Henry Venn

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the English theologian of the same name, who lived from 1796 to 1873, see Henry Venn (theologian) .

Henry Venn

Henry Venn (* 1724 in Surrey ; † 1797 ) was a British priest of the Church of England .

Life

Venn was born in Surrey and taught at Cambridge University , for which he also played cricket . In 1749 he was ordained a priest in the Church of England . First he worked as an assistant preacher in West Horsley and Clapham , then from 1759 as a vicar in Huddersfield .

In 1771 he took over a pastorate in Yelling, where he worked until the end of his service.

Venn was on friendly terms with prominent preachers of his time, including John Wesley and George Whitefield . Venn kept his sermons off the cuff, they were evangelical .

In 1763 Venn published a devotional book under the title The Complete Duty of Man , which was widely distributed among evangelically minded Christians and superseded the previously anonymously published devotional book "The Whole Duty of Man".

Many of Henry Venn's descendants were also prominent. His son, John Venn, was a noted social reformer and philanthropist, and his granddaughter, Charlotte Elliott, was a poet and author of church hymns, the most famous of which is Just As I Am . His grandson Henry Venn was a well-known theologian. Venn was also the great-grandfather of the mathematician and Anglican clergyman John Venn , and the great-great-grandfather of the British economist John Archibald Venn .

Works

• Henry Venn: The Complete Duty of Man. 1763 ( edition 1811 )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Randall Herbert Balmer: Venn, Henry (1724-1797) . In: Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism . Baylor University Press, Waco 2004, ISBN 1-932792-04-X , pp. 712 (English).