: newly translated, and explained from a missionary point of view. Ekukanyeni 1861.Google Scholar

29 , Colenso, Romans, 75, 96ff, 102ff, 113f, 117ff and 156.Google Scholar

30 Colenso, J. W., The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined, London 1862-1865.Google Scholar

31 , Colenso, Pentateuch and Joshua, Part I, pp. v ff,Google Scholar and xiii; also Hinchliff, P., John William Colenso Bishop of Natal, London 1964, 85ff,Google Scholar Since my biography of Colenso appeared there has been considerable interest in his life and thought and much new material has been published. Not much of it, however, relates to his work as a biblical scholar.

32 , Colenso, Pentateuch and Joshua Part I, p. ix.Google Scholar

33 , Hinchliff, Colenso, 91.Google Scholar

34 , Hinchliff, Colenso, 95Google Scholar

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36 Maurice, F., Life of Frederick Denison Maurice 4th edn, London 1885, i. 174.Google Scholar

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38 , Colenso, Pentateuch and Joshua Part I, 143 - author's italics.Google Scholar

39 Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Archives of the Church of the Province of South Africa AB 223, MS Lecture by Bishop Colenso on Missions to the Zulus.

40 Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, London 1866, iv. 212–224.Google Scholar

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42 Transactions of the Ethnological Society iv. 222.

43 ‘Cannibalism in relation to ethnology’, Transactions of the Ethnological Society iv. 105-24 at p. 109.

44 , Moore, The Post-Darwinian Controversies, 86.Google Scholar

45 , Abbott and , Campbell, Life and Letters ii. 65.Google Scholar