The religion of the Non-Jurors and the early British enlightenment: a study of Henry Dodwell

The article considers the fundamental motivations and associated theological thought of those involved in the Non-Juring schism in the Church of England in the period after the Revolution of 1688. It indicates and exemplifies how that thought is to be related to wider intellectual conflicts of the period, considered as constituting an early phase of Enlightenment/Counter-Enlightenment debate. The works of the leading Non-Juror theologian, Henry Dodwell, and in particular his writings on the destiny of the soul, serve as an area of focus. Extensive reference is also made to the equally prominent Non-Juror, Charles Leslie.     

The Non-Jurors and their History

This paper is concerned to establish and elucidate the intellectual distinctiveness of the Anglican Non-Jurors of the late Stuart and early Hanoverian period. It places the Non-Jurors in the context of the early Counter-Enlightenment and finds their distinctiveness within it, as a body, in the extent and intensity of their commitment to rationalist, critical historical study as a theological method, reflecting a primitivist, or more precisely, restorationist religious stance. The writings of Charles Leslie and Jeremy Collier are those chiefly used in exemplification. The concluding part of the study enquires into the sources of the Non-Jurors' confidence in the value of historical argument in controversy. It points particularly to the Non-Jurors' use of the practices of contemporary historiography, which regulated the application of rationalism by requiring concurrent application of doctrinal and moral standards.     

James Mill's treatment of religion and the History of British India

James Mill's History of British India’ (1817) played a major role in re-shaping the English policy and attitudes in India throughout the nineteenth century. This article questions the widely held view that the ‘HBI’ heralded the utilitarian justification of colonisation found for instance in John Stuart Mill's writings. It suggests that James Mill's role as a proponent of ‘utilitarian imperialism’ has been overstated, and argues that much of Mill's criticism of Indian society arose from the continuing influence of his religious education as well as from his links with a network of Presbyterian and Evangelical thinkers. It is only after his death that the colonialist views put forward in the History of British India were re-interpreted in light of his later attachment to utilitarianism.     

Race,religion and British multiculturalism: The political responses of Black and Minority Ethnic voluntary organisations to multicultural cohesion

This paper explores the contradictory politics of race, religion and multiculturalism in contemporary Britain. It is argued that a pan-European political consensus has emerged concerning the ‘end of multiculturalism’ where a liberal ethos is being supplanted by an authoritarian stance focused on securitization, risk and terror. Based on a qualitative investigation of thirty Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and faith-based voluntary organisations in the Tyne and Wear conurbation of North East England, the paper divulges their grounded opinions on race, religion and multiculturalism. Groups disclose a high level of civic responsibility and commitment to community participation with an emphasis on integration rather than segregation. Discussions of race, religion and multiculturalism reveal many BME organisations are removed from the politics of decision-making and transfixed by the structures of whiteness that bind them, and to which they must respond. The paper concludes by considering the workings of whiteness in an attempt to displace the burden of cohesion that has come to settle upon BME and faith-based organisations in political debates on race, religion and multiculturalism in the present.     

The emergence of early childhood education outdoor programs in British Columbia: a meandering story

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the emergence of early childhood education outdoor programs in British Columbia, Canada. The story told follows paths not dissimilar from how one might observe children on a walk to the park. While the park is the destination, it is the journey to the park, of picking up pebbles, looking at flowers, and finding sticks, that enlivens and binds the journey. Through our consideration of stories from a number of outdoor programs, we weave patterns that join their emergence and consider how their stories might sustain and encourage educational action.     

The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

The work of the Irish or Iro-Scottish missioneries on the continent of Europe in the sixth to eighth centuries is well known. An attempt is made here to show how the characteristic design of early Celtic churches found its way partly via Bavaria, where for example the Irishman Virgil became bishop of Salzburg in the mid-eight century, into Moravia, along with other Iro-Scottish cultural influences, a century or so before the well-known Christianizing mission launched into that area from Byzantium by the two brothers SS Cyril and Methodius, in 863.     

The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

The work of the Irish or Iro-Scottish missioneries on the continent of Europe in the sixth to eighth centuries is well known. An attempt is made here to show how the characteristic design of early Celtic churches found its way partly via Bavaria, where for example the Irishman Virgil became bishop of Salzburg in the mid-eight century, into Moravia, along with other Iro-Scottish cultural influences, a century or so before the well-known Christianizing mission launched into that area from Byzantium by the two brothers SS Cyril and Methodius, in 863.