John William Colenso - Biography

Clergyman, born in St Austell, Cornwall, SW England, UK. He studied at Cambridge, and was appointed the first Bishop of Natal in 1853. He mastered the Zulu language, prepared a grammar and dictionary, and translated the Prayer Book and part of the Bible. The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined (1862–79), which cast doubts upon biblical accuracy, was regarded as heretical, and he was eventually deposed in 1869.

John William Colenso (1814-1883), first Anglican bishop of Natal, theologian, Bible scholar and social activist.

Biography

Colenso was born at St Austell, Cornwall, on January 24, 1814. His father (John Williams 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 (b.1811) was William Colenso.

As a result of his family's financial problems, Colenso had to take a job as an usher in a private school to save money so as to be able to go to University. The school was just then at the lowest ebb, and Colenso not only had few pupils, but lost most of his property by a fire.

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 bishop of Natal. He arranged for a printing press to be brought to his missionary station at Ekukhanyeni in Natal and at once devoted himself to acquiring the Zulu language and compiling a grammar and a dictionary.

While the controversy raged in England, the South African bishops, whose suspicions Colenso had already incurred by the liberality of his views respecting polygamy among native converts and by a commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans (1861), in which he contested the doctrine of eternal punishment and Holy Communion being a precondition to salvation, met in conclave to condemn him, and pronounced his deposition (December 1863). Colenso, who had refused to appear before their tribunal otherwise than as sending a protest by proxy, appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. The Privy Council found that the bishop of Cape Town had no coercive jurisdiction and no authority to interfere with the bishop of Natal.

His adversaries, though unable to obtain his condemnation, succeeded in causing him to be generally inhibited from preaching in England, and Bishop Gray not only excommunicated him but consecrated a rival bishop of Natal (WK Macrorie), who, however, took his title from Pietermaritzburg. Colenso, encouraged by a handsome testimonial raised in England, to which many clergymen subscribed, returned to his diocese, and devoted the latter years of his life to further labours as a biblical commentator and translator. In the film Zulu Dawn Colenso is portrayed sympathetically by Freddy Thomas as as a principled critic of the decision to declare war on Cetshwayo and the Zulus. His daughter Frances Ellen Colenso (1849-1887) published two books on the relations of the Zulus to the British (1880 and 1885), taking a pro-Zulu view; and an elder daughter, Harriette E Colenso (b. 1847), became prominent as an advocate of the Zulus in opposition to their treatment by Natal, especially in the case of Dinizulu in 1888—1889 and in 1908—1909.

See his Life by Sir GW Cox (2 vols., London, 1888).

He is particularly interesting in that his career showed that Liberation Theology is not merely a product of Latin America and the 20th century, but occurs far more widely.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.