William Burt Pope

William Burt Pope (1822 – 1903) was an English Christian theologian in the Methodist tradition.

Life

He was born at Horton, Nova Scotia, on 19 February 1822. He was the younger son of John Pope, and younger brother of George Uglow Pope. After education at a village school at Hooe and at a secondary school at Saltash, near Plymouth, William spent a year in boyhood (1837-8) at Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, assisting an uncle, a shipbuilder and general merchant. He was accepted, in 1840, by the Methodist synod of Cornwall as a candidate for the ministry, and entered the Methodist Theological Institution at Hoxton. In 1842, he began his active ministry at Kingsbridge, Devonshire.^[1]

Ordained in 1842, Pope became a successful linguist and translator of German anti-rationalist critics. He taught at Didsbury Wesleyan College in Manchester, England from 1867 to 1886. His greatest work, Compendium of Christian Theology (1875-1876), set forth influential arguments for the "holiness doctrine of all Methodist systematic theology" and defended Methodist doctrine against its critics.

He died on 5 July 1903, and was buried in Abney Park Cemetery, London.^[1]

Works

• Compendium of Christian Theology (1875-1876)
• The Person Of Christ: Dogmatic, Scriptural, Historical: The Fernley Lecture of 1871. With Two Additional Essays On The Biblical And Ecclesiastical Development Of The Doctrine, And Illustrative Notes (1875)
• The Prayers Of St. Paul: Being An Analysis And Exposition Of The Devotional Portion Of The Apostle’s Writings (1876)
• A Memoir of the Late James Heald of Parrs Wood (1876)
• A Higher Catechism of Theology (1883)
• The Inward Witness and Other Discourses (1885)

Notes

1. Irwin 1912.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Irwin, Clarke Huston (1885–1900). "Pope, William Burt". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• C. H. Lees, rev. Martin Wellings. "Pope, William Burt (1822–1903)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35574. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)