0108 – 1797 AD - Wilberforce’s Manifesto - A Practical View of Christianity

About this episode

The episode discusses William Wilberforce's 1797 manifesto that critiques the prevailing religious system in Britain and advocates for a return to 'real Christianity'.

1797 AD – Wilberforce’s Manifesto: When a Parliamentarian Called Britain Back to “Real Christianity” Description: In 1797, as Britain fought revolutionary France and watched its neighbor experiment with “Temples of Reason,” a different kind of revolution quietly appeared on London bookshop counters. William Wilberforce, already known for his exhausting campaign to end the British slave trade, released a thick volume with an even thicker title: A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians… Contrasted with Real Christianity. He wrote not as a cloistered theologian, but as a sitting Member of Parliament who had been shaken years earlier by the Bible and by older Christian writers during a long European journey. Their insistence on sin, judgment, grace, and new birth forced him to reconsider everything—from his jokes about religion to his pursuit of applause in the House of Commons. Urged by John Newton to remain in politics “for God,” Wilberforce stayed in Parliament and threw himself into abolition. Yet he could not ignore what he saw among Britain’s higher and middle classes: a polished, convenient religion that kept Christian language but lost…

People in this episode

Host: Bob Baulch

Topics covered

• Christianity
• Abolition
• Religious System
• Wilberforce
• Historical Context
• Faith

Keywords

• Wilberforce
• Christianity
• Abolition
• Religious Critique
• Historical Manifesto
• John Newton
• Faith

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians… Contrasted with Real Christianity

Places: Britain, France

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