Professor Peter Lineham MNZM and New Zealand Religious History
That was the same year that Peter Lineham began working as a lecturer in history at Massey University, Palmerston North. Peter’s academic career can be identified, in a major part, with the mapping of New Zealand religious history, establishing its topography, and determining its major features and landmarks.[2]
The Making of a Religious Historian
Family, personal, and academic influences all contributed to Peter’s development as a religious historian. Peter was brought up in a strong Christian, Brethren family, initially at Karamea in Buller, the northern region of the West Coast, and then in Christchurch. He experienced both inter-church co-operation in a small community, where people attended one another’s church services, and a joint Sunday school. Peter also knew first-hand the deeply divisive schisms within the Brethren. His family were members of the Reading Brethren in Christchurch. They were followers of C. E. Stuart and much more open to working with other religious groups, in contrast to the New Zealand Exclusive Brethren Assemblies.[3] The Brethren shaped Peter’s commitment to lay leadership and some healthy suspicion of mainline institutional Christianity, its hierarchies, sacerdotalism, and priestcraft.
Peter’s approach to religious history is shaped, in part, by his perspective as a committed Christian insider. His strong evangelical faith and relationships were broadened through his involvement and friendships at secondary school and Canterbury University in organisations such as Crusaders, Scripture Union, and the Tertiary Student Christian Fellowship. Peter relates that: “My very first attempt at historical writing came when I discovered the minute books of the Canterbury University Evangelical Union.” After initial collaboration with Tim Meadowcroft, Peter completed a manuscript history of the union.[4]
Over the years, Peter’s developing networks and interests have ranged across the denominational and theological spectrum; this is reflected both in his research and writing and his church involvements. His completion of a Bachelor of Divinity degree, his postgraduate degrees in history, along with his longstanding leadership in worship and preaching, have meant that Peter is both a student of the Bible, theology, and church history, but also an active practitioner and preacher.
In coming out as a gay man, Peter has had to deal with the pain of exclusion and opposition from some within his own church community and the Evangelical world.[5] Uniquely, Peter currently participates and gives leadership in “a Baptist, an Anglican and a gay church.” He admits that this
is pretty whacky and makes my Sundays very busy. The simple fact is that my background has led me to appreciate that small religious movements actually play an unusually influential role in the shaping of community.[6]
As an insider, Peter appreciates personally, the internal and external psychological and emotional forces that shape religious behaviour and beliefs.
As a religious historian, Peter is steeped in the historical-critical method of his discipline. His perspectives on the past are seen through the bi-focal lenses of his own religious identity and his adoption and practice of social history. At Canterbury University, Peter’s supervisor of his Master’s thesis was John Cookson, a Methodist and specialist in eighteenth and nineteenth-century British history. Peter’s thesis, on “The Campaign to Abolish Imprisonment for Debt in England, 1750–1840,” drew him into the debates over the impact of the Evangelical revivals.
Originally, Peter hoped to write the history of the Brethren in New Zealand for his MA thesis, but this topic “was turned down by the University of Canterbury History Department.” Despite this rejection, Peter wrote in his own time, before going overseas to undertake postgraduate study, There We Found Brethren: A History of Assemblies of Brethren in New Zealand. This was published in Palmerston North in 1977 after Peter had gone to England, resulting, as he confesses, in “more than a few problems with distant editing of text and footnotes!”[7]
In the book’s preface, Peter identifies himself as “a New Zealander, a Christian, and a member of a Brethren assembly,” while at the same time, defending his “air of detachment.”[8] He also pointed to how “Protestant churches in the tradition of English Nonconformity, have had a decisive influence in the development of New Zealand,” something “generally forgotten.” He hoped that his work “may help remind New Zealanders of that role.”[9] Peter, the religious historian, had begun the work that became a lifetime vocation, highlighting the origins, developments and rich diversity of New Zealand Christianity, and helping people understand it better.
With the award of a much-prized Commonwealth Scholarship, Peter was attracted to Sussex University to work under J. F. C. Harrison, a non-Marxist historian, who in the words of Malcolm Chase, was “a pioneer of “history from below,” whose work … transformed how popular political and religious movements are perceived,”[10] an accolade which could easily be applied to Peter’s work. Peter was diverted by Harrison from working directly on Methodism, to studying the arcane, scientific, and mystical world of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) and the Swedenborgian followers in England. Peter reflected on how he had “to wrestle with social theory…. How do we understand our discipline, and what sense do we give of the shaping or the trajectory of history – where is history going, and by what means do we write about society?”[11] That is something Peter began working out with this doctorate on “The English Swedenborgians 1770–1840,” many of whom came out of Methodism.
