Rhenius, Carl Theophilus Ewald (1790-1838)

Linguist and missionary among the Tamil population of South India

According to Stephen Neill, Rhenius was “one of the greatest among the missionaries in India.” He was born in West Prussia, trained in Johann Jänicke’s missionary seminary at Berlin, and in 1814 was sent out by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) to Madras where he studied Tamil and became a linguist of remarkable ability. But only after transfer by the CMS to Palayankottai, Tirunelveli, in 1820 was he able to display his talents to the full, in cooperation with a group of like-minded German and Swiss missionaries. The CMS mission in that remote part of South India had begun as a branch of Tanjore in the time of C.F. Schwartz, and followed the Lutheran Tranquebar tradition. Rhenius and his colleagues were evangelists of unusual zeal. In 1825 they reported more than 3,000 converts in ninety villages. But a crisis arose when Rhenius proposed that some evangelists should be ordained according to Lutheran custom, without participation of a bishop. However, by that time an Anglican bishop had arrived at Calcutta, and the CMS committee at Madras disagreed with Rhenius. After extended debate, the CMS declared in 1835 that Rhenius’s connection with it had come to an end. His fellow continental missionaries resigned with him. But when his catechists pleaded with him to return, Rhenius yielded to their urging and began to work independently with his German and Swiss colleagues as the German Evangelical Mission, consisting of 67 out of the 293 Tirunelveli congregations. Only after Rhenius’s death did the remaining German missionaries and their congregations return to the CMS. Today Rhenius is remembered not only as one of the ablest writers and translators in Tamil, but also as one of the fathers of the Tirunelveli church.

Hans-Werner Genischen, “Rhenius, Carl Theophilus Ewald,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 565-66.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Primary

Rhenius, Johann. Memoir of the Rev. C.T.E. Rhenius: Comprising Extracts from His Journal and Correspondence, with Details of Missionary Proceedings in South India. London: James Nisbet & Co, 1841.

Secondary

Cnattingius, Hans Jacob. Bishops and Societies: A Study of Anglican Colonial and Missionary Expansion, 1698-1850. London: S.P.C.K., 1952.

Portrait

The painting of Rhenius is part of the public domain.