The occasion of the publication of this volume is the sesquicentenary of the creation of the Diocese of Natal in 1853 and the consecration of John Colenso as its Bishop (p. x), and to recognize his achievements (p. 343). Allied with this, it was felt that it was the time to re-examine and augment many of the issues raised by Guy in his study, twenty years on (p. 2).Footnote 1
Colenso came to Natal initially as a typical nineteenth century colonial bishop, operating ‘within a Victorian Christian value system’ (Jobling, pp. 74–5Footnote 2). He was influenced by the Puritan, Evangelical and Tractarian movements, modified by the theology of Maurice and others. He epitomized the colonial, racist, ethnocentric and paternalistic attitudes of that era, ‘believing that the Zulu would benefit from assimilation into the British colonial system’. But ‘he ended up working hard to defend them from it’ (G. Colenso ‘The Pentateuch in Perspective’, p. 166).
This dramatic change in vision and outlook is well summarized by the 2002 Provincial Synod of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa in a Resolution (72) in seeking to reinstate Colenso by rescinding the decision to depose and excommunicate him. It stresses this side of Colenso when it says, inter alia:
1.5 Colenso devoted his life to understanding Zulu language and culture, producing the first Zulu grammar and dictionary, the first full translation of the Scriptures in Zulu, numerous textbooks of mathematics, science and education in Zulu, giving first voice to indigenous Zulu authors writing in Zulu;
1.6 Colenso sought to rethink Christian theology and the interpretation of Scripture in the light of his understanding of the Zulu people and their culture;
1.7 Colenso also dedicated his life, as did his whole family, to fighting for the preservation of Zulu culture and autonomy, and for justice for the Zulu people against the colonial and imperial authorities.Footnote 3
The Synod, in a lengthy motion, has rehabilitated Colenso, and requested the Synod of Bishops to rescind his excommunication. The motion was passed in all three Houses by more than the two-thirds needed. The essays in this book, on the whole, underscore and reinforce this perspective, although except for the ‘Introduction’, they would have been written before this resolution was adopted by the Synod.
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In 1863 in Launceston, Tasmania, the Presbyterian minister, the Revd R.K. Ewing, delivered a series of ten lectures, later published, entitled Moses and Colenso (Hobart Town: J. Walch & Sons; London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1864). What is surprising is that within twelve months of publishing Part I of Colenso’s The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined (London: Green, Longman, Roberts & GreenFootnote 4), we find in this small antipodean outpost that ‘considerable excitement was produced in religious, and other circles’ (p. 3), to the extent that Ewing felt he had to respond to this by delivering from the pulpit a rejoinder over ten consecutive weeks, initially for his parishioners, and then for a wider audience.
When Henry D.A. Major (who was to become a significant figure in the Modernist movement within the Church of England) was appointed Vice-Principal of Ripon Clergy College in 1906 (later Ripon Hall, Oxford), the Bishop of Ripon appointed him also as librarian of the Holden Library. Major, commenting on the holdings of the library, said ‘there was one shelf devoted to the volumes criticizing Bishop Colenso’s biblical researches’.Footnote 5 Colenso’s writings, particularly those on the Hexateuch (1862–1879) and a Commentary on Romans (1861), produced varied responses that were not dissimilar to those engendered in the next century by Major himself, and later (in Australia) by Samuel Angus, John Robinson (England), Lloyd Geering (New Zealand) and John Spong (USA). Arising from his experience in Natal, and utilizing the theological tools and positions of critics and theologians exemplified by S.T. Coleridge, F.D. Maurice and A. Kuenen, Colenso addressed many issues. These ranged from the validity and role of the Bible within contemporary society, God’s role and presence in the world and the individual, life after death, to polygamy, the knowledge and customs of indigenous people as part of God’s work, and the positive role for science in informing Christian thought. All these subjects are alive and of relevance for the twenty-first century.
