Free Church Ecclesiology and Public Policy in New Zealand 1890-1914

Abstract

Baptists in Colonial New Zealand faced unexpectedly acute issues of
church and state relations. Many, arriving from England in the later
nineteenth century, naturally eschewed any state involvement in religious
matters. Gradually, however, a nuanced adaptation to the exigencies of
colonial life merged. This essay traces the nature of that adjustment,
across the contested public policy landscape of religion and education.
As Baptists acclimatized to the possibilities and limits of their new
environment a compromise between ecclesiology and pragmatism emerged.