Governor Browne and sectarianism: The 1859 debate over the bible society

The Bible carried immense prestige within the British Empire, and as Brian Stanley and Andrew Porter have argued, was a critical symbol of that Protestant empire. Tony Ballantyne has shown the ways in which that language held good for New Zealand. There were two sides to its function. One was the ro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of New Zealand literature 2018-07, Vol.36 (2), p.33-56
Main Author: Lineham, Peter J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Apocrypha
Associations
Bible
Bible and spiritualism
Bible colleges
Biblical interpretation
Biblical literature
Biographies
British colonialism
Catholic literature
Christianity
Christianity and politics
Colonization
Committees
Fund raising
Governors
Literary translation
Missionaries
Presidents
Protestantism
Protestants
Psychology
Publishing
Religious life
Religious organizations
Societies, etc
Society
Symbolism
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Summary:The Bible carried immense prestige within the British Empire, and as Brian Stanley and Andrew Porter have argued, was a critical symbol of that Protestant empire. Tony Ballantyne has shown the ways in which that language held good for New Zealand. There were two sides to its function. One was the role played by the missionaries in inculcating Protestant virtues among Maori and thus ensuring that governed and governors shared common ground. In this the Bible played a critical and common part over and aside from specific missions. There was, however, a second role that the Bible played in settler colonies. In effect it furnished the shared value-system to be inculcated among settlers, given the lack of a state church. Although the New Zealand Parliament had insisted from the outset in 1854 that the Church of England had no special status, the parliamentary prayer and the support for the churches indicated that the country was Christian, and that all subscribed to Christian values. The Christian Scriptures were a powerful symbol of this shared value system. All Protestants subscribed to this high view of the Bible, but Catholics were uncomfortable with it, for to them the Bible required interpretation by the Church. In 1859 the British governor, Thomas Gore Brown, had to face up to the unacceptability of the Bible as the symbol of Christianity in the eyes of Catholics. With this realization, we need to note the awkwardness of the notion of a tidy and meaningful Protestant imperialism as the shared value system of the empire.
ISSN:0112-1227