ABSTRACT
Few periods of equal length have seen important changes in religious thought as occurred between 1853 and 1868. During these years “advanced ideas” of several kinds undoubtedly gained an astonishing series of successes in undermining “faith” of the old type among important sections of the “governing classes.” Conscientious Christians who had succeeded with some effort in accommodating their “faith” to the awkward contradictions between Genesis and the discoveries of geological science were being forced almost continuously to ever new and ever more soul-searching accommodations. While the plebeian Ultra-Radical schools of Holyoake and Brad-laugh were still in joyful expectancy of a breakdown of “organised religion” with radical changes to follow in the ordering of society, the Churches had to sustain some shocks. The greatest, perhaps, came from the investigations of an Anglican scholar and mathematician, Colenso, since 1853 Bishop of Natal.
