The Industrial Gospel of Robert Laws and the Livingstonia Expedition

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-50
Author(s):  
Kenneth S. Jeffrey
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Practical Skills ◽  
Academic Education ◽  
Industrial Training ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Modern Era

It has been widely assumed that academic education lay at the heart of nineteenth century Scottish missions in Africa. This article will argue that a particular form of education that included artisan skills-based, commercial and industrial training was the basis of the Livingstonia expedition led by Robert Laws in Nyasaland from 1875. Inspired by Dr James Stewart of Lovedale, financed by Free Church businessmen from Glasgow and led by teams of tradesmen, the aim of this mission was to establish small settlements that would create a network of trading centres from which commerce, civilisation and Christianity would spread across Africa. The ambitions and character of these first missionaries, not least Laws, exercised a fundamental influence upon the nature and purpose of this enterprise. Livingstonia was the most industrial mission of the modern era in Africa. A practical skills-based education was central to the gospel according to Robert Laws.

Scottish Missionaries, ‘Protestant Hinduism’ and the Scottish Sense of Empire in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century India

2007 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Constable
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Western India ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Intellectual Engagement ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Church

This article examines the Scottish missionary contribution to a Scottish sense of empire in India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Initially, the article reviews general historiographical interpretations which have in recent years been developed to explain the Scottish relationship with British imperial development in India. Subsequently the article analyses in detail the religious contributions of Scottish Presbyterian missionaries of the Church of Scotland and the Free Church Missions to a Scottish sense of empire with a focus on their interaction with Hindu socioreligious thought in nineteenth-century western India. Previous missionary historiography has tended to focus substantially on the emergence of Scottish evangelical missionary activity in India in the early nineteenth century and most notably on Alexander Duff (1806–78). Relatively little has been written on Scottish Presbyterian missions in India in the later nineteenth century, and even less on the significance of their missionary thought to a Scottish sense of Indian empire. Through an analysis of Scottish Presbyterian missionary critiques in both vernacular Marathi and English, this article outlines the orientalist engagement of Scottish Presbyterian missionary thought with late nineteenth-century popular Hinduism. In conclusion this article demonstrates how this intellectual engagement contributed to and helped define a Scottish missionary sense of empire in India.

The passive voice in scientific writing through the ages: A diachronic study

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-489
Author(s):  
Alvin Ping Leong
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Scientific Writing ◽  
Science Journal ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Composing Process ◽  
Diachronic Study ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Current Shift ◽  
Modern Era

AbstractDiachronic studies on scientific writing have indicated an increase in the use of passives from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. With the current shift in focus towards making scientific writing more accessible, there is less certainty on the extent of passive use in the modern era. Although the use of the active voice is presently encouraged, the findings from available studies are mixed. There are also few diachronic studies involving recent articles. This present study investigated the trend in passive use from the nineteenth century to the present day using 80 articles from a multidisciplinary science journal covering four time periods (1880, 1930, 1980, and 2017). The study found that the extent of passive use was stable from 1880 to 1980 (occurring in about 29–36% of all clauses) but declined in 2017 (averaging below 25%). The study also found a decline in the use of finite passives to describe methodological actions and a corresponding increase in the use of first-person pronouns in the 2017 articles. Further work involving a larger corpus and an understanding of writer decisions in the composing process is needed.

Writing the Nineteenth-Century Scottish Calvinist Self

2021 ◽  
pp. 490-507
Author(s):  
Bruce Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Self Examination

Nineteenth-century Scotland witnessed the proliferation of spiritual biographies and diaries that recounted the lives of Scottish Calvinist ministers as examples of piety and Christian living. These relatively inexpensive and popular works appeared in a culture of decreasing church attendance and growing secularism. One of the most notable authors of these texts was Andrew Bonar (1810–1892), minister, missionary, and leading figure of the Free Church. Bonar’s biographies and diary reflected both the depth of his Calvinist piety as well as the anxieties arising from rigorous self-examination and the attendant risk of spiritual depression. Bonar’s work reveals the centrality of commemoration and memory in constructing a life of faithful living in the wake of the seemingly irreversible decline of churches in the life of the nation.

Inventing Laziness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melis Hafez
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Exclusionary Practices ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ottoman History ◽  
The People ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Shifting Boundaries ◽  
Modern Era

Neither laziness nor its condemnation are new inventions, however, perceiving laziness as a social condition that afflicts a 'nation' is. In the early modern era, Ottoman political treatises did not regard the people as the source of the state's problems. Yet in the nineteenth century, as the imperial ideology of Ottomanism and modern discourses of citizenship spread, so did the understanding of laziness as a social disease that the 'Ottoman nation' needed to eradicate. Asking what we can learn about Ottoman history over the long nineteenth-century by looking closely into the contested and shifting boundaries of the laziness - productivity binary, Melis Hafez explores how 'laziness' can be used to understand emerging civic culture and its exclusionary practices in the Ottoman Empire. A polyphonic involvement of moralists, intellectuals, polemicists, novelists, bureaucrats, and, to an extent, the public reveals the complexities and ambiguities of this multifaceted cultural transformation. Using a wide variety of sources, this book explores the sustained anxiety about productivity that generated numerous reforms as well as new understandings of morality, subjectivity, citizenship, and nationhood among the Ottomans.

