Henry Dewsbury Alves Major (1871-1961) arrived in New Zealand with his parents and siblings in 1878. They settled at Katikati where Henry Major received his early education. He later attended Auckland College (now the University of Auckland) which was affiliated to The University of New Zealand, completing honours in Geology. He attended St John’s College, Meadowbank, where he prepared for ordination within the Anglican ministry. A sense of the inadequacy of his education persuaded Henry Major to return to England where he read Theology at Oxford. He dedicated his life to theological education, becoming Vice-Principal and then later Principal of Ripon Clergy College.

Henry Major was a controversial figure. He espoused the modernist cause which arose from the application of critical scholarship to the biblical text and his energy and commitment led to him taking a leading role in the modernist movement. This book sets Major in his modernist context. It focuses on a ‘theological jotter’ discovered in the Library at Cuddesdon College, which had merged with Ripon Hall in the 1970s to become Ripon College Cuddesdon. Clive Pearson has given us a detailed commentary on this document which records Major’s New Zealand roots and his Oxford experience. The jotter is reproduced in full. Allan Davidson has placed Major in the context of New Zealand Anglicanism in the 20th century, while Peter Lineham gives us an account of the opposition faced by Major on his only return visit to New Zealand in 1929.

The story is of great interest. It is a contribution to the history of New Zealand and its religious thought and church history, and gives an insight into the effects of biblical scholarship within the English Church. It informs our understanding of the post-modern era of the 21st century. The title of this book is part of a statement of support by a group of his students when Major was under attack. It encapsulates the essence of Henry Major. The full quote refers to his ‘excellent scholarship, fierce sincerity, disarming charm, kindness and diffidence’ (page 170).

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About the Authors

Clive Pearson is the Acting Principal of United Theological College and an Associate Professor in the Sydney College of Divinity. He  teaches in theology and ethics and has a number of specialist interests.  These include contextual and diasporic theologies, ecotheology and the construction of a public theology. For the past several years he has been the Associate Director of the Research Centre for Public and Contextual Theologies, Charles Sturt University. His doctoral thesis [Cambridge, 1989] was initiated at the suggestion of Ian Breward and supervsied by Don Cupitt.

Allan Davidson taught church history in Papua New Guinea (1977-81), and has been lecturer in church history at St John's College in Auckland since 1982. An honorary lecturer in theology in the University of Auckland since 1990, he is currently Director of Postgraduate studies in the University’s School of Theology. He has written extensively on New Zealand and Pacific religious history. His books include Selwyn's Legacy: The College of St John the Evangelist, Te Waimate and Auckland, 1843-1992, and Christianity in Aotearoa: A History of Church and Society in New Zealand. He edited and contributed to The Church of Melanesia: 1849-1999, and Tongan Anglicans, 1902-2002.

Peter Lineham is a New Zealander with a doctorate in English religious history from the University of Sussex and other degrees from Canterbury and Otago. He is currently Associate Professor of History at Massey University's Albany Campus where he has recently been appointed Head of School. Dr Lineham's research into New Zealand's religious history has been extensive and well published.