Charles Buck (minister)

Charles Buck (1771–1815) was an English Independent minister and theological writer, known for his Theological Dictionary.

Life

Buck was born at Hillsley in Gloucestershire, and was preaching in London at age 17. He attended Hoxton Academy under the influence of Thomas Wills, continuing as a preacher.[1]

Buck was minister of Independent congregations, first at Sheerness to 1797.[2] He spent time in 1794 looking for a vacancy as pastor, in particular staying in Banbury.[3] He then was in London, initially at Princes Street at Moorfields.[2] From 1802 he brought his congregation to the Camomile Street meeting-house, as a temporary arrangement.[4] He then moved to Wilson Street; and finally to the City Chapel, Grub Street.[2]

Buck died 11 August 1815.[5]

Works

Buck wrote A Theological Dictionary (1802).[6] The first edition appeared in London in 2 vols., to which John Collett Ryland was a major contributor;[7] there were further British and American editions. He was also author of other religious works, and a Collection of Anecdotes, 1799, which went through numerous editions.[5]

Buck's Dictionary was a significant work in antebellum American, running to 50 reprints.[8] It was conservative and evangelical in editorial line, making it a counterpart of the A View of Religions (1817) of Hannah Adams which was of Unitarian and liberal tendency.[9][10] Adams's British editor, the Calvinist bookseller Thomas Williams, was much influenced by Buck's work in producing his Dictionary of All Religions.[11][12] Adams then adopted some of the ideas she found in Williams.[13] George Bush, who edited an American edition of 1830, stated that

Notices of all or nearly all the existing religious denominations of the United States are given, accompanied with historical sketches and ecclesiastical statistics.[14]

Richard Knight of Tennessee, who became a Baptist preacher, was taught to read by his wife, but "never got further in "book learning" than the Bible and hymn book, and Buck's Theological Dictionary."[15] It was cited as an authority by Finis Ewing;[16] J. L. Wilson, an opponent, attacked its article on ministerial education.[17] The American editions by William Woodward were expanded and revised: Ewing and Richard Donnell had written on the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for the 1814 edition.[18] Woodward had produced an edition by 1807, which was adopted as a textbook.[19]

A British reissue was edited by Ebenezer Henderson. For the 1833 edition, Henderson added 500 articles.[20] He oversaw a further edition, in 1841.[21] There was a German translation, by Joseph Ehrenfried.[22]

Notes

  1. ↑ John Styles; Charles Buck (1817). Memoirs and Remains of the late Rev. Charles Buck. Anthony Finley. pp. 100 and 105.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Reynolds, K. D. "Buck, Charles". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3848. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ↑ John Styles; Charles Buck (1817). Memoirs and Remains of the late Rev. Charles Buck. Anthony Finley. p. 210.
  4. ↑ John Styles; Charles Buck (1817). Memoirs and Remains of the late Rev. Charles Buck. Anthony Finley. pp. 323–4.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1  Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). "Buck, Charles". Dictionary of National Biography 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  6. ↑ A Theological Dictionary, containing definitions of all theological and ecclesiastical terms; an impartial account of the several denominations that have subsisted in the religious world; remarkable transactions and events in ecclesiastical history, and a biographical sketch of writers in theological science.
  7. ↑  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Ryland, John Collett". Dictionary of National Biography 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  8. ↑ Maurice S. Lee (19 January 2012). Uncertain Chances: Science, Skepticism, and Belief in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-19-979757-8.
  9. ↑ J. Spencer Fluhman (2012). A Peculiar People: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 25–6. ISBN 978-0-8078-3571-5.
  10. ↑ Samuel Morris Brown (2 January 2012). In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death. Oxford University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-19-979357-0.
  11. ↑ Gary D. Schmidt (2004). A Passionate Usefulness: The Life and Literary Labors of Hannah Adams. University of Virginia Press. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-8139-2272-0.
  12. ↑ A Biographical Dictionary of the Living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland: Comprising Literary Memoirs and Anecdotes of Their Lives, and a Chronological Register of Their Publications, with the Number of Editions Printed; Including Notices of Some Foreign Writers Whose Works Have Been Occasionally Published in England. Henry Colburn. 1816. p. 389.
  13. ↑ s:A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/preface
  14. ↑ Charles Buck (1830). A Theological Dictionary: Containing Definitions of All Religious Terms; a Comprehensive View of Every Article in the System of Divinity; an Impartial Account of All the Principal Denominations ... Together with an Accurate Statement of the Most Remarkable Transactions and Events Recorded in Ecclesiastical History. J. Kay, jun. & Company. p. 4.
  15. ↑ James Jehu Burnett (1919). Sketches of Tennessee's Pioneer Baptist Preachers. The Overmountain Press. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-932807-11-3.
  16. ↑ Franceway Ranna Cossitt (1853). The life and times of Rev. Finis Ewing: one of the fathers and founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. To which is added remarks on Davidson's history, or, A review of his chapters on the revival of 1800, and his history of the Cumberland Presbyterians. With an appendix. L. R. Woods, agent for the Board of publication of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. p. 240.
  17. ↑ Benjamin W. McDonnold (26 August 2010). History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Lulu.com. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-557-44021-4.
  18. ↑ William Stevens Powell (1 January 1986). Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: Vol. 2, D-G: D-G. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-8078-6701-3.
  19. ↑ Jarrett Burch (2003). Adiel Sherwood: Baptist Antebellum Pioneer in Georgia. Mercer University Press. p. 122 note 14. ISBN 978-0-86554-890-9.
  20. ↑ Ebenezer Henderson; Elijah Porter Barrows (1868). The Book of the twelve Minor Prophets: translated from the original Hebrew. Warren F. Draper. p. xxi.
  21. ↑  Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1891). "Henderson, Ebenezer (1784-1858)". Dictionary of National Biography 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  22. ↑ Alexander Harris (1872). A Biographical History of Lancaster County. E. Barr & Company. p. 187.

Further reading

pp. 441–473; 10.1353/jer.0.0090

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). "Buck, Charles". Dictionary of National Biography 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co.