Ramsden Balmforth

Ramsden Balmforth (13 January 1861 – 31 December 1941) was an English-born Unitarian minister and author who spent much of his adult life in South Africa.^[1][2]

Reverend Ramsden Balmforth
Balmforth in 1894
Born	(1861-01-13)13 January 1861 Huddersfield, England
Died	31 December 1941(1941-12-31) (aged 80) Cape Town, South Africa
Occupation(s)	Clergyman, author

Early life

Balmforth was born in Huddersfield, England, in 1861, the son of Nanny (née Moorhouse) and Watts Balmforth.^[1][3] His father was a mechanic and a secularist.^[4]

As a young man, Balmforth joined the Fabian Society and became a friend of George Bernard Shaw. In 1886 he published a socialist-themed novel (his only work of fiction) under the pseudonym "Laon Ramsey".^[1][5]

In 1893, he married Agnes Ellam (1865–1945);^[6][7] the couple had two daughters and one son.^[1]

In 1894, he entered Manchester College, Oxford, where he studied theology and became a Unitarian minister. After serving as minister of the Huddersfield Unitarian church, he emigrated to South Africa in 1897.^[1]

South African career

Balmforth served as minister of Cape Town's Free Protestant (Unitarian) Church from 1897–1937, succeeding David Faure.^[1] He published a number of books and articles on theology, politics, pacifism, and literature, and was one of the first clergymen to preach on South African radio.^[8][9][10]

He died in Cape Town on 31 December 1941.^[2][11]

Selected bibliography

• Landon Deecroft: a socialistic novel (1886; published under the pseudonym Laon Ramsey)^[12]
• The New Reformation and its relation to moral and social problems (1893)^[13]
• The Evolution of Christianity (1898)
• Some Social and Political Pioneers of the Nineteenth Century (1900)^[14]
• The Bible from the Standpoint of the Higher Criticism: The Old Testament (1904)^[15]
• The New Testament in the Light of the Higher Criticism (1905)^[15]
• The Ethical and Religious Value of the Novel (1912)^[16]
• Drama, Music-drama, and Religion as illustrated by Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung" and "Parsifal" (1913)^[17]
• The Theory of Evolution and Its Influences on Religious Thought (1921)
• The Ethical and Religious Value of the Drama (1926)
• The Problem-play and its Influence on Modern Thought and Life (1928)^[18]
• Jesus the Man (1935)^[15]