John William Colenso, Bishop of Natal.

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John William Colenso, Bishop of Natal - Memorial Plaque (St. Austell).
Photo's By Tim Needham.

Subject: Re: John William Colenso, Bishop of Natal. Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:16 pm

Colenso, John William (1814–1883). — Mathematician and Biblical critic, born at St. Austell, Cornwall, and ed. at St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he was a tutor, entered the Church, and published various mathematical treatises and Village Sermons. In 1853 he was appointed first Bishop of Natal. He mastered the Zulu language, introduced printing, wrote a Zulu grammar and dictionary, and many useful reading-books for the natives. His Commentary on the Romans (1861) excited great opposition from the High Church party, and his Critical Examination of the Pentateuch (1862–1879), by its then extreme views, created great alarm and excitement. He was in 1863 deposed and excommunicated by Bishop Gray of Cape Town, but confirmed in his see by the Courts of Law. His theological writings are now largely superseded; but his mathematical text-books, for the writing of which he was much better equipped, hold their place.