Two hundred years have passed in 2014 since John Colenso was born. Colenso dared in the 19th century (when few did) to ponder the troubling and difficult passages in the Old Testament in which violence seems to be ordained by a just and loving God. Colenso pondered such notions of sovereignty, election, conquest and the implications of obedience when the content of such Divine commands was about invading, colonizing and wiping out (genocide) another people. Colenso did many a lecture on Joshua and the Pentateuch in which he explored and examined such troubling passages and texts.
John Colenso became the first bishop of Natal in 1853 at the age of almost 40, and his heart became one with the Zulu nation. The fine film, Zulu Dawn (1979), featured John Colenso as the probing Freddie Jones who simply would not accept the notion of apartheid and many other injustices that were occurring in South Africa. Needless to say, Colenso’s questioning of the many violent texts in the Hebrew canon did not make him popular amongst the 19th century Biblicists. In fact, many were those who insisted Colenso was a heretic who should be deposed as Bishop of Natal---many others held Colenso high in terms of how prophetic theology should be done. The Zulu nation hailed him as one of their own. There are those who have rightly suggested that Colenso is a forerunner of liberation theology, and there can be no doubt his life and writings had an impact on Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
A read of Colenso’s
Epistle to the Romans (1861) is more than worth the pondering. Colenso, like the prominent Anglican Divine of the 19
th century, F.D. Maurice, called into question the notion of eternal punishment, the dominant idea that Holy Communion was a pre-condition for salvation and the rather typical notion of the time that the indigenous peoples of South Africa had to become civilized in a proper and dignified English way and manner---Colenso saw through all this and would have none of it—surely salvation was about something deeper and more profound than such theological pleasantries. Some in the Sanhedrin, though, turned on Colenso with a vengeance----gratefully, there were those in the Sanhedrin like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea that saw and saw clearly the real issues.
The Bicentennial of Bishop John William Colenso was held at St. John’s College, Cambridge the final week of November 2014. N.T Wright read a paper at the Bicentennial, and in the thoughtful and searching paper, he, rightly so, examined Colenso’s exegesis of Romans: “By Heresies Distressed?” Bishop Colenso’s Commentary on Romans” is a beauty of an essay by Wright on Colenso. Both men have been committed to interpreting St. Paul’s classic tome, but as much as Wright admires some of Colenso’s 19th century work in South Africa, he does have legitimate questions about Colenso’s read of Romans—gratefully so, N.T. Wright sent me a copy of his incisive essay on Colenso—a worthy read and worthy of many a reread—if interested in a browse, contact me.
I have a certain fondness for 19th century English literature, and one of my favourite novels of the time is Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South (1854-1855).
Dickens published Gaskell’s novel in serial form in his magazine, Household Words. There are many themes at work in North and South worth noting, but for this missive, I merely want to light on one of the issues. Margaret Hale is the leading actress in this literary drama, but her father, Mr. Hale, is a priest in the Church of England. The novel begins in the idyllic parish of Helstone in southern England. Mr. Hale has, though, serious doubts about a variety of exegetical and theological positions he is expected to adhere to if he is to remain a priest in the diocese and parish of Helstone. There comes to be a clash within Mr. Hale in which his doubts collide with church authority and the bishop—a similar theme to both Bishop John Colenso and, in some ways, N.T. Wright’s questioning of a Calvinist read of the Bible. Mr. Hale is forced to leave his parish in Helstone and parish. The Hale family moves to the industrial northern town of Milton where Mr. Hale gets sporadic work as a private tutor. The move from the south to the north wreaks havoc on the lives of the Hale family---by novel’s end, Mr. and Mrs. Hale are dead and Margaret Hale has inherited a fortune (a typical Victorian ending--not all endings are so positive—read Hardy). The fact that Margaret Hale has had to live with her father’s doubting and probing ways (and the implications of them) has made her a deeper and wiser woman. The novel (and 4 hour BBC production it) ends with Margaret returning to Helstone to visit, once again, her idealized past. There is a new priest and family in the manse and Margaret begins a conversation with the rector of the parish. The rector makes it clear that he has little or no time for doubts about faith and deeper intellectual probes---he wants the simple, plain and clear truth----Margaret realizes no such thing exists for authentic faith pilgrims---obvious tensions arise between Margaret and the priest and heated words are exchanged.
North and South raises many important points, but one of the dominant themes is the clash between a more sophisticated faith and a more simplistic faith—Mr. Hale represents the former and the establishment the latter—the same applies to Bishop John Colenso of South Africa and his anguished horn butting with many of the leaders of the church. The same also applies, in a less divisive manner, with N.T. Wright and his different read and interpretation of Romans and other Pauline texts than Colenso and the Neo-Calvinists of our age. In this, the bicentennial anniversary of Bishop John Colenso and 160th anniversary of North and South, there is still much to ponder about the perennial challenges of the faith journey and pilgrimage—Mr. Hale/Margaret Hale, Bishop John Colenso and N.T. Wright have still much to teach us from different perspectives and angles.
Ron Dart
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