Ramsden Balmforth

Reverend
Ramsden Balmforth
Born(1861-01-13)13 January 1861
Huddersfield, England
Died31 December 1941(1941-12-31) (aged 80)
Cape Town, South Africa
Occupation(s)Clergyman, author

Ramsden Balmforth (13 January 1861 – 31 December 1941) was an English-born Unitarian minister and author who spent much of his adult life in South Africa.[1][2]

Early life

Balmforth was born in Huddersfield, England, in 1861, the son of Nanny (née Moorhouse) and Watts Balmforth.[1][3] His father was a mechanic and a secularist.[4]

As a young man, Balmforth joined the Fabian Society and became a friend of George Bernard Shaw. In 1886 he published a socialist-themed novel (his only work of fiction) under the pseudonym "Laon Ramsey".[1][5]

In 1893, he married Agnes Ellam (1865–1945);[6][7] the couple had two daughters and one son.[1]

In 1894, he entered Manchester College, Oxford, where he studied theology and became a Unitarian minister. After serving as minister of the Huddersfield Unitarian church, he emigrated to South Africa in 1897.[1]

South African career

Balmforth served as minister of Cape Town's Free Protestant (Unitarian) Church from 1897–1937, succeeding David Faure.[1] He published a number of books and articles on theology, politics, pacifism, and literature, and was one of the first clergymen to preach on South African radio.[8][9][10]

He died in Cape Town on 31 December 1941.[2][11]

Selected bibliography

  • Landon Deecroft: a socialistic novel (1886; published under the pseudonym Laon Ramsey)[12]
  • The New Reformation and its relation to moral and social problems (1893)[13]
  • The Evolution of Christianity (1898)
  • Some Social and Political Pioneers of the Nineteenth Century (1900)[14]
  • The Bible from the Standpoint of the Higher Criticism: The Old Testament (1904)[15]
  • The New Testament in the Light of the Higher Criticism (1905)[15]
  • The Ethical and Religious Value of the Novel (1912)[16]
  • Drama, Music-drama, and Religion as illustrated by Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung" and "Parsifal" (1913)[17]
  • The Theory of Evolution and Its Influences on Religious Thought (1921)
  • The Ethical and Religious Value of the Drama (1926)
  • The Problem-play and its Influence on Modern Thought and Life (1928)[18]
  • Jesus the Man (1935)[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Herrman, L. (1977). Krüger, D.W.; Beyers, C.J. (eds.). Dictionary of South African Biography. Tafelberg-Uitgewers Ltd. pp. 44–45. ISBN 0624008495.
  2. ^ a b Rosenthal, Eric (1978). Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa. Cape Town. p. 31. ISBN 9780702109713.
  3. ^ "West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
  4. ^ Hale, Frederick (June 2011). "Interpreting South African cultural clashes through Darwinian eyes : Ramsden Balmforth in Cape Town (1902-1911)". South African Journal of Cultural History. 25 (1): 26–45.
  5. ^ "The Late Rev. R. Balmforth". Weekly Examiner. Huddersfield, England. 3 January 1942 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
  7. ^ "Cape Province, South Africa, Civil Deaths, 1895-1972". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  8. ^ Heller-Wagner, Eric (July–September 2004). "A Taste of Tolerance in the Early Days of Religious Broadcasting in South Africa". Quarterly Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa. 58 (3): 106–116.
  9. ^ Hale, Frederick (May 2012). "Public issues perceived from the theological left flank: The social ethics of Ramsden Balmforth in the Union of South Africa". Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae. 38 (1): 1–18. ISSN 1017-0499.
  10. ^ Hale, Frederick (January 2013). "Contours of pacificism: Ramsden Balmforth's advocacy of peace in the union of South Africa and beyond". Acta Theologica. 33 (1): 95–113. ISSN 1015-8758.
  11. ^ Balmforth, M. Owen (25 October 1947). "Ramsden Balmforth: his life and work". The Inquirer: 727–728 – via Internet Archive.
  12. ^ Tyson, Brian (1996). "Enter the Literary Critic". Shaw. 16: 99–123. ISSN 0741-5842. JSTOR 40681577.
  13. ^ "Religion and Man's Welfare". New York Times. 28 August 1893. p. 3. (subscription required)
  14. ^ Montague, F. C. (June 1901). "Reviews". The Economic Journal. 11 (42): 199–200. doi:10.2307/2957151.
  15. ^ a b c Hale, Frederick (August 2013). "Victorian biblical scholarship in twentieth-century South Africa: Ramsden Balmforth's advocacy of New Testament higher criticism". Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae. 39: 365–383. ISSN 1017-0499.
  16. ^ Hale, Frederick (27 February 2017). "Literary criticism from a Cape Town pulpit: Ramsden Balmforth's explications of modern novels as parables revealing ethical and spiritual principles". In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi. 51 (1). doi:10.4102/ids.v51i1.2178.
  17. ^ Hale, Frederick (December 2013). "The first scholarly South African interpretation of Wagner? Ramsden Balmforth's Fabian analysis of the Ring and Parsifal". Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa. 10 (1): 53–69. doi:10.2989/18121004.2013.846981.
  18. ^ "Current Literature". Sydney Morning Herald. 23 February 1929. p. 12.