The Changing Shape of English Nonconformity, 1825-1925

Church History http://journals.cambridge.org/CHH Additional services for Church History: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here The Changing Shape of English Nonconformity, 1825–1925. By Dale A. Johnson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 248 pp. \$45.00 cloth. Robert D. Cornwall Church History / Volume 69 / Issue 01 / March 2000, pp 210 - 211 DOI: 10.2307/3170623, Published online: 28 July 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/ abstract_S0009640700086996 How to cite this article: Robert D. Cornwall (2000). Church History, 69, pp 210-211 doi:10.2307/3170623 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CHH, IP address: 138.251.14.35 on 18 Apr 2015 210 CHURCH HISTORY The Changing Shape of English Nonconformity, 1825-1925. By Dale A. Johnson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 248 pp. $45.00 cloth. Dale Johnson's Outler Award-winning book offers an important and wellwritten look at the way theological education influenced Nonconformist ministry, theological development, and identity during the Victorian era. The author skillfully challenges the notion that nineteenth-century evangelical Nonconformity experienced doctrinal, institutional, and numerical decline. Using memoirs, college and church records, letters, and published sermons and books, he shows that the situation among Nonconformists was extremely complex. Though not a social history of Nonconformity, the book helpfully places these movements in their broader social and cultural contexts. Starting from this point, he notes his agreement with John Kent that Nonconformity experienced its golden age during the nineteenth century. Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Presbyterians all exhibited great vitality as they moved from the margins of society into the mainstream. Though decline might eventually overtake them in the twentieth century, nineteenth-century Nonconformists enjoyed their opportunity to engage English society and culture, experiencing significant change, adaptation, and transformation in the process. Johnson's excellent book divides into two parts. Part 1 focuses on theological education and part 2 examines Nonconformist views of ministry, theological developments, and their changing identity. The examination of theological education stands at the heart of the book, as educational institutions played the greatest internal role in the transformation of Nonconformity. The exclusion of Nonconformists from study at the English universities at the beginning of the century meant that most clergy were trained at the dissenting academies that emerged in the seventeenth century or the theological colleges that developed at the end of the eighteenth century. These institutions, which were often run by clergy, offered only ministerial training, as many supporters feared that a broader curriculum would distract the colleges from their task of preparing preachers for the churches. Though they struggled for financial support and against fears that an educated ministry might lose its evangelical fervor, the number of schools and opportunities for study expanded considerably during the century. These opportunities received a considerable boost as university education in England became available, first at the University of London, founded in 1828, and then later at Oxford and Cambridge. Many London-based theological colleges chose to affiliate with the new university, and in 1887 the Congregationalist Spring Hill College moved to Oxford and became Mansfield College, offering the first Oxford-conferred theological degrees to Nonconformists since the mid-seventeenth century. Other denominational colleges followed Mansfield's lead, further transforming theological education and the trend toward a more professional and competent ministry. At the beginning of the century, Nonconformist theologians, who were ministers themselves, rarely questioned the theological orthodoxies of their various denominations. By the end of the century, theologians, clergy, and theological students began to embrace a plurality of theological options, many embracing biblical criticism and German theological developments. As lay Nonconformists began to enjoy freedom from their legal disabilities and interacted with their culture, they also began to demand a more educated and qualified ministry, pushing the denominations to expand educational BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES 211 opportunities. Though the churches remained concerned about the dangers of an unconverted ministry and insisted that call to ministry must precede education, they would no longer be content with an uneducated ministry. Parallel to the demand for educated preachers, the Nonconformist understanding of the purpose of preaching and ministry changed from an emphasis on evangelism and conversion to teaching and nurture, again requiring the development of a different curriculum for each form of ministry. While an evangelist might receive a lesser education, this was not true of a congregation's pastor. Greater engagement with society and the growing sophistication of theological education influenced the task of doing theology, which was transferred from ministers to the faculty of the new theological colleges. Figures such as R. W. Dale, P. T. Forsyth, and A. M. Fairbairn all played significant roles in helping Nonconformity face the problem of speaking effectively to a complex world. Faced with challenges from Darwin and biblical criticism, the traditional apologetic of Paley and Butler, based on common sense reasoning and natural theology, proved ineffective and required a new foundation. Though not true of all, many turned to religious experience as a foundation for defending the faith, especially as they encountered the works of Schleiermacher and Ritschl. The Anglican F. D. Maurice influenced the development of a more positive view of Christianity, making love the center of theology. As a result, theologians began to move away from the impersonal focus on God's sovereignty and God's role as moral governor to embrace the more personal emphasis on the fatherhood of God. In Christology, theologians began to entertain a greater variety of approaches. Although Forsyth continued to emphasize traditional atonement language, most theologians gave greater attention to the Incarnation and emphasized reconciliation over atonement. Developments in theological education, the professionalization of the ministry and the demand for an educated ministry, and the growing plurality in theological voices contributed to a significant change in the Nonconformist identity. The denominations began to shed the labels of dissent and Nonconformity and embraced that of Free Church, which they saw as more positive. They began to take interest in their denominational histories, forming historical societies and producing written histories. Though they looked at the Oxford movement with suspicion, that movement pushed the Free Churches to consider the need for a "more catholic doctrine of the church" (174). One example of this trend can be found in the increased attention given to aesthetics and church architecture, for as the century wore on the Nonconformists began to build significant church buildings. We are beholden to Dale Johnson for producing an exquisite piece of scholarship. He has examined the primary sources and dialogued with contemporary historians. He writes with grace and clarity and offers us a paradigm for understanding the transformation of other religious groups as they interact with the broader society. One can see parallels between the transformation of nineteenth-century Nonconformity and twentieth-century American evangelicalism. Education and interaction with culture seem to require a reconstruction of one's theology. Robert D. Cornwall First Christian Church Santa Barbara, Cal.