Charting New Zealand Religious History Bibliography
Peter, in charting New Zealand religious history, has helped provide resources that are of huge benefit to everyone interested in this field. As a bibliophile and collector, Peter has a passion for books, with over 17,000 in his own library. When he was asked in 2017 what he was reading for work and pleasure, Peter replied:
I am indulging in novels for my book club (although I rarely make it to the meetings). I am reading historians on Victorian England. I am reading theology and Bible commentaries. At any time I have roughly 10 books on the go.[12]
Peter’s encyclopaedic knowledge is grounded in his diverse and extensive reading.
For historians in general, Peter’s Religious History of New Zealand: a Bibliography, has been an ever-growing, go-to, first-stop catalogue of the literature in the field.[13] The first edition of the bibliography had 164 pages in 1984. In December 2018 this had grown to 1,361 pages, with detailed annotations; in total, 714,405 words.[14] Peter’s often unsung bibliographical work has also included his survey of publications on “New Zealand and the Pacific Islands,” including for a time Australia, in the English Historical Association’s Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature.[15]
Biography
Another area in which Peter played a pivotal role, was as convener of the Religion and Church People Working Party of The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, from the mid-1980s, until the completion of the fifth volume which appeared in 2000. Under his leadership, a group of religious historians met in Wellington, including Laurie Barber, Colin Brown, Allan Davidson, Hugh Laracy, Ian Breward, Elizabeth Issechei, Kathy Orr-Nimmo, and Jim Veitch. Ironically, given the traditional hostility of many Protestant denominations to gambling, the work of the Dictionary and its meetings were supported by the Lottery Board.
Behind the meetings was an enormous amount of work that Peter oversaw with great energy and good humour. The meetings would often descend into highly amusing and informative repartee as individuals shared anecdotes about people being considered for inclusion. Peter’s leadership was critical in holding the work together and arguing the case for nominees through the final selection process. He also contributed fifteen of the entries for the Dictionary, including Māori and Pākehā and people from a variety of denominations.[16]
Peter has also made a notable contribution to other biographical dictionaries, drawing not only on his New Zealand interests, but on his deep understanding of English Evangelical history. As an aside, it is of interest to note that the Working Party gave birth to the Religious History Newsletter, which Peter drew on in the ongoing compilation of his bibliography. The Newsletter, in turn, stimulated the founding of the Religious History Association in 2001, with Peter as its founding and long-serving secretary.
Documents
It was my very good fortune to meet Peter in the mid-1980s. We established an immediate rapport and developing friendship. It is difficult now for some to realise the paucity of published resources for the teaching of New Zealand religious history at that time. To meet our own need for resources we compiled and produced Transplanted Christianity: Documents Illustrating Aspects of New Zealand Church History, first published in 1987. In the introduction, we noted what was an oft-repeated complaint, that in “Standard histories” little space was given “to the role of the Church in New Zealand society” and that it was our desire “to stimulate this enterprise in both universities and theological colleges.”[17] We were also concerned through our introductions to the selected documents, to provide “some knowledge of their authorship and context.”[18]
Transplanted Christianity was very much a hands-on enterprise. When it came to printing, we were turned down by academic presses, an indication of the marginalisation of religious history. We were rescued by the Rev. Dave Mullan who operated a small off-set printer at St John’s College. It was a huge undertaking to print the 360-page volume. The book went through four printed editions and is now available as an e-book in a revised fifth edition. It was gratifying to have Ian Breward note, that, “Anyone wishing for a crisp and informed survey of the history of New Zealand churches can find that by reading through the introductory material consecutively.”[19]
The making available of primary documents points to an important dimension of Peter’s scholarship. He epitomizes the Renaissance call, Ad Fontes, “back to the sources.” Cumulatively over the years, he has spent months in the archives, as the footnotes to his publications testify.
A Statistical Historian
Statistics are an important tool for social historians who want to bring the quantitative dimension from the social sciences into their investigation of the past.
With a proficiency in mathematics, Peter very early on began using statistics to help provide richer analysis of religious history.[20] In his Brethren history, for example, without any internal denominational statistics available, he was able, “with caution” to use national census figures to give “a surprisingly detailed picture of the growth of [Brethren] assemblies.”[21] What is notable here is the way that Peter burrowed down to county level and borough figures between 1891 and 1906. He did this to confirm the theory that Brethren numbers were understated “due not to religious apathy but to Christian zeal” resulting from Brethren’s lack of unanimity over the name to use to identify themselves on the census form.[22]
Peter’s major fields of research, “eighteenth century religion in England, New Zealand religious and social history” along with his interest in statistics, came together when he was asked “to provide a historical-cum-sociological analysis” of Methodism for a National School of Evangelism in 1982. He describes his original paper as “fairly blunt in its appraisal of Methodist history.” This was revised and published in 1983 as New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel.[23] Peter’s hard-hitting, critical historical analysis, giving the reasons for the decline of Methodism, drew on eleven pages of statistical tables and graphs.