Redaction Criticism on Trial: The Cases of A. B. Bruce and Robert Gundry

2014 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-209
Author(s):  
Michael Strickland
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Synoptic Gospels ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Redaction Criticism ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This article deals with the trials of two evangelical scholars, one from the late nineteenth century, Alexander B. Bruce, and the other from the late twentieth, Robert Gundry. Both faced accusation and judgment from their peers because of their redaction-critical remarks about the synoptic gospels. Bruce was tried by the Free Church of Scotland, while Gundry’s membership in the Evangelical Theological Society was challenged. After considering the cases of both, consideration is given to potential lessons that evangelical scholars who use redactioncritical methods may learn from the experiences of both men.

Introduction. Theories of Myth

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Segal
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
The Social ◽  
Origin Function ◽  
Modern Era

The ‘Introduction’ examines and compares modern theories of myth by applying them to the famous myth of Adonis. It is only in the modern era—specifically, only since the second half of the nineteenth century—that these theories have purported to be scientific, for only since then have there existed the social sciences. Of these, anthropology, psychology, and sociology have contributed the most to the study of myth. Each discipline harbours multiple theories of myth, but what unites them is the questions asked: those of origin, function, and subject matter. Is myth universal? Is myth true? Along with these other questions, it defines myth as a story.

Scottish Presbyterianism and the National Education Debates, 1850–62

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 363-380
Author(s):  
Ryan Mallon
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
National Education ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Parish Schools ◽  
Religious Establishment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

This article examines the mid-nineteenth-century Scottish education debates in the context of intra-Presbyterian relations in the aftermath of the 1843 ‘Disruption’ of the Church of Scotland. The debates of this period have been characterized as an attempt to wrest control of Scottish education from the Church of Scotland, with most opponents of the existing scheme critical of the established kirk's monopoly over the supervision of parish schools. However, the debate was not simply between those within and outside the religious establishment. Those advocating change, particularly within non-established Presbyterian denominations, were not unified in their proposals for a solution to Scotland's education problem. Disputes between Scotland's largest non-established churches, the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church, and within the Free Church itself over the type of national education scheme that should replace the parish schools severely hampered their ability to express common opposition to the existing system. These divisions also placed increasing strain on the developing cooperation in Scottish Dissent on ecclesiastical, political and social matters after the Disruption. This article places the issue of education in this period within this distinctly Dissenting context of cooperation, and examines the extent of the impact these debates had on Dissenting Presbyterian relations.

Recent Scholarship in American Universalism: A Bibliographical Essay

1972 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-523
Author(s):  
Alan Seaburg
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Essential Ingredient ◽  
Universal Salvation ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Important Argument ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Historians

Church historians have generally tended to ignore American Universalism. This was not because Universalists were unmindful of their past. Several works were produced in the nineteenth century trying to prove through Scripture and history the fact that the idea of universal salvation was always a part of the mesage of Christianity from the days of the apostles through the Reformation down to the modern era. It was an important argument in their voluminous debates and an essential ingredient of their theology. They were rather proud of this heritage. It cannot be said, therefore, that Universalism failed to produce its own historians. The problem for scholars of all disciplines has been that until recently there were no reliable sources available which dealt with American Universalism. Yet Universalism needs to be understood, for it helped to humanize the church through its teachings that God was a God of love and that he cared to save each and everyone of his children.

Antislavery Orthodoxy: Isaac Nelson and the Free Church of Scotland, c. 1843–65

2015 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Irish Nationalism ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Chattel Slavery ◽  
Christian Fellowship ◽  
High Esteem

The ‘Send back the money’ controversy between the Free Church of Scotland and zealous abolitionists was one of the most important events in nineteenth century Scottish religious history. The Revd Isaac Nelson of Belfast is best remembered for his anti-revivalism and his advocacy of Irish nationalism. What has often been forgotten is the centrality of antislavery to the making of Nelson's controversial reputation, even though he was held in high esteem by abolitionists on both sides of the Atlantic. Accordingly, this article examines his opposition to the Free Church's receipt of monies from and extension of christian fellowship to the slaveholding churches in the United States. It highlights his critique of leading ecclesiastical statesmen, including Thomas Chalmers, William Cunningham and Robert S. Candlish. The essay also considers the sophisticated intellectual critique of chattel slavery that under-girded Nelson's opposition to the policy of the Free Kirk, as well as his evaluation of the nature of proslavery religion in America. By means of a biographical case study of an interesting outsider, this article seeks to provide a lens through which one of the most tragic incidents in Scotland's ecclesiastical past can be freshly examined.

History's “Illegibles”: National Indeterminacy in Istria

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 116-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Ballinger
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Italian Population ◽  
World War ◽  
Demographic Shifts ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
Modern Era

In the 1990s, the Julian (Giulian) Region that includes the cities of Trieste and Gorizia and the Istrian peninsula attracted the renewed attention of scholars for its qualities as a space in which both cosmopolitanism and nationalist polarization had flourished in the late Habsburg era. Although a healthy debate exists as to the degree to which forms of interethnic tolerance remain a feature of everyday life in these areas, most historians agree that this region underwent a series of increasing nationalizations (Italian, Slovene, Croatian, and Yugoslav) that began in the nineteenth century and culminated in the partisan anti-Fascist uprising and massive demographic shifts after World War II, as the majority of Istria's “Italian” population (together with a significant number of individuals self-identifying as Slovene or Croat) migrated from the territory that passed from Italian to Yugoslav control. The historiography of the modern era in the Julian Region has thus confirmed many of the assumptions made by nationalist activists along this classic “language frontier” about the inevitability, exclusivity, and irreversibility of ethnonational identifications.

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