Bishop and Astronomer - 1865
George Biddell Airy supported John Colenso.
Introduction
John Colenso, the Anglican Bishop of Natal, was a controversial figure. He argued for the toleration of polygamy, supported the cause of Africans treated unjustly by Europeans, and cast doubt on the infallibility of the Bible. He was also a polygenist, rejecting Genesis’ teaching that all races sprang from the same initial human pair. His friend George Biddell Airy was Britain’s astronomer royal. His many accomplishments included measuring the mean density of the earth through a clever experiment with pendulums at the top and bottom of a mine shaft. Airy was religiously inclined and interested in Biblical studies. He helped raise a fund to support Colenso when the bishop’s income was withheld by the church. Here is a letter he wrote the bishop during that crisis, on this day 24 July, 1865.
Quote
“With many thanks I have to acknowledge your kind recollection of me in sending as a presentation copy the work on Joshua, Judges, and especially on the divided authorship of Genesis...On several matters, some of them important, my present conclusions do not absolutely agree with your Lordship’s. But I am not the less grateful for the amount of erudition and thought carefully directed to definite points, and above all for the noble example of unwearied research and freedom in stating its consequences, in reference to subjects which scarcely ever occupy the attention of the clergy in our country.”
Airy, George Biddell. Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy. 1896.