Peter has become the go-to-person for both the media and the churches as far as interpreting the quinquennial religious census figures is concerned. Not surprisingly, Peter suggested and prepared the tables from the national censuses of religious affiliation for Transplanted Christianity. These have been an easily accessible much-used source for this data.
Through his active involvement in the Christian Research Association and the Church Life Survey, drawing on the enormous database he has compiled, using his analytical skills and insider understanding, Peter has gained a well-earned reputation for his deep awareness of religious trends, and his realistic analysis of their implications. An example of this is seen in his contribution to two Vision New Zealand Conferences. In 1993 Peter spoke, for example, on “The Condition of the Church.” He compared the 1991 figures with those of 1971 providing extensive graphs on affiliation, the “Nons,” Gender, and Age Grouping. Peter highlighted what has proved to be a largely continuing trend: “the overall aging of the religious community,” and “declining levels of religious practice by the more nominal.”[24] He identified as common features in the ongoing process of secularisation: the “increased separation between Church and state, an increasing differentiation between religious and secular functions, and declining levels of participation.”[25] The reasons why this was happening remained somewhat elusive.
By the 2008 Conference, Peter, and Alison Fields, projecting “The Shape of the Future Church,” indicated that with the loss and ageing of religious affiliation in mind “the measurable data contains alarming trends,” particularly for “the mainline Protestant community and the older evangelical churches in Western countries.”[26] Through his close analysis of religious statistics, Peter, has gained a well-earned reputation for his deep awareness of religious trends and their implications and his realistic analysis of their implications.
Free Thought, Cults, Sects, Small Churches
Peter has made a ground-breaking contribution to our understanding of cults, sects, small churches, and Freethinkers in the New Zealand landscape. Three journal articles, in particular, were pivotal in Peter’s work: “Freethinkers in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand,” and “How institutionalised was Protestant Piety in Nineteenth Century New Zealand?,” both published in 1985; and “Christian Reaction to Freethought and Rationalism in New Zealand,” published in 1988.[27] These are sophisticated, deeply grained articles about: belief and non-belief in nineteenth-century society, the place of the church in a non-establishment context, the growing pressures of secularisation, the attempt of Protestants to impose their morality on society, and the “sawdust trail” of revivalist preachers attempting to resuscitate flagging faith.
In drawing out the implications of the Christian reaction to Freethought and Rationalism, Peter pointed to the ambiguous attitudes of denominations to the State, with their desire for governments to protect the Christian Sabbath and their moral standards, while at the same time being hostile to established religion. Nevertheless, they described “New Zealand as ‘a Christian country’,” views which still linger among some.[28]
Bill Cooke, in his Heathen in Godzone, was critical of Peter’s dismissive references to the Rationalist Association and secularism.[29] While Peter in a review expressed some partial contrition for his criticisms of Rationalists, he emphasised the way that Cooke’s book was “a helpful reminder that anti-religious forces are an important part of the intellectual texture of our society.”[30] Peter’s own pioneering work is still needing to be built on, to give a place to both religious and anti-religious views in the writing of an intellectual history of New Zealand.
The breadth of Peter’s work on cults, sects, and small churches in New Zealand is enriched by the depth of his understanding of external, particularly English developments which have sometimes been exported and adapted here. That is exemplified in his chapter on “The Protestant ‘Sects’” in Nineteenth-Century English Religious Traditions: Retrospect and Prospect. He writes about how few historians have “thought of entering into the internal world of the sect and sect members”[31] and the “need to consider their attitude and response to the world, the kinds of membership and the demands upon them … the style of leadership in the movements” and “the historical context in which they were formed.”[32]
That approach was demonstrated in Peter’s Tanner Lecture to the Mormon Historical Association in 1990, with its opening sentence: “The issue of culture is always significant in religious history.”[33] Peter noted that his Tanner lecture gave him particular pleasure.