Within the ecclesiastical realm, Colenso and his interplay with pivotal figures such as the Metropolitan of South Africa, Bishop Robert Gray (Cape Town), and dignitaries back ‘home’ including F.D. Maurice, A.P. Stanley, three Archbishops of Canterbury (Sumner, Longley, Tait), and bodies such as the Privy Council and the first Lambeth Conference (1867), found Colenso on the outer, being deposed (1863) and then excommunicated (1866). A further bishop was appointed by Gray in 1869 as Bishop of Maritzburg (Natal), with accountability to Gray. Colenso argued that his accountability was to the Church of England, and continued to work as Bishop of Natal (the ‘Queen’s Bishop’), in spite losing support from Gray and most of the South African Church, the missionary societies and much of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in England. He was able to continue as Bishop of Natal through the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (1865). It is noteworthy that the Windsor Report (2004) refers to the Colenso ‘affair’ (§100) as a significant motivation for calling the first Lambeth Conference in 1867. Some Responses to the Report allude to this;Footnote 6 five Primates place it under the general heading of ‘Overlapping Jurisdictions in Anglicanism’;Footnote 7 but in the Executive Summary there is no specific discussion, nor reference to the Bishop of Maritzburg.Footnote 8
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In the definitive study on Colenso, Jeff Guy argues forcibly that one cannot fragment his complex life and thought into different aspects.Footnote 9 These were interrelated, and to concentrate on one aspect means that one is not able to see the totality, and the particular aspect needs to be informed by the totality. A collection of essays such as this inevitably tends to concentrate on various aspects without seeing Colenso’s life as a whole. Other than the Foreword by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, and a brief clarificatory ‘Introduction’ by Philippe Denis (pp. 1–3), the collection lacks a conclusive appraisal. This is unfortunate, in view of the considerable research contained within the essays. It may partly be due to the genre: there is some overlapping of ‘historical’ material, suggesting most writers did not have access to the other contributors.
Twenty-one contributions make up this volume and not every one agrees with the other. Some essays revise work appearing in other places, but most were written specifically for the collection, which is divided into five parts: Bible, Theology, Ekukhanyeni, Family and Society, and Bibliography. Denis’s Introduction helpfully summarizes all the contributions. This is a multidisciplinary collection written by those well versed in ‘biblical hermeneutics, historical theology, cultural anthropology and African linguistics’ (p. 2). As such, it is multidimensional, and brings perspectives to the subject far wider than could be achieved by any one person. It is pleasing to see that of the twenty-one contributors, at least five are ‘black South Africans’, bringing their own research and perspectives to the subject. Tshehla refers to a 2002 publication of a symposium on translating in the South African perspective, in which only one of the sixteen papers ‘was by a person of indigenous African descent’. He comments: ‘It is no longer sufficient to explain this disparity on the grounds of our apartheid past’ (p. 30).
The issue of social location for both Colenso and the authors is significant. So David Jobling (‘Colenso on Myth or Colenso as Myth’) critiques Larsen’s paper (‘Bishop Colenso and his Critics: the strange Emergence of Biblical Criticism in Victorian Britain’), as does Draper (‘Colenso’s Commentary on Romans: an exegetical Assessment’). As may be discerned from the subtitle of Larsen’s paper, Colenso is there set very much in the milieu of European biblical studies. Larsen is not alone here. Rogerson’s essay ‘Colenso in the World of Nineteenth-Century Intellectual Ferment’, places him firmly in the British intellectual scene.Footnote 10 Draper’s thesis is that Colenso’s Commentary is to be ‘measured as part of the “long conversation” between European Christianity and Africa’ (p. 125). Conversely, a more African social location is stressed by others. So Jobling argues that Colenso must be seen ‘as part of African, and of colonial, history’ rather than as part of the history of British and European biblical studies (p. 64), utilizing the work of R. S. Sugirtharajah.
Besides Colenso, one other figure occurs in fourteen of the contributions — William Ngidi, Colenso’s wagon driver, then translator, assistant, printer and consultant. He became a teacher and catechist, but was never ordained. This man, more than any other Zulu, turned Colenso’s thinking around, so that Colenso’s strategies changed, particularly his support for the Zulu against colonial and imperialist pressures. Ngidi was also the catalyst for Colenso’s major work on the Hexateuch.
Part I The Bible
Six essays form this section: Eric A. Hermanson, ‘Colenso’s First Attempt at Bible Translation in Zulu’; Maarman Sam Tshehla, ‘Colenso, John 1.1-18 and the Politics of Insider- and Outsider-Translating’; Timothy Larsen, ‘Bishop Colenso and His Critics: The Strange Emergence of Biblical Criticism in Victorian Britain’; David Jobling, ‘Colenso on Myth or Colenso as Myth: A Response to Timothy Larsen’; Cornelis Houtman, ‘Colenso as Seen by Kuenen, and as Known from Colenso’s Letters to Kuenen’; Jonathan A Draper, ‘Colenso’s Commentary on Romans: An Exegetical Assessment’.
