Private collection of 19th century “heretic” missionary on display

The private letters and publications of John Colenso, a 19^th century pioneering missionary who caused outrage for his sympathetic work with Zulus in South Africa and for questioning the accuracy of some parts of the Bible, are on display at St John’s College Library to mark the bicentenary of his birth.

Colenso, appointed the first Church of England Bishop of Natal in 1852, infuriated the colonial authorities by campaigning for local Zulu tribes and criticising the British for starting the Anglo-Zulu War. He was also branded a “heretic” bishop for questioning the historic origins of the Pentateuch, saying that they could not have been written by Moses himself. Colenso was tried for heresy and excommunicated, before the ruling was eventually overturned.

The small exhibition, entitled The Missionary College, displays items from Colenso’s private collections, including books for South African missionaries to learn Zulu to enable them to work closely with the native population. There are also items on display from a second missionary, Thomas Whytehead, whose attempts to do the same type of work with the Maoris in New Zealand were cut short when he died in 1843; if he had lived, his work may have followed a similar path to that of John Colenso.

The display can be viewed 3 February to 17 April.

For more information about this story, please contact Louise Hanzlik, lh445@cam.ac.uk