I think … [Mormons] were surprised at the positive way in which I evaluated their movement, and I think for me this was the point when I became comfortable to write and explore positively movements which I had little in common with other than that they were minority movements.[34]
We see that demonstrated in Peter’s important work on Bishop Brian Tamaki and Destiny Church. Peter’s foundational essay, “The Rise and Significance of the Destiny Church” is a sophisticated analysis. Peter concludes that Destiny Church
is a movement that holds together a number of contradictory elements. It is evangelical, Pentecostal and somewhat sectarian. It is a proto-political populist campaign. It is also an indigenous community with marked similarities to earlier movements.[35]
In his biography of Brian Tamaki, Peter, while critical of Tamaki’s style of leadership, provides a fair-minded account without the hype of hostile media or the hagiography of Tamaki’s followers. As Peter puts it in his Preface, “I have focused on explanation rather than indictment,” although he declared at the outset, “I do not like the phenomenon of Destiny. It is certainly not my form of faith.”[36]
Peter was able to win the confidence of, and interview Brian and Hannah Tamaki and Destiny leaders, search the media sources, and talk to people from within and without the Church. One of the lasting values of Peter’s work has been in describing the Destiny dynamics and its leadership within the context of global sectarian movements and forces, while grounding these in the historical and contemporary Māori setting of Aotearoa New Zealand. Given Peter’s critique of Bishop Brian and Destiny, it was some measure of the relationship that Peter was able to establish with him that Bishop Tamaki spoke at the book launch of Destiny.[37]
The Breadth of Peter’s Contribution to Religious History
The breadth of Peter’s contribution to Religious History is quite daunting to anyone who wants to survey his work. This is indicated in the following summary, from his curriculum vitae which lists:
- 14 books which he sole-authored or edited,
- 50 chapters in books,
- 33 reference works in which he has often multiple entries,
- 22 refereed articles,
- 50 book reviews,
- 42 other publications (not quality assured),
- 215 conference and seminar papers.
Peter’s writing covers a broad spectrum, including: missionary beginnings in New Zealand; the Bible Society and translation of the Māori Bible; patriotism and religion in the First and Second World Wars; peace-making; church, society, social policy and politics; ecumenism and inter-church bodies; sport, leisure, and religion; “The Great Bible Demonstration against H. D. A. Major Auckland 1929,” evangelicals and gender.
From his work with doctoral, masters, and honours thesis students, Peter gained a well-established reputation as a supportive, encouraging, and inspiring supervisor. Some of his post-graduate students have gone on to become significant contributors in the field of New Zealand religious history. Among them are, John Stenhouse, Geoffrey Troughton, Hugh Morrison, Christopher van der Krogt, and Stuart Lange.
As a commentator on television, radio, and in the press on religious affairs, Peter has gained a formidable reputation for his astute, judicious insights. These draw on his vast experience as a historian and a Christian insider, enabling him to speak with authority, humour, and common sense. His innate curiosity, impish enthusiasm, and profound wisdom contribute to his superb skills as a communicator. A friend recently said that his wife
heard someone on the national [radio] programme panel … (when … [Peter] answered some obscure question with great clarity) saying she would love Peter to answer the questions she has about anything, in fact she would like him to read her recipes for her when she was cooking![38]
Sunday Best and New Zealand Religious Historiography
Some of Peter’s friends over the years worried on his behalf that his willingness to respond to invitations to speak, lecture, or write, along with his other interests and involvements, got in the way of the “big book” about New Zealand religious history that they wanted him to produce. His Sunday Best is the nearest thing we have to a “big book” from him so far, and it is one that only Peter could have written.[39] His penchant for collecting the often-scorned parish histories provided him with a quarry for the quirky and the questionable, the soirees, bazaars, Sunday school picnics, women’s meetings, youth activities, illustrating the rich, sometimes peculiar and diverse life of denominations, parishes and their people. Peter’s book is much more, however, than a historical nostalgic tour, describing outmoded religious behaviours, although delightfully, there is plenty of that. The glossary is a reminder of the arcane, esoteric, unusual, other-worldly dimensions of church life – with descriptions for the uninitiated of “Acolyte,” “Chimere,” “Oblation,” “Thurible”! The photographs enhance the narrative, with bishops receiving debutantes, children dressed up for their first communion, a traction engine pulling carts loaded with children to a Sunday school picnic.
Peter’s Sunday Best is a superb work of social-cultural history. Underlying the book is the “argument … that understanding religious culture is highly desirable for understanding New Zealand society and culture as a whole.” This is a counter to the dismissal of religion, “because its impact was largely in the private sphere.”[40]
In discussing with Peter the historiographical influences that have shaped his work over the years, I referred to the absence in his writing of names like Derrida, Foucault, and post-modern approaches. Peter was very aware of their work and approaches, having taught courses on historiography to postgraduate students over many years. In Peter’s forty-years of writing there is a strong historiographical embrace of narrative, critical analysis, extensive work in primary sources and description, enriched, where possible, by statistical data. In that conversation, Peter identified himself as having leant towards a Tory approach, which I take to mean, “treating the past on its own terms as much as possible” and not reading “the past through the present.”[41] At the same time, Peter acknowledged the significance of post-colonial readings of history, seen, for example, in the work of Tony Ballantyne and the valuable perspective this gives in seeing the past through new eyes.
