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Pioneering Leadership: Historical Myth‐Making, Absence, and Identity in the Churches of Christ in Victoria
Author(s) -
Handasyde Kerrie
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of religious history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1467-9809
pISSN - 0022-4227
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9809.12367
Subject(s) - historiography , mythology , identity (music) , nationalism , colonialism , meaning (existential) , sociology , history , hierarchy , religious studies , aesthetics , gender studies , law , classics , politics , political science , art , philosophy , epistemology , archaeology
This article explores the role of historiography in the developing identity of congregationally autonomous churches by examining the process and meaning behind the historical myth‐making associated with pioneering church leadership. In the absence of a clerical hierarchy or recognised historical expertise, four competing claims for the title of “first evangelist” emerged in the Churches of Christ (Disciples of Christ) denomination in colonial Victoria. Each of these claims is critically analysed in the light of rapidly developing church identity, the work of the evangelists in the 1860s, the influence of Australian nationalism, and historiographical portrayals which sought to make these four men heroes even in their absence. Finally the article examines absence of another kind — historiographical omission — and the question of the heroic in denominational church history.