Diarmid MacCullough, the doyen of Reformation historians, writes this intriguing paragraph:The clergy wife, from being abused and despised by conservatives in the parish, came to provide a new model for all the wives of Protestant Europe: she was now without any female rival for iconic status since nuns and achoresses had been banished from Protestant society. Following the Bucerian ideal, she was of course obedient to her husband, but she was also a calm and experienced companion, ready to give advice and help to parishioners - also to sustain the cheerfulness of her spouse and her children in a publicaly enacted life which made them all potentially rather lonely objects of the curiosity and envy as well as the emulation of others. And so the parsonage or the manse, not so well-supplied with spare cash as with books, high ideals and high thinking, negotiated its way through a social position which was continually poised self-consciously and uncertainly between gentry and people. It took its place as one of the great cultural forces in Protestant societies, both in the Old World and the New. In the upheavals of the Enlightenment and after, it produced some of the most eloquent and troubled voices to face up to doubt and unflinching reassesment of the family business: Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzche and Karl Barth were all the sons of pastors... p. 653-54
MacCullough can speak so acutely here because he, too, was a child of the vicarage! It has always been my contention that we clergy children have punched above our weight, for good or for ill. Here are some others:
Alice Cooper (rock musician)
Bob Hawke (Australian Prime Minister)
The Bronte Sisters (novelists)
Manning Clark (Australian myth-maker)
Not quite of the rank of the three already mentioned: can we suggest some others?
14 comments:
Denzel Washington (Actor - Academy Award Winner)
Tori Amos (Musician)
Condoleezza Rice (American Politician)
Vincent Van Gogh (Painter)
Jane Austen
I didn't know that about Denzel, or Alice Cooper....
Jane Austen, certainly, is a fine example of the self-consciousness mentioned in the original post.
I'd add the moral philosopher Mary Midgley to the list.
Regarding Tori Amos (Musician): I don't think she can be classified as punching above her weight either for good or for ill, as much as for odd. For other TA afficionados out there: ever listened to the lyrics of Icicle? Listened carefully?
Two more come to mind...
Martin Luther King Jr
Marvin Gaye
How could you of all people forget Lord Nelson!
Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his preacher-man father. Best we scratch that example from the list.
Also you could add the guy who "taught" Dusty Springfield. Now there's some skills you don't pick up in your average Rectory.
And, as you well know Mike, the lead singer from Grinspoon.
Gordon Brown, probably the UK's next Prime Minister. His father was a Church of Scotland Pastor.
It'll be interesting to see how our two turn out!
Slobodan Milosevic
Pope Silverius (son of Pope Hormisdas)
Jonathan Edwards jnr.
Antony Flew
Franklin Graham
Archbishop William Temple (son of a previous Archbishop of Canterbury - ok, not quite as interesting as the Pope one)
The Wright brothers
Malcolm X
There are one or two (hundred) more here.
However, I'd like someone to do a statistical analysis. How many 'famous' people are there in the history of the world? How many of these have been children of ministers? How many ministers have there been in history? Is the minister's kid phenomenon simply a reflection of the sheer number of clergy (and their historically high standing in most communities, leading to better education and the usual privileges of wealth and social connection)? Is it any more notable than, say, the children of doctors?
Karl Marx
Byron: (makes raspberry sound) Come on, allow us this indulgence!
Wasn't Marx Jewish?
As another vicarage kid, I suspect that it's probably like the Jewish thing.
Minsters tend to be at least as literate, usually significantly more, than the surrounding society, and there doesn't tend to be a predetermined career for them simply by virtue of their parents' occupation. Hence more likely to have an impact in a different field.
Oh, and something like 20-30% of folks at Wycliffe are kids of clergy.
Just found this quote from Stuart Piggin:
The nurturing of prominent Australian citizens, with or without faith, by Protestant clergy has been a conspicous fact in Australian History. Phillip Derriman maintains that 1 per cent of all the people listed in Who's Who in Australia are sons or daughters of Protestant clergymen, compared with 0.1 per cent of the population as a whole.
Hmm.
I am kinda dissappointed that it is only 1 per cent!
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