Eleven years on from Ian Breward’s seminal article in 1979, Peter in 1990 outlined his own blueprint for the future of New Zealand religious history, arguing that while it was “not a new field” it was “under-conceptualised.” He identified as a priority the explication of “the role of religion, its presence and its absence in the emerging New Zealand identity.”[42] Thirty-years on from this, Peter’s Sunday Best draws together, as the subtitle indicates, his answer as to “How the Church Shaped New Zealand and New Zealand Shaped the Church.”[43]
It is interesting to note though how the word “Church” is used here, rather than words with broader meanings such as “Religion” or “Christianity.” In his 1990 lecture he recognised the importance of denominational histories but observed that “In the study of religious loyalties we must recognise that organisations are not necessarily the essence of religion.” He highlights aspects, such as the attitudes induced by denominationalism, and “religious motivation” as expressions of the “instinctive sensibilities induced by membership of a semi-autonomous private religious world.”[44] Peter’s distinctive contribution in Sunday Best is in bringing out into the open and explaining these “instinctive sensibilities.”
Peter is not primarily a “church historian” in the narrow ecclesiastical sense, but he has contributed significantly to the writing of church history.[45] That is seen, for example, in his chapter on the Anglican Church in the Auckland diocesan history for the years 1960–1985. With broad strokes, Peter boldly concluded by highlighting the anachronistic style of “traditional Anglicanism” and the way it was being “pulled apart by the desire to retain the grand presence of Anglicanism on the one hand, and by a thousand other more radical but less achievable agendas on the other.” Peter, as a religious historian and an active “Anglican” (alongside his other church involvements), goes were timid historians fear to tread, concluding that despite “radical change” urged by key clergy, “the church drifted decorously into the backwater.”[46]
The issues surrounding gender and feminism have been prominent in historical debate and writing over the last forty years. When we were compiling Transplanted Christianity, we debated how we could give prominence to women’s voices. The collection reflects the overwhelming dominance of men, something that was part of the church’s leadership and organisation for much of its history, but the final result as far as women’s voices is concerned is still under-done.
Women do not figure very prominently in Peter’s work, although a chapter is given to “The Gendered Church” in Sunday Best and Peter has written on “The Gender Issue in New Zealand Evangelical History.”[47] Peter astutely observes in relation to Evangelical gender debates that “Evangelical interpretation of scripture seems to change in order to defend current practice.”[48] He notes though in Sunday Best that while “the gender culture of local churches has always reflected wider social trends,” the church has “been slow and cautious to treat gender and sexualities as equals.”[49]
“Religion Matters” – A Conclusion
Peter has been at the forefront of those who over the last forty years have emphasised that religion matters because of the multiple ways it has contributed and contributes to New Zealand cultural, social, political, community life, and identity.[50] As a religious historian, Peter’s contribution to the growing recognition of this historical importance of religion has been huge.
Geoff Troughton and Hugh Morrison, in the introduction to The Spirit of the Past: Essays on New Zealand History, draw attention to some of the influences that have contributed to this flourishing of religious history and the role Peter has played in that.[51] Peter’s own contribution to that volume centred around the controversy provoked by John Stenhouse’s claim that “influential New Zealand historians” had “often dismissed or denigrated, and sometimes even demonized Christianity’s role and influence in New Zealand society, culture and history,” and that “the dominant historiography contains too many omissions, misinterpretations and self-contradictions to be regarded as acceptable.”[52]
Leaving to one side Peter’s critique of Stenhouse’s polemical style, his assessment of Erik Olssen’s historiography, and his historical approach, Peter was sympathetic with John’s overall contention. He affirmed the significance of John’s contribution on “Religion and Society” in The New Oxford History of New Zealand[53] as marking “a significant point in the historiography of New Zealand’s religious history.”[54] Peter noted in his Spirit of the Past essay, that there was a “growing appreciation of the religious tradition and how it contributed to New Zealand history,”[55] highlighting the way in which some women historians had “paid meticulous attention to the operation of religious values in society.” At the same time, he bemoaned “absences, omissions and gross distortions,” referencing the missionaries and the neglect of “The role of religion in the twentieth century.”[56] There is still, however, no overall New Zealand history that adequately incorporates religion into its narrative.
