Restoring Man’s Creative Power: The Theosophy of the Bible Christians of Salford

Abstract

As the reformation took effect, claims of miraculous healing were discountenanced. So argues Keith Thomas in his fascinating book on the decline of magic in modern Europe. He argues that protestants turned to natural methods and empirical science for answers to their medical and practical needs. If he is right there may seem to be little to say about the relationship between the churches and healing in the history of the church in modern western society. Yet, as Thomas himself admits, the link had not been completely destroyed. Traditional culture proved resistant to this aspect of the reformation. It seems to me that this traditional culture was revitalised and redirected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by revivalist and heterodox protestantism and not just by secular developments. The case of the Bible Christians or Cowherdites of Salford in Lancashire may illustrate my point.

Against ‘Churchianity’: Edmund Anscombe’s Suburban Church Designs

“…In New Zealand, the 'smaller English nonconformist groups... had a struggle to establish themselves'. 18 There were co-operative relationships, with less numerous Nonconformist groups often pooling their resources 'under the banner of the larger denomination group'. 19 In the period from 1906 to 1945, the New Zealand Census records the total numbers of Nonconformists (39.04% to 35.66%) as a significant percentage of the New Zealand population, comparable with the percentage of Anglicans (41.51% to 37.27%), and almost three times that of Catholics (14.31 to 13.56%).…”

“…They believed that religion was properly confined to the churches, and that the state should be secular rather than Anglican. 21 In other words, unlike England, where Nonconformists defined themselves in contrast to the Church of England, the lack of state church in New Zealand left Protestants without such a possibility; therefore instead they aimed to become the status quo themselves. Dunedin, where Anscombe grew up, and practised until moving to Wellington in 1929, has a significant Nonconformist tradition.…”

'"A habit of walking with God": The Books of Alfred Nesbit Brown'

“…Lineham emphasizes that the "Māori Bible was … an important symbol of the values of Protestants and the nature of their expectations in missionary endeavours". 30 This is certainly reflected in Brown's library, which also holds a book of prayers and waiata with the inscription: "To Archdeacon A.N. Brown from his sincere friend Archdeacon William Williams.…”

“…33 Lineham highlights that Māori "revered the Bible with a sense of tapu, as a propitious talisman, the recitation of which was seen to be a powerful incantation". 34 He also makes the pertinent point that by translating the Bible into Māori the missionaries "sought to make the recipients of the message responsible for obedience to the biblical injunctions" but simultaneously "empowered [Māori] to be Christians on their own terms". 35 The early CMS missionaries lived and worked in Māori communities, learned to speak and write Māori, and relied on Māori converts to further their message, training many of them as teachers in the local schools and urging them to travel to nearby settlements to spread the Gospel.…”

“…36 As Lineham emphasizes, these "[l]iterate Māori played a crucial role in the radical changes in culture which took place in that generation and they were not always subservient to the missionaries". 37 Of the books specifically mentioned by Brown in his journal it is the Māori Bible and Prayer Book which received the most attention, in part because his journal is not a private but a professional journal, recording key events and progress at his mission station to send to the CMS in London. However, Brown's personal delight in Māori requests for Testaments and Prayer Books shines through, as does his frustration that he never has enough books to satisfy demand, a frustration shared by many of his fellow missionaries.…”