The first two concern the complexities of translating, notably ‘who is best equipped to undertake this task?’ Both result from considerable research, much being technical — knowledge of isiZulu is required to understand all the nuances. Both acknowledge the necessary missionary strategy of utilizing the language of the target. But who is best equipped to undertake this task? Tshehla addresses this issue by his ‘insider/outsider’ analysis. All translation is a product of the age, and has political as well as theological implications. Both essays critique Colenso’s work: Tshehla points out that, for all his attempts to be informed, Colenso as a translator was an ‘outsider’.
Larsen’s and Jobling’s essays have been touched on above. Larsen appears to write from a colonial-orthodox position, so criticisms of Colenso abound. I am not sure why Larsen confines his analysis to Part I of the Pentateuch: there are six other volumes, all with important introductions in which Colenso addresses various issues raised by critics. Jobling deals with many of the topics raised by Larsen, utilizing a post-colonial discourse.
Houtman concentrates on the European social location, relating a fascinating story of the influence of Kuenen on Colenso and vice versa. Colenso learned Dutch in order to read Kuenen, and translated and published (500 copies) a definitive work of his into English (1865). He also translated and published a work of Oort on the Baalim (1865), a monograph of Julius Wellhausen (1878), and one by A. Kayser (unpublished), with extensive annotations. Bringing European scholarship into a more accessible form, along with his own extensive annotations, exposed Colenso to his critics, but at the same time served scholarship in the English-speaking world.
Draper’s essay utilizes a dialectical model proposed by Jean and John Comaroff, the ‘long conversation’.Footnote 11 The ‘long conversation’ here is between the missionary and the indigenous convert in the setting of a colonial administration. Ideally, out of this ‘conversation’ something new emerges in consciousness and in patterns of resistance. Draper also considers some of the theological propositions delineated in the Commentary (1861), and their implications. This work ‘set him on a collision course with the colonial government and the settler church’ (p. 124), and, I would add, with the established Church in England and the wider English-speaking church, even in Tasmania.
Part II Theology
John W. Rogerson, ‘Colenso in the World of Nineteenth-Century Intellectual Ferment’; Gwilym Colenso, ‘The Pentateuch in Perspective: Bishop Colenso’s Biblical Criticism in its Colonial Context’; Ronald B. Nicolson, ‘Other Times and Other Customs: A Storm in a Victorian Teacup?’; and Ian D. Darby ‘Colenso the Sacramentalist’.
Rogerson sets Colenso in the midst of the English intellectual scene, and so presents only part of the picture (see above). Gwilym Colenso’s essay I found the most illuminating and exciting in the whole book. He explores the reasons for the antagonism against Colenso as a biblical critic, especially within the English location, and then the ‘long conversation’ in the Natal location. The author utilizes the analytical tools of Stanley Ridge (1994), naming four discourses — colonial, imperial, liberal and native (usually somewhat muted). This incisive analysis is employed in two areas, the domain of Natal, and the domain of the Pentateuch Controversy. Such an approach highlights the Zulu voice, which in turn becomes part of the ‘long conversation’. The two domains are interrelated and change over time: Colenso became not only a missionary who listened to the voice of the natives, but also a missionary to his own people in his country of origin.
Nicolson’s short paper explores the possibility of a South African theology, and where Colenso informs this in his approach to the Zulu and his own Maurician-derived theology. He criticizes aspects of Peter Hinchliff’s monographs on the Anglican Church in South Africa (1963) and on Colenso (1964), specifically on the nine charges of heresy outlined in the former monograph. I think Nicolson would be pleased with the 2002 resolution of the Provincial Synod. The essay by Ian Dalby is written by one who since 1977 has explored the soteriological and sacramental theologies of Colenso. It is well informed and concludes that the ‘consequences of [Colenso’s] thinking in his own struggle and in the development of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa are still being discovered and evaluated today’ (p. 193). Darby would also be pleased with the 2002 resolution of the Provincial Synod.