As a contribution to the 2018 lecture series, “Our Changing World” at Massey University, Albany, Peter addressed the question: “In search of church – does religion have a future in Godzone?” Reflecting on a recent visit to China and his contact with churches there, Peter drew comparisons with New Zealand and global Christianity and other religions. In particular, he addressed the issue of religious decline in New Zealand, notably in the Protestant mainline churches. Drawing on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age,[57] Peter argued that “The narrative of religious decline has blinded us to the narrative of religious change.” For Peter, this contemporary religious change was seen for Christianity in New Zealand in such things as: the rise of mega-churches and the institutionalisation of Pentecostalism, the increasingly diverse population as a result of immigration, and the rapid growth of diverse spiritualities. While Peter agreed that the narrative of religious decline applies to some traditional churches, he did not think that it applies to the decline of religion in its pluralistic expressions. Peter’s answer to the question “Does religion have a future in New Zealand” was, “yes, but not as it used to be.”[58]
In his 1979 article, Ian Breward concluded, that “much research remains to be done before it could be said that the writing of religious history in New Zealand comes of age.”[59] In many ways, Breward’s article read almost as a prospectus or manifesto, setting out a challenge for a young historian beginning his career within an interest in religion. During the last forty years, Peter has been at the forefront of those not only mapping Christianity in particular, and religion in general, but in making sense of the complex religious phenomena within the context of New Zealand society and a wider global setting. To this field of study Peter has brought enthusiasm, commitment, collegiality, and passion. Retirement does not mean an end to that, but it offers new opportunities for Peter to continue to pursue religious history. In a conversation recently, Peter spoke of having at Massey University “a privileged position to mainstream the subject.” That is something he has done superbly; his achievements and legacy are seen in his students, his colleagues, his writings and the way in which religious history is taken seriously.
An Afterword
While this review has focused on Peter’s contribution as a religious historian, there are many other dimensions to Peter’s life. As an academic, he has been fully involved in the demanding administrative life of his university. He has served on various national, academic, educational, religious, and charitable bodies. Peter has been readily available as a public and conference speaker and noted for his ability to take his audience with him. His support of student chaplaincy and his close involvement in voluntary prison ministry have been expressions of Peter’s considerable pastoral commitment. Peter’s appointment as a Member of the Order of New Zealand in the 2019 New Year Honours List for services to history and the community was a well-deserved public acknowledgement of the passion and dedication he brings to everything he does. In early retirement, Peter has already completed a centenary history of the Anglican City Mission; there will hopefully be much more to come.[60]
Allan Davidson ONZM taught church history at St John’s College and the University of Auckland for many years. He has written extensively on New Zealand and Pacific religious history, collaborating with Peter Lineham on a number of publications, including Transplanted Christianity: Documents Illustrating Aspects of New Zealand Church History.
[1] Ian Breward, “Religion in New Zealand Society,” New Zealand Journal of History 13.2 (1979): 138.
[2] This paper was originally given at a conference on the theme “Religion Matters”, held at Massey University, Albany, 3–4 November 2018. The conference celebrated Professor Peter Lineham’s contribution to New Zealand Religious History and also marked his retirement.
[3] David Bell, Transcript of an interview, “Reflections and Soundings: Peter Lineham, A Life In History,” Live-on-Air Review Hub Kiwi Connexion, https://kiwiconnexion.nz/artefact/artefact.php?artefact=5286&view=1175; Peter J. Lineham, There We Found Brethren: A History of Assemblies of Brethren in New Zealand (Palmerston North: G. P. H. Society, 1977), 56–57.
[4] Peter Lineham to Allan Davidson, email 13 November 2018. Peter J. Lineham, “Evangelical Witness at Canterbury University: A History of the EU/CU 1930–1974,” TSCF archives 1974, New Zealand Evangelical Archive of Christianity, Deane Memorial Library, Laidlaw College, Auckland.
[5] Peter Lineham, “My Story of being Christian and Gay,” Spirited Exchanges, http://www.spiritedexchanges.org.nz/web/page/70/beingChristianandGay.boss
[6] Bell, “Reflections and Soundings.”
[7] Lineham to Davidson, 13 November 2018.
[8] Lineham, There We Found Brethren, 11.
[9] Lineham. There We Found Brethren, 12.
[10] Malcolm Chase, “JFC Harrison obituary: Historian who focused on working-class movements and ordinary lives in the 18th and 19th centuries,” Guardian, 5 February 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/05/jfc-harrison-obituary
[11] Bell, “Reflections and Soundings.”
[12] Massey University Press, “10 questions with Peter Lineham” https://www.masseypress.ac.nz/news/2017/september/10-questions-with-peter-lineham/
[13] P. J. Lineham and A. R. Grigg, Religious History of New Zealand: a Bibliography (Palmerston North: Massey University Department of History, 1984), 2nd ed. 1987; 3rd ed. 1989; 4th ed. (P. J. Lineham, sole author) 1993.
