Dear Editor,
May I make further comment on two of the men referred to in your kind response to my letter in your August issue?
First, your surprising description of the unnamed Arthur Peake as being ‘relatively’ liberal belies all the evidence. He did not believe the OT was history as we understand it – Abraham was not an actual historical figure – nor did he believe that NT writers could be authoritative interpreters of the OT. His influential one-volume Commentary on the Bible has been described as undermining its authority. As the architect of the 1932 Deed of Union which brought together the different streams of Methodism, he introduced the notion that the Bible is the record of revelation, not the revelation itself. This distinction has muddied the waters of Methodist debates right up to the present day.
Secondly, it is true that William Hartley was said to be interested in the development of Christian character and conduct, not in theology. Nevertheless he personally persuaded (and payrolled) the young Peake to move from a stellar career at Oxford to lead an obscure new Primitive Methodist venture in Manchester. To suggest he had no inkling of the revolution Peake was to bring about through 37 years of training ministers at what became Hartley College seems unrealistic and surely underestimates Hartley. He would certainly have understood Peake’s aim to adjust training to bring it into contact with ‘the modern spirit and outlook’. Your article highlighted his staggeringly successful career and his immense generosity. But there may be something to learn here of the dangers of the influence of such wealth. In what might appear to be a Victorian expression of the Christian faith (valuable as it was), there seems to have been an absence of the new life in Christ which is nourished by His living word.
There is much to be admired in the abilities and dedication of these two men, but as one who could claim to be in the line of Primitive Methodists to the fourth generation, I, like many, am saddened at their part in the fruit produced from such attitudes to the Bible over a century later. The excellent Hartley’s Jam may sometimes seem to have a bitter taste.
Yours,
Colin Reasbeck Doncaster