Part III Ekukhanyeni
Ekukhanyeni was the ‘Place of Light’, located on the farm at Bishopstowe, a few miles out of Pietermaritzburg. It was the centre of Colenso’s mission, where training took place in practical skills, and schools were to be founded. This pattern was not dissimilar from nineteenth Anglican missionary strategy as witnessed for example in New Zealand by the CMS station at Te Waimate (1830, where Colenso’s cousin, William Colenso, was the printer from the end of 1834) and by Bishop Selwyn’s founding of the College of St John the Evangelist (1843).
The essays are: Patrick Kearney, ‘Success and Failure of “Sokululeka”: Bishop Colenso and African Education’; Vukile Khumalo, ‘The Class of 1856 and the Politics of Cultural Production(s) in the Emergence of Ekukhanyeni, 1855–1910’; Abraham Mojalefe Lieta, ‘Colenso and the Emergence of an Indigenous Black Clergy in South Africa’; and Gordon Mitchell, ‘A Moment in the “Long Conversation” between African Religion and Imperial Christianity: William Ngidi and John Colenso’.
The first essay depicts what the title suggests, underlining the strategic nature of the enterprise for mission purposes, including the political significance of education (cf. Freire): Colenso was called ‘Sokululeka’, ‘the father who brings freedom’. Of significance is the whole work of translating and producing material in the native language. One would like to see here more analysis of how, as Colenso changed, the enterprise at Ekukhanyeni was modified.
In his well-researched essay, Khumalo initially covers a similar area, but from a native perspective, narrating stories as to why the school failed. Having the story of the institution assessed through the work of those who attended is very helpful. Khumalo concentrates on the ‘series of critical and mutually transforming conversations that took place’ (p. 209) leading into the production and circulation of books written by locals. The essay continues the story until the cessation of the mission station in 1910, and also considers issues around translating, complementing the first two essays of the volume.
Lieta’s essay considers how Colenso’s missionary strategy differed from others, and his relationship with William Ngidi. Colenso’s ‘episcopate held great promise for the Zulu mission. … Here was a safe space where Africans could discuss issues of culture and religion without any of the restrictions of colonialism. … For once, the Church could be seen to be divorced from the shackles of colonialism and imperialism’ (p. 254).
Gordon Mitchell assesses Colenso’s mission using the Comaroffs’ terminology and the notion of ‘hybridity’. He concentrates on the role of African religion as part of the universal story that the ‘light of God could be found in every human being’ (p. 261). The influence of Maurice is again acknowledged. In the case of the Zulu, Colenso sees not only insights into the customs and practices of the Israelites as portrayed in the Old Testament, but also ‘that the Zulu are descendants of Abraham through Esau or Ishmael’ (p. 257). This essay is tantalizingly short: I would hope that Mitchell will produce more in this area.
Part IV Family and Society
The essays here are all fascinating.
Two concentrate on an issue current in the African location, and touched on in many of the essays, namely polygamy and associated marriage customs. These essays form insightful case studies on how two value systems interconnect, especially when one tries to dominate the other, and when people ‘convert’ into the Christian section of the dominating culture. The two are: Iain S. Maclean, ‘ “The Twin Pillars of Heathenism”: American Missionaries, Bishop Colenso and Converts in Conflict — Polygamy and Ukulobola in Nineteenth-Century Natal and Zululand, South Africa’; and Livingstone Ngewu, ‘John William Colenso and the Enigma of Polygamy’. Both put Colenso into historical context, and the varied debates around the issue of polygamy within the African missionary world; the first concentrates on the history, the second on Anglican attitudes. Colenso has monogamy as his ideal, but is commended for his pragmatic perspective. In contrast to Resolution 5 of the 1888 Lambeth Conference, ‘that persons living in polygamy be not admitted to baptism’ the position taken by the 1988 Lambeth Conference, Resolution 26, is not dissimilar to Colenso’s position. Indeed, one preparatory paper for the 1998 Lambeth Conference, drafted with Archbishop Ndungane as Chair, stated that as far as the West African Church is concerned, the 1988 Resolution ‘has not addressed all the problems involved, in particular the status of active Church members who have subsequently contracted polygamous marriages’.Footnote 12 Colenso did not allow this position, expelling William Ngidi from Bishopstowe for wanting to take a further wife, though Magema Fuze, who already had four wives, was allowed to remain (see Lieta, pp. 246, 251). However, there was no debate on this issue in the 1998 Conference.