This was kept available and frequently revised at www.massey.ac.nz/~plineham
[14] Peter J. Lineham, New Zealand Religious History Bibliography, 2018 edn. https://www.academia.edu/36013512/NZReligiousHistoryTo2018.rtf?auto=download
[15] “Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands” in Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, vols. 73–75, 1987–89, vols. 77–79, 1991–93; “New Zealand, the Pacific Islands,” in Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, vols. 80–84, 1994–98; vols. 87–91, 2001–2005.
[16] W. H. Oliver, ed., Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, vol. 1, 1769–1869 (Wellington: Allen & Unwin 1990), entries on: “Bowen, Charles Christopher” and “Deck, James George”. Claudia Orange, ed., Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, vol. 2, 1870–1900 (Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 1993), entries on: “Edger, Samuel,” “Feist, Alfred,” “Forlong, Gordon” and “Te Whaanga Hirini.” Claudia Orange, ed., Dictionary of New Zealand Biography,vol. 3, 1901–1920 (Auckland: Auckland University Press and Department of Internal Affairs, 1996), entries on: “Pettit, William Haddow” and “Hakaraia, Pahewa.” Claudia Orange, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, vol. 4, 1921–1940 (Auckland: Auckland University Press/Department of Internal Affairs, 1998), entries on: “Cowley, Matthew,” “Haddon, Oriwa Tahupotiki,” “Meha, Stuart,” “Sanders, John Oswald.” Claudia Orange, ed., Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, vol. 5, 1941–1960 (Auckland: Auckland University Press and Department of Internal Affairs, 2000), entries on: “Elliott, Keith,” and “Gibbs, Theodore Nisbet.”
[17] Allan K. Davidson and Peter J. Lineham, eds., Transplanted Christianity: Documents Illustrating Aspects of New Zealand Church History (Auckland: College Communications, 1987), 13.
[18] Davidson and Lineham, Transplanted Christianity, 13.
[19] Ian Breward, Review of, Transplanted Christianity: Documents Illustrating Aspects of New Zealand Church History, New Zealand Journal of History, 23.2 (1989): 206.
[20] In his MA thesis, “The Campaign to Abolish Imprisonment for Debt in England, 1750–1840,” University of Canterbury, 1975, Peter was “able to use my mathematics to work and see whether … [Dickens picture of debt] was in fact a true picture of debt.” Bell, “Reflections and Soundings.”
[21] Lineham, There we Found Brethren, 153.
[22] Lineham, There we Found Brethren, 154–55.
[23] Peter J. Lineham, New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel: An Interpretation of the Policies and Performance of the Methodist Church of New Zealand (Wesley Historical Society (NZ)), Proceedings No. 42, September 1983, 4.
[24] Peter J. Lineham, “The Condition of the Church,” in New Vision New Zealand: Calling the Whole Church to Take the Whole Gospel to the Whole Nation, ed. Bruce Patrick (Auckland: Vision New Zealand, 1993), 112.
[25] Lineham, “The Condition of the Church,” 117.
[26] Alison Fields and Peter Lineham, “The Shape of the Future Church,” New Vision New Zealand Vol. III, ed. Bruce Patrick (Auckland: Tabernacle Books, 2008), 350.
[27] P.J. Lineham, “Freethinkers in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand,” New Zealand Journal of History, 19.1 (1985): 61–81; P.J. Lineham, “How institutionalised was Protestant Piety in Nineteenth Century New Zealand?,” Journal of Religious History, 13.4 (1985): 370–82; Peter J. Lineham, “Christian Reaction to Freethought and Rationalism in New Zealand,” Journal of Religious History, 15.2 (1988): 236–50.
[28] Lineham, “Christian Reaction,” 250.
[29] Bill Cooke, Heathen in Godzone: Seventy Years of Rationalism in New Zealand (Auckland: New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists, 1998), 4, 28–29, 172.
[30] Cooke, Heathen in Godzone, 260–61.
[31] Peter J. Lineham, “The Protestant ‘Sects’,” in Nineteenth-Century English Religions Traditions: Retrospect and Prospect, Contributions to the Study of Religion Number 44, ed. D.G. Paz (Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995), 143.
[32] Lineham, “The Protestant ‘Sects,” 146.
[33] Peter Lineham, “TANNER LECTURE: The Mormon Message in the Context of Maori Culture,” Journal of Mormon History, 17 (1991): 62–93; republished as “The Mormon Message in the Context of Maori Culture,” in Proclamation to the People: Nineteenth-century Mormonism and the Pacific Basin Frontier, ed. L. F. Maffley-Kipp and R. L. Neilson (Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2008), 198–227.
[34] Lineham to Allan Davidson, 13 November 2018.
[35] Peter Lineham, “The Rise and Significance of the Destiny Church,” in Mana Māori and Christianity, eds., Hugh Morrison, Lachy Paterson, Brett Knowles, and Murray Rae (Wellington: Huia, 2012), 134.
