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Ramsden Balmforth

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English-South African clergyman and author
ReverendRamsden 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.

Early life

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

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".

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

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.

South African career

Balmforth served as minister of Cape Town's Free Protestant (Unitarian) Church from 1897–1937, succeeding David Faure. 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.

He died in Cape Town on 31 December 1941.

Selected bibliography

  • Landon Deecroft: a socialistic novel (1886; published under the pseudonym Laon Ramsey)
  • The New Reformation and its relation to moral and social problems (1893)
  • The Evolution of Christianity (1898)
  • Some Social and Political Pioneers of the Nineteenth Century (1900)
  • The Bible from the Standpoint of the Higher Criticism: The Old Testament (1904)
  • The New Testament in the Light of the Higher Criticism (1905)
  • The Ethical and Religious Value of the Novel (1912)
  • Drama, Music-drama, and Religion as illustrated by Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung" and "Parsifal" (1913)
  • 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)
  • Jesus the Man (1935)

References

  1. ^ Herrman, L. (1977). Krüger, D.W.; Beyers, C.J. (eds.). Dictionary of South African Biography. Tafelberg-Uitgewers Ltd. pp. 44–45. ISBN 0624008495.
  2. ^ 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. ^ 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.

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