Early life William Burt Pope was born at
Horton, Nova Scotia, on 19 February 1822. He was the younger son of John Pope (1791–1863), Wesleyan
missionary and Catherine, born Uglow, who was originally of
Stratton, Cornwall. He was the younger brother of
George Uglow Pope. After education at a village school at
Hooe and at a secondary school at
Saltash, near
Plymouth, William spent a year in boyhood (1837-8) at
Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, assisting an uncle, a shipbuilder and general merchant. In 1845, he married Ann Ehza Lethbridge, daughter of a yeoman farmer of Modbury, near Plymouth. By her he had six sons, two of whom died in early life, and four daughters.
Career Pope was accepted, in 1840, by the Methodist synod of
Cornwall as a candidate for the ministry, and entered the Methodist Theological Institution at
Hoxton.
Ordained in 1842, he began his active ministry at
Kingsbridge, Devonshire. He served for short periods at
Liskeard, Jersey,
Sandhurst,
Dover and
Halifax. He served also for longer periods at
City Road, London, Hull,
Manchester,
Leeds, and
Southport. In 1846, he became a successful
linguist and translator of German anti-rationalist critics. In 1860, he became editor, having as his co-editor (1883-6)
James Harrison Rigg, of the
London Quarterly Review' to which he was already a contributor. In 1867, he succeeded Dr.
John Hannah the elder as tutor of
systematic theology at
Didsbury. He received the degree of
D.D. from the
Wesleyan University, U.S.A., in 1865 and from the
University of Edinburgh in 1877. In 1876, he visited America with Dr. Rigg as delegate to the general conference of the
methodist episcopal church at Baltimore. In 1877, he was
President of the Methodist Conference at Bristol. From 1867 to 1886, he taught at Didsbury Wesleyan College in
Manchester,
England.
Theological contribution Pope made notable contributions to theological literature which were deemed authoritative by his own church. His greatest work, a systematic theology,
Compendium of Christian Theology (1875-1876), set forth influential arguments for the "holiness doctrine of all Methodist systematic theology" and defended Methodist doctrine against its critics.
Wayne Grudem writes that, "This work […] is one of the greatest systematic theologies written from a
Wesleyan or Arminian perspective." He had
Arminian soteriological views.
Death Pope died on 5 July 1903, and was buried in
Abney Park Cemetery, London. ==Works==