[36] Peter Lineham, Destiny: The Life and Times of a Self-Made Apostle (Auckland: Penguin, 2013), 9.
[37] “Bishop Brian Tamaki happy with book about Destiny Church,” CathNews New Zealand, https://cathnews.co.nz/2013/08/13/bishop-brian-tamaki-happy-with-book-about-destiny-church/
[38] John Roxborogh to Allan Davidson, email 23 November 2018.
[39] Peter Lineham, Sunday Best: How the Church Shaped New Zealand and New Zealand Shaped the Church (Auckland, Massey University Press, 2017).
[40] Lineham, Sunday Best, 22.
[41] Michael D. Gordin, “The Tory Interpretation of History,” https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5275adb7e4b0298e6ac6bc86/t/541c9084e4b0c4ad91be3587/1411158148634/HSN4404_04_Gordin.pdf
[42] Lineham, “Religion,” 25.
[43] Peter Lineham, Sunday Best, subtitle.
[44] Lineham, “Religion,” 9.
[45] See for example:
Peter Lineham, “To make a People of the Book: CMS Missionaries and the Maori Bible,” “This is my Weapon: Maori Response to the Maori Bible,” “Appendix: Biographical index of Church Missionary Society Workers” in Mission and Moko: Aspects of the Work of the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand 1814–1882 ed. Robert Glen (Christchurch: Latimer Fellowship, 1992), 152–69, 170–78, 193–219.
Peter Lineham, ed., Weaving the Unfinished Mats: Wesley’s Legacy: Conflict, Confusion and Challenge in the South Pacific (Auckland: Wesley Historical Society New Zealand Proceedings, 83 & 84, July 2007).
Peter Lineham, “Paihia versus Kororareka: Protestant versus Catholic: Bible and Prayer Book in Catholic, Anglican and Methodist Missionary Strategy in New Zealand,” in The French Place in the Bay of Islands: Te urunga mai o te iwi Wīwī: Essays from Pompallier’s Printery, ed. Kate Martin & Brad Mercer (Auckland: Matou Matauwhi with Rim Books, 2011), 56–73.
Peter Lineham, “Introduction,” Te Rongopai 1814 ‘Takoto te pai!': Bicentenary Reflections on Christian Beginnings and Developments in Aotearoa New Zealand, eds. Allan Davidson, Stuart Lange, Peter Lineham and Adrienne Puckey (Auckland: General Synod office of Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2014), 12–22.
Peter Lineham, Ventures of Faith and Community: The Development of Churches on the North Shore, Auckland (Auckland: Wesley Historical Society and Anglican Historical Society, 2014).
[46] Peter Lineham, “The Church Facing Challenges 1960–85,” Living Legacy: a History of the Anglican Diocese of Auckland, ed. Allan K. Davidson (Auckland: Anglican Diocese of Auckland, 2011), 270.
[47] Lineham, Sunday Best, 274–304; Peter J. Lineham, “The Gender Issue in New Zealand Evangelical History,” in Reconsidering Gender: Evangelical Perspectives, eds. Myk Habets and Beulah Wood (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2011), 75–104.
[48] Lineham, “The Gender Issue,” 204.
[49] Lineham, Sunday Best, p.304.
[50] See for example, Peter J. Lineham, “Trends in Religious History in New Zealand: From Institutional to Social History,” History Compass, 12.4 (2014): 333–43.
[51] Hugh Morrison and Geoffrey Troughton, “Introduction: Perspectives on Christianity and New Zealand History,” in The Spirit of the Past: Essays on Christianity in New Zealand History, ed. by Geoffrey Troughton and Hugh Morrison (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2011), 11–24.
[52] John Stenhouse, “Secular New Zealand or God’s Own Country?,” in New Vision New Zealand, vol. III, 82.
[53] John Stenhouse, “Religion and Society,” in The New Oxford History of New Zealand, ed. Giselle Byrnes (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2009), 323–56.
[54] Peter Lineham, “The Controversy over the Recognition of Religious Factors in New Zealand History,” in The Spirit of the Past, 25.
[55] Lineham, “The Controversy,” 40.
[56] Lineham, “The Controversy,” 41.
[57] Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, (Harvard, MA: Belknap Press, 2007).
[58] Peter Lineham, “In Search of Church – Does Religion Have a Future in Godzone?” Lecture in Massey University, Albany series “Our Changing World,” 22 November 2018. This material has been drawn from
[59] Breward, “Religion,” 147.
[60] Peter Lineham, Agency of Hope: The Story of the Auckland City Mission 1920–2020 (Auckland, Massey University Press, 2020).