Both papers discuss further customs concerning marriage, which caused debate and variation of practice by missionaries. Ukulobola is ‘the traditional Zulu exchange of cattle between a groom and his father-in-law’ (Maclean, p. 267; cf. Ngewu, p. 292), seen by many as a ‘bride-price’, and hence condemned by missionaries and their sponsors. Colenso challenged this perspective. The other custom, discussed briefly by Ngewu, is similar to ‘levirate marriage’ in ancient Israelite society (p. 302).
Jonathan A. Draper, ‘The Trial of Bishop John William Colenso’ is another well-researched essay, and given the 2002 Resolution 72 of the Provincial Synod of CPSA, his contribution is significant today. The whole process of the trial, appeals, deposition and excommunication makes for disturbing reading. Draper suggests on the basis of ‘natural justice’ that ‘the judgment of Gray be set aside’ (pp. 307, 324). It is interesting to note that the 2002 Synod’s decision was not based primarily on the reason that ‘the process of his trial and excommunication itself was … irregular and outside the norms of due process and fundamental justice’ (Draper, p. 308). Rather, there is a desire to acknowledge the achievements of Colenso, specifically in his mission to, and support of, the Zulu, and that his theology ‘has in many respects been vindicated by recent understandings and trends in theology and Biblical Studies’ (§ 1.8).Footnote 13
Two essays concern the family of Colenso: Mandy Goedhals, ‘ “The Bravest Woman I Have Ever Known”: Frances Colenso (1816–93)’; and a 1980 lecture by Jeff Guy, ‘The Colenso Daughters: Three Women Confront Imperialism’.
Goedhals reminds readers that for most married men, the support of a wife is, more often than not, crucial for the quality of the individual’s work, especially in the Victorian Era and in a foreign location. Frances introduced Colenso to the thought of Coleridge and Maurice. The story of the later rift between Maurice and Colenso is recounted several times in this volume. Both men were so entrenched in their positions that it cost them their friendship. Frances continued the work of her husband, encouraging the reception of his work in biblical criticism, and furthering the Zulu cause in increasingly difficult political and social conditions. This essay is an interpretive one, bringing no new research to the topic. Its inclusion is, however, to be applauded, as Frances is recognized as a significant person in her own right.
Guy’s contribution considers the Colensos’s three daughters: Harriette Emily, Frances Ellen and Agnes Mary. All three, in their own ways continued purposefully their father’s work. Harriette had assisted her father as assistant, translator, secretary and interviewer. Frances Ellen continued writing and agitating for the Zulu cause in the midst of civil war; she died at the age of 38 in 1887. The other two continued on in supporting the Zulu, becoming ‘friends and advisers of some of the leading men who in 1912 founded the South African Native National Congress, later the African National Congress’ (p. 349). This detail is given to underline the significance of Colenso’s work, carried on through the lives and work of his wife and his daughters. In this volume the political activity of Colenso is only dealt with cursorily — a major gap: one is reminded again of Guy’s assertion that one cannot consider this complex man in parts.
Part V Bibliography
Fiona Bell (University of Natal) is responsible for the helpful and thorough bibliographies: ‘Works by Colenso Alone’, ‘Collaborative Works by John William Colenso and Others’, ‘A Select Bibliography of Works on John William Colenso’, ‘Cumulative Bibliography’ — 44 pages in all, plus a two page introduction. The compilers limited their work to the resources and archives of various libraries in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, but provide referrals to further archival deposits throughout the world.Footnote 14 These bibliographies will make the work of any future researcher far easier. The ‘Index of authors’ is thorough and helpful, but the ‘Index of Subjects’ (one page) is limiting and frustrating.Footnote 15
These essays deal with a complex man, at a key period of history. They illuminate the early history of the CPSA and the Church of England in South Africa, and the colonial scene of the nineteenth century, and hence our understanding of the political scene in South Africa and the position of the churches there today. Many issues for which Colenso and his family fought remain relevant today. For those unfamiliar with the story, I suggest reading Guy’s monograph to give a background (which is assumed) to obtain the most from these essays. The book further does honour to Colenso as a biblical critic and a theologian who listened and responded.
