Frederick Nolan (theologian) facts for kids

Frederick Nolan (1784–1864) was an important Irish Anglican theologian. A theologian is someone who studies religion and God. He was known for his deep knowledge of languages and religious topics.

Frederick Nolan's Life

Frederick Nolan was born on February 9, 1784. His birthplace was Old Rathmines Castle in County Dublin, Ireland. This castle belonged to his grandfather. He was the third son of Edward Nolan.

In 1796, Frederick began studying at Trinity College, Dublin. Later, in 1803, he went to Exeter College, Oxford. He chose Oxford mainly to study in its famous libraries, like the Bodleian Library. He passed his exams for a law degree in 1805. He officially received his degrees in 1828.

Frederick became a priest in August 1806. He worked in several churches in London, including Woodford and Hackney. In 1822, he became the vicar of Prittlewell, Essex. A vicar is a type of priest who leads a local church.

He was the first person to give three important lecture series:

• The Boyle lecture in 1814.
• The Bampton lecture at Oxford in 1833.
• The Warburtonian lecture from 1833 to 1836.

Nolan was known as a brilliant theologian and linguist. A linguist is someone who is skilled in many languages. He had strong evangelical religious beliefs. This means he focused on the Bible and personal faith. He strongly disagreed with the Oxford movement, which was a group that wanted to bring back older traditions to the Church of England. In 1832, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a group of top scientists and thinkers.

Frederick Nolan passed away on September 16, 1864. He died at Geraldstown House in County Meath. He was buried in his family's burial place in Navan churchyard. He was married but did not have any children.

What Did He Write?

Frederick Nolan was a very active writer. He even had his own printing press in Prittlewell. Here are some of his main works:

• The Romantick Mythology (1809): This book explored old myths and stories.
• An Inquiry into the nature and extent of Poetick Licence (1810): He wrote this under a fake name, 'N. A. Vigors, jun., Esq.' It looked at how much freedom poets have in their writing.
• The Operations of the Holy Ghost (1813): This was a series of sermons about religious topics.
• An Inquiry into the Integrity of the Greek Vulgate (1815): This book studied the original Greek text of the New Testament. He added a 'Supplement' to it in 1830.
• Fragments of a civick feast (1819): In this work, he argued against the revolutionary ideas of a writer named Comte de Volney.
• A Harmonical Grammar of the principal ancient and modern Languages (1822): This was a huge project. It included grammars for many languages, like Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Italian, and German.
• The Expectations formed by the Assyrians that a Great Deliverer would appear about the time of our Lord's Advent demonstrated (1826): This book was printed at his own press in Prittlewell.
• The Time of the Millennium investigated (1831): This was also printed privately in Prittlewell. These last two books were part of his 'Boyle Lectures'.
• The Analogy of Revelation and Science established (1833): These were his 'Bampton Lectures'.
• The Chronological Prophecies as constituting a Connected System (1837): These were his 'Warburton Lectures'.
• The Evangelical Character of Christianity (1838): This book explained the evangelical side of Christianity.
• The Catholic Character of Christianity (1839): This was one of the first books to respond to the 'Tracts for the Times'. These tracts were part of the Oxford movement that Nolan disagreed with.
• The Egyptian Chronology analysed (1848): This book looked at the timeline of ancient Egypt. It compared it with hieroglyphic writings and the Bible.