RELG 330 - History of Christianity
Course Notes
Chapter 33
Pages 476-479 - William Booth (1829 - 1912) started out as a Methodist, but left that denomination because he felt a call to be an evangelist rather than a pastor. He settled in the East End of London - where the very poorest people lived (and died), and founded the "Christian Revival Society" (later the "Christian Mission") along with soup kitchens and social work, in spite of continual harassment by those who did not accept his message (and by those who wanted to sell alcohol or run prostitution). In 1878 he formed the "Salvation Army", organized like a military campaign; the adherents wore uniforms (the women had reinforced bonnets to protect their heads when people threw stones at them)
Page 480 - MP denotes a Member of Parliament, an elected representative in the House of Commons of the British Parliament
Page 480 - the abolition of the slave trade was not exactly the same as the abolition of slavery. The slave trade was one half of a maritime trade route, which took slaves from the west coast of Africa across the Atlantic to America, where the slaves were unloaded and sold. Then the shops took on a cargo of sugar (later, cotton and tobacco), which was brought back to Europe and sold. The ships then sailed south to Africa again to start another circuit of the trade. Although slavery was not normally practiced in Britain, many British ships took part in the slave trade.
The Sugar/Slave trade was driven by the European desire for sugar for sweetening foods and drink. Sugar plants had been brought to America by Christopher Columbus, and grew so well that people started to grow them commercially. However, the work on a sugar plantation was hard, and the Europeans looked around for slaves to use. The South American and Caribbean Indians did not make good slaves - they died too easily. So the Europeans started importing slaves from Africa, where slavery was already practiced between various African tribes.
Sugar was grown commercially in the West Indies, but increasing numbers of slaves were needed to work the plantations. The traders had a triangular series of routes - load up with sugar, molasses, and rum in the West Indies and sail east to Britain to unload at ports such as Bristol and London. Then load up with trade goods, including guns for warring African tribes, and sail south to the West coast of Africa to exchange the trade goods for slaves, then sail across the Atlantic - the terrible 'Middle Passage' - back to the West Indies and America with the ship packed with a cargo of slaves chained below decks.
The first slave ships sailed in 1505, and the trade continued for more than 300 years - even after slavery was abolished in Britain. The craving for sugar was such that people were willing to turn a blind eye to the terrible conditions of the trade until the overwhelming horrors were too notorious to be ignored. The slave trade was abolished in 1807, and slavery in the Caribbean was abolished in 1833
Page 480 - the Clapham Sect was the derogatory name given to a group of wealthy Evangelicals in the Church of England who lived near Clapham (a district of north London) and worshipped in the parish church at Clapham. They were very concerned about the moral responsibilities of Christians, and their influence on society. They worked for the abolition of the slave trade; for expansion of missionary enterprises, especially in India; the establishment of a colony for returning ex-slaves in Sierra Leone; the foundation of the 'British and Foreign Bible Society'; and for the spread of Sunday Schools. Because of their positions in society they were able to influence parliament and public opinion.
They included Henry Venn, his son John Venn (rector of the Parish Church at Clapham), Zachary Macaulay (who had been manager of a sugar plantation in Jamaica, and had first-hand knowledge of the conditions of the slave trade; he later became governor of the colony of Sierra Leon), William Wilberforce, and Hannah More (religious writer and educator - see page 490).
Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1885) was from the upper class privileged of England, but was an evangelical with a love for humanity. When he was elected as a Member of Parliament, he led reform movements and laws. He took the trouble to investigate personally the conditions of life of the poor, the insane, the factory workers, coal miners, children working in coal mines and factories or climbing up chimneys to sweep the soot out, and then spoke out with the facts to back him up when he spoke in Parliament. Even when he was defeated in Parliament, he kept on fighting for the causes until he eventually won and better laws were passed. He also founded schools for poor children - the "Ragged School Union", run by volunteers. He was a forerunner of the movement to allow the Jews to return to the Holy Land to live there.
Page 483 - Tontine Clubs were investment clubs with a limited membership. They were made popular by the Italian banker Lorenzo de Tonti (ca.1602 - ca.1684). They were regarded as a means of securing a steady retirement income. Each subscriber pays a fixed sum into the 'tontine'. The money is invested in some scheme which gives a financial revenue. Each subscriber receives an annual interest (an annuity) on the capital invested. When subscribers die, their shares are reallocated among the surviving subscribers, whose annuities consequently increase. The club continues until only one subscriber survives. Subscribers only receive the annual interest - the capital is never returned to them. In some variation, on the death of the last subscriber the scheme is closed. In other variation, the last living subscriber gets all the capital and the scheme is then closed.
Page 487 - Charles Spurgeon's conversion - It was a Sunday, and Spurgeon was riding through a snowstorm to get to one particular church that he wanted to attend, but the snow got too deep for his horse. He saw a small Chapel on the way, and decided to go there for shelter instead. When he entered, there was a small group of people waiting to start their service. Their preacher did not arrive, so after a wait, one old man got up and said something like " Well, I suppose the preacher can't get through the snow, so I'll just preach for a while. I'll take a scripture like the regular preachers do.", and proceeded to preach on Isaiah 51:1 "Look to the rock whence ye are hewn". He was obviously uneducated, and his 'sermon' was pretty bad; he kept repeating himself, and Spurgeon wanted to leave, but couldn't because of the snow-storm. The preacher kept repeating that Jesus was the Rock, and saying "Look to the Rock", and eventually Spurgeon did turn mentally to Jesus and entrusted himself to Him. When the snow stopped, Spurgeon rode home without telling the preacher what had happened. Years later, when he himself was a famous preacher, Spurgeon returned to that small Chapel, and recounted what had happened. People remembered the snow-storm, but no-one remembered who the preacher had been.
Page 488 - John Henry Newman (1801-1890), also known as Cardinal Newman, started his career as a leading Anglican (Church of England) evangelical at Oxford, and became one of the "Oxford Movement" for reform of the Church. The Oxford Movement aimed at bringing beauty and awe back to worship, and published a series of "Tracts for the Times" dealing with doctrine and discipline in the Church. Newman wrote several of the "Tracts" and also preached regularly at Oxford, where he influenced many of the undergraduates to become active Christians. However, he started to have doubts about the position of the Church of England with regard to the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1845 he became a Roman Catholic. He became a Roman Catholic priest, and was eventually made a Cardinal in 1879. He wrote his autobiography "Apologia Pro Vita Sua" (Defense/Apology for his life) to explain his convictions, and tried to counteract the anti-Catholicism prevailing in England at that time.
Page 490 - Henry Venn (1725-1797) was Secretary of the CMS (Church Missionary Society) of the Church of England, and formulated "Three selves principle", that missionaries should found churches which were self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating - rather than the usual attitude of his time, which was to send out a missionary to persuade "the heathen" to dress and act like an Englishman (or woman).
Henry Venn was one of the founders of the Clapham Sect (this was not a sect in the modern meaning of the term - they did not form a separate denomination or religion. The name was given to them by their opponents, to make it seem that they were break-aways). They were called that because they were based in Clapham (a district of London). Most of them were members of the Church of England, but were very concerned with social reforms, which many of their contemporaries scorned. Amongst their concerns was the abolition of slavery - they founded Freetown in Sierra Leon, as a place for freed slaves to return to Africa. Also, they worked at spreading the Scriptures and the Gospel throughout the world - they founded the Church Missionary Society to support missionaries, and the British and Foreign Bible Society to publish scriptures. They succeeded in getting the slave trade banned (in 1807) and in getting slaves emancipated and slavery abolished in Britain (in 1833), and worked to abolish slavery throughout the world.
Copyright © 2005 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
