A Kingdom of the Mind

One relatively distinct group in the British empire were the millions of Scots who extended their cultural networks in the various new worlds. From New Zealand to Australia and Canada, Scottish settlers used their books and reading as a means of replicating and promoting their own cultural values far from home. This chapter examines a number of pioneer communities settled by Scots, particularly members of the Free Church, established after the Disruption of 1848. Under the fiercely sectarian leadership of a number of prominent church ministers in Dunedin, Waipu, and elsewhere, institutional libraries were established that reflected the cultural and religious affiliations of home. Later in the nineteenth century, even in these enclaves of Scottishness these same communities became increasingly integrated into an overseas colonial identity. A key figure in this regard was the pastoralist, George Russell of Victoria. An important colonial representation of Scottishness in this stage of transition was articulated by Catherine Helen Spence in her novel Handfasted. By the twentieth century, almost in direct proportion to their distance from their national origins, colonial Scots remained faithful to a number of cultural practices, not least of which was the keen promotion of literary works by their countrymen and women.

Left-Wing Christians at Berkeley: Between the Theology of Liberation and Marxist Theories

The 1960s were marked by profound political and cultural transformation and Berkeley was one of most deeply involved institutions. Though much has been written about the students’ movement, no research has stopped to consider the experience of the Berkeley Free Church, the subsequent publication of the journal Radical Religion and the constitution of the American Christians toward Socialism movement. The young people who were the key figures in this experience are an emblem of the Christians of the times, open as they were to ecumenical exchange and attentive to the problems of the poor and the socially excluded. The international and national context led them to progressively assume more radical positions, to use Marxism as a method for interpreting society’s “contradictions” and to seek a political dialogue with the world of the Left. This path of theoretical and political quest concluded in the 1980s, when a new wave of conservatism put an end to any hope of radically transforming Western societies.

Trauma and slavery, Gilo and the soft, subtle shackles of Lovedale

A recent study of sixty-four Oromo slave children from the Horn of Africa has provided valuable information of the children’s experiences from capture to the coast. In 1888 a British warship liberated a consignment of Oromo child slaves in the Red Sea and took them to Aden. A year later, a further group of liberated Oromo slave children joined them at a Free Church of Scotland mission at Sheikh Othman, just north of Aden. Two of the missionaries learnt Afaan Oromo (the children’s language), and, with the assistance of three fluent Afaan Oromo speakers, they conducted structured interviews with each child asking for details of their experiences of their first passage i.e. the journey from cradle to the Red Sea coast. When a number of the children died within a short space of time, the missionaries had to find another institution with a healthier climate to prevent further deaths. They decided to ship the Oromo children to the Lovedale Institution in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Writing the Nineteenth-Century Scottish Calvinist Self

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.

Låg- och frikyrklig teologisk utbildning i ett efterkristet Skandinavien

The present crisis in churches is often addressed by means of pragmatic solutions. However, we con- tend that the problem is rather a lack of theological reflection. Secularization and pluralism require that churches within Free Church traditions renegotiate their own self-understanding. This thesis is primarily based on a historical analysis of the theological ideas operative in the conceptualization of conversion of youth within the Swedish Baptist denomination Örebromissionen (presently Interact). The analysis demonstrates that conversion over time became perceived primarily as a datable and emotional experience whereas the earlier strive to be different from others in society was replaced by an ambition to be a responsible actor in society, promoting the shared moral values of society among the youth. In light of the analysis, we claim that the Free churches should utilize their resources to give room for a more holistic understanding of the human being that emphasizes emotion, cognition and practices. In conclusion, we argue that such a holistic view challenge present theological education within the Free Church tradition to develop a post-secular competence and a missional perspective.

Frikyrklig ecklesiologi?

There has been a change in the ecclesiology of the well-known Pentecostal pastor and author Peter Halldorf. His ecclesiology was first centered on the individual Christian and he appears to have regarded the church as a group of praying individuals. This ecclesiology could perhaps be regarded to be in line with the ecclesiology of the Swedish Pentecostal movement, the starting point of Halldorf’s ecclesiological processing. Halldorf’s later ecclesiology has taken a controversial turn and is influenced by the Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Movement. The Pentecostal movement in Sweden has in recent decades undergone major changes which have led to an unclear self- understanding. In spite of the fact that Halldorf is very influential as a pastor and writer, his alternative ecclesiology has not been received as a serious alternative within the Pentecostal movement. In this article I discuss trajectories in Halldorf’s ecclesiology in relation to the ecclesiology of John Howard Yoder. My aim is to provide a Free Church evaluation of Halldorf’s trajectories and my claim is that his development does not necessarily stand in disagreement with the Swedish Pentecostal movement, if one considers the movement’s Baptistic roots. It is therefore possible that Halldorf’s trajectory is a path to follow for the Swedish Pentecostal movement, a movement searching for an identity. It is at the same time possible that the Free Church ecclesiology of Yoder may deepen Halldorf's own ecclesiology.

Reading The Bible With African Lenses: Exodus 20:1–17 As Interpreted by Simon Kapwepwe

The bible has been differently received, read, interpreted and appropriated in African communities. Political freedom fighters in Zambia used the bible to promote black consciousness and an awareness of African identity. The first group of freedom fighters who emerged from the Mwenzo and Lubwa mission stations of the Free Church of Scotland in North Eastern Zambia read and interpreted the bible in a manner that encouraged resistance against colonialism and the marginalization of African culture. This paper adds to current shifts in African biblical scholarship by considering Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe’s interpretation of Exodus 20:1–17 in the context of Zambia’s movement for political and ecclesiastical independence. Kapwepwe belonged to the first group of freedom fighters - fighting alongside Kenneth Kaunda who would become the first President of Zambia. The present paper shows how Kapwepwe brought the biblical text into dialogue with the African context to address urgent issues of his time, including colonialism.