Essays and Reviews

"Essays and Reviews", published in March 1860,Harv|Browne|2003| p=112] is a broad-church volume of seven essays on religion. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] The topics covered the biblical research of the German critics, the evidences of Christianity, religious thought in England, and the cosmology of Genesis.

Background

Each essay was authored independently by one of seven Church of England churchmen but had no overall editorial policy. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] Each contributor chose his own theme. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] The seven essayists were: Frederick Temple who later became Archbishop of Canterbury; Rowland Williams then tutor at Cambridge and later Professor and Vice-Principal of St David's University College, Lampeter; Baden Powell, clergyman and Professor of Geometry at Oxford; Henry Bristow Wilson, fellow of St John's College, Oxford; Charles Wycliffe Goodwin; Mark Pattison, tutor at Lincoln College, Oxford; and Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College and Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford University.

Significance

The book was important because of its date and its authors. Appearing four months after Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", it summed up a three-quarter-century-long challenge to biblical history by the higher critics and to biblical prehistory by scientists working in the new fields of geology and biology. Baden Powell restated his argument that God is a lawgiver, miracles break the lawful edicts issued at the creation, therefore belief in miracles is atheistic, and wrote of "Mr Darwin's masterly volume" that the "Origin of Species" "must soon bring about an entire revolution in opinion in favour of the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of nature."Harv|Desmond|Moore|1991| p=500]

Seven articles

‘On the interpretation of scripture’

The essay ‘On the interpretation of scripture’ was contributed by Benjamin Jowett. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] When asked to contribute, Jowett saw the opportunity to challenge traditionalists. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] He was a rationalist and insisted that the bible ought to be treated as scholars treated classical texts. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] Jowett was a proponent of progressive revelation. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] The books of the Bible written later were seen to be closer to the ultimate revelation of God as seen in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospels. The epistles and other New Testament writings were seen to look back. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|]

The implication of Jowett's essay (and his other writings) — that revelation was ongoing and that scripture was always subject to re-interpretion as each generation encountered them — was the target of his traditionalist foes." Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] Jowett was slandered for his honesty concerning his beliefs but he suffered no actual penalty. However, in 1863 Jowett was brought before the vice-chancellor's court for teaching contrary to the doctrines of the Church of England; the case was eventually dropped. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|]

Reception

Hardly known outside academic theological circles today, "Essays" sold 22,000 copies in two years, more than "Origin" sold in its first twenty years. It sparked five years of increasingly polarized debate with books and pamphlets furiously contesting the issues.Harv|Desmond|Moore|1991| p=500]

The first attack came from the reviewer Frederic Harrison in the Westminster Review in 1860. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] Harrison saw the essays as neither religious nor rational which was a double blow to the seven who saw the essays as promoting rational religion. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|]

In January 1861, an anonymous review was published in the Quarterly Review. The author was later revealed as Samuel Wilberforce Bishop of Oxford. Harv |Hinchliff|Prest|2004|] The "Quarterly" review was followed up by a letter to The Times co-signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and 25 bishops which threatened the theologians with the ecclesiastical courts. Darwin quoted a proverb: "A bench of bishops is the devil's flower garden", and joined others including the eminent geologist Charles Lyell, and the mathematician and Queen's printer William Spottiswoode, in signing a counter-letter supporting "Essays and Reviews" for trying to "establish religious teachings on a firmer and broader foundation".Harv|Desmond|Moore|1991| p=501]

Repercussion

Despite this alignment of pro-evolution scientists and Unitarians with liberal churchmen, two of the authors were indicted for heresy and lost their jobs by 1862. They appealed to the "Judicial Committee of the Privy Council" and in 1864 it overturned the judgment, "dismissing hell with costs", to the fury of Wilberforce. One hundred and thirty-seven thousand laity signed a letter of thanks to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for voting against the Committee, and a declaration in favour of biblical inspiration and eternal torments was drawn up at Oxford and circulated to the 24,800 clergy, being signed by eleven thousand of them. Wilberforce went to the Convocation of Canterbury and in June obtained "synodical condemnation" of "Essays and Reviews".Harv|Desmond|Moore|1991| pp=523, 524]

Today the essay topics and conclusions may seem innocuous, but at the time, the essays were described by their opponents as heretical, and the essayists were called "The Seven Against Christ."Harv|Desmond|Moore|1991| pp=500, 501]

ee also

* Anglicanism
* Church of England
* Liberal Christianity

References

*Citation | last = Browne | first = E. Janet | year = 2003 | title = Charles Darwin : The Power of Place | edition = | volume = | series = | publication-place = Princeton, N.J | publisher = Princeton University Press | isbn = 0691114390
*Citation | last = Desmond | first = Adrian | last2 = Moore | first2 = James | author2-link =James Moore (biographer) | year = 1991 | title = Darwin | publication-place = London | publisher =Michael Joseph, Penguin Group | isbn =0718134303
*Citation | last =Hinchliff | first =Peter | author-link = | last2 =Prest | first2 =John | author2-link = | publication-date =Sept 2004 | year = 2004 | contribution =Jowett, Benjamin (1817–1893) | title= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | edition =online edn, Jan 2006 | publisher =Oxford University Press | accessdate = | unused_data =|contribution-url http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15143

Further reading

*cite journal |last=Brock |first=W. H. |last2=Macleod |first2=R. M. |coauthors= |year= |month= |title=The Scientists' Declaration: Reflexions on Science and Belief in the Wake of "Essays and Reviews," 1864-5 |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |volume=9 |issue= No. 1 (Mar., 1976)|pages=39–66 |id= |url= |accessdate= |quote=
*cite book |author=Ellis, Ieuan|title= Seven Against Christ: A Study of `Essay's and Reviews (Studies in the History of Christian Thought , No 23) |publisher=Brill Academic Pub |location= |year=1997 |pages= |isbn=9004062009 |oclc= |doi=

*cite journal |last= Francis|first=Mark |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= |month= |title=The Origins of Essays and Reviews: An Interpretation of Mark Pattison in the 1850s |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=17 |issue= No. 4 (Dec., 1974)|pages= 797–811
id= |url= |accessdate= |quote=

*cite journal |last= Ghosh|first=Peter |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= 2001|month= |title=Review: Essays and Reviews: The 1860 Text and Its Reading by Victor Shea, William Whitla |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=116 |issue=No. 465 (Feb., 2001) |pages= 149–151|id= |url= |accessdate= |quote=|doi=10.1093/ehr/116.465.149

*cite book |author=Knight, Mark |title=Nineteenth-century religion and literature: an introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford [Oxfordshire] |year=2006 |pages= |isbn=0199277117 |oclc= |doi=

*cite book |author=Nixon, Jude V. Nixon |title=Victorian Religious Discourse: New Directions in Criticism |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location= |year=2000 |pages= |isbn=1403965226 |oclc= |doi=

*cite book |author=Whitla, William; Shea, Victor |title=Essays and reviews: the 1860 text and its reading |publisher=University Press of Virginia |location=Charlottesville |year=2000 |pages= |isbn=0813918693 |oclc= |doi=

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*cite web |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/essays.html |title=Summary of "Essays and Reviews" |accessdate= |accessmonthday= |accessdaymonth= |accessyear= |author= |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher=VictorianWeb.org |pages= |language= |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote=

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* Full text of "Essays and Reviews" at [http://www.archive.org/details/a578549600unknuoft Internet archive]