John BLACKET

BLACKET, JOHN (b. Kent Town, SA, 13 Feb 1856, d. Payneham, SA, 7 June 1935). Methodist minister.

Blacket was educated at three primary schools near Adelaide and then was apprenticed to a printer. He became a local (lay) preacher and in 188l was received on probation as a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. He was ordained in 1885.

Blacket served in thirteen Methodist circuits, most of them in the country. In the midst of heavy church and family responsibilities (he had fourteen children) he was an assiduous reader. Access to city libraries was limited but by sheer hard work, and without the benefits of a university education, he was able to write eight books of philosophy and history. Most of the latter dealt with the early years of settlement in South Australia. Subsequent research has largely negated their value.

Blacket's major interest was philosophy of religion. He was strongly influenced by such English divines as the idealist philosopher, J R Illingworth, and his scholarly interests were stimulated by the contacts he made on a visit to England in 1893. Blacket propounded a theology of divine immanence that he believed made possible an accommodation of scientific discovery with theistic belief He upheld the Christian claim to historical revelation.

His books were not widely read, largely because of his turgid style, but they were significant as attempts by an Australian philosopher to set forth a Christian apologetic. Blacket never reached high office in the Methodist Church but was remembered as a faithful minister who combined a love of learning with the commendation of Christ as the supreme revelation of God.

His son, Arthur, also became a Methodist minister and, after missionary terms in India and Fiji, became Principal of Wesley Theological College, Wayville, South Australia.

ADB 7; Australian Christian Commonwealth, 21 June 1935; A D Hunt, This Side of Heaven: A History of Methodism in South Australia (Adelaide, 1985)

ARNOLD D HUNT