Divinity student cracks religious code

Andrew Fuller, founder of Baptist Missionary Society, left hundreds of pages of sermon notes in a shorthand nobody could read. Until now.

I’ve always had a fascination with puzzles, and secret codes in particular. I just can’t get over the fact that there were sermon notes in a code, saved since the 1700’s, waiting to be deciphered. Fun times.

Anybody else here as fascinated by this as I am?

By the way, the article makes clear that the key was actually discovered by a prof, who suspected it could be used to accomplish the task, so he found an undergrad to do the grunt work. Nice that the kid is getting some credit, but it seems the paper is playing up that angle a bit more than is warranted.

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Yes, fascinating.

I can’t understand what would motivate Fuller to write his sermon manuscripts in code.

Anybody know?

It was shorthand. I’m guessing it was just a shorthand that he made up, so nobody knew how to expand it.

Imagine what Fuller would have done with an Enigma machine.

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