Preaching Imperialism: Wesleyan Methodism and the War1

Abstract

There was a wide spectrum of views on the South African War in British Protestant churches, ranging from pacifism to jingoism. The anti-war lobby was largely confined to Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers.2 Anglicans and evangelical nonconformists generally supported war against the Boer republics. Some regarded it as an instrument of God’s judgement, in which Britain was the Almighty’s agent; others felt that Britain itself was being chastised. Either way, the notion of a nation at war in the service of God had a strong appeal to millenarian-minded Christians in an era of patriotism and imperialism.3 Since the moral economy of Anglicanism has been more comprehensively examined in the rich vein of South African War historiography,4 this chapter will focus on Wesleyan Methodism. Wesleyan Methodism grew enormously during the nineteenth century as evangelical Christianity gained spiritual influence in Victorian Britain.5 It also spread rapidly throughout the Empire which meant that its colonial reach enhanced its metropolitan status after the 1860s.6 While historians have written extensively about missionary activity among the indigenous populations of Britain’s ‘dependent’ colonies, only more recently have they begun to consider the relationship between Christianity and imperialism in the self-governing dominions.’KeywordsMethodist TimeBritish RuleWild AlmondBritish PoliticsAfrican LabourThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.