Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

NTY Obituary for Rev. Dr. Prof. Henry Chadwick, 22 Jun 2008



Henry Chadwick, Scholar of Early Christianity, Dies at 87


Published: June 22, 2008

Correction Appended

The Very Rev. Henry Chadwick, an Anglican priest, professor, editor, translator and author whose historical voyages into early Christianity won praise for depth, insight and evenhandedness and helped shed light on modern religious problems, died Tuesday in Oxford, England. He was 87.

His death was announced by Cambridge University, where Professor Chadwick taught and held administrative positions.

In an obituary written for the newspaper The Guardian, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, called Professor Chadwick, who was knighted in 1989, an “aristocrat among Anglican scholars.”

The archbishop wrote, “His erudition was legendary, particularly in all areas of late antiquity.”

Professor Chadwick tried to put this powerful scholarship to use in the 1970s when he served on the Anglo-Roman Catholic International Commission, whose task was to find common ground between Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism. As a part of the path to denominational reconciliation, he put forward first principles that his research had shown had been shared by most early Christians.

Professor Chadwick once called ecumenism “a good cause to die for.”

His writings on religion included translations of seminal primary texts, vast historical surveys, smaller works of intricate scholarship and stylishly written books for the general reader. For many years, he edited The Journal of Theological Studies.

He held prestigious chairs in divinity at Oxford and Cambridge and was the first person in more than four centuries to lead a college at both universities. As dean of Christ Church at Oxford, he led a prestigious college and a historic cathedral, where he preached cerebral and sometimes whimsical sermons.

“The Anglican church may not have a pope, but it does have Henry Chadwick,” Archbishop Williams said, suggesting that that this was a common view.

Henry Chadwick was born in Bromley, England, on June 23, 1920. At Eton, he liked music more than academic subjects, and won a music scholarship to Magdalene College, Cambridge. His enthusiasm for evangelical groups of the Church of England led him to become a priest in 1943.

The Times of London reported that he served briefly in an evangelical parish in south London, then for a short time was a schoolmaster. But he became enthralled with translating “Contra Celsum,” a refutation of anti-Christian writings by Origen, a father of the early church. His work, published in 1953, elevated the young priest to scholarly prominence.

In 1954, he became editor of The Journal of Theological Studies, with H.F.D. Sparks. Over his more than three decades as editor, Professor Chadwick wrote many articles for the journal.

He began his teaching career in 1946 as a fellow and chaplain at Queens College, Cambridge. In 1959, he was appointed Regius professor of divinity at Oxford. A decade later, he was named dean of the college of Christ Church at Oxford.

In 1979, he returned to Cambridge and was that university’s Regius professor of divinity until his retirement in 1983. He was lured out of retirement in 1987 to be master of the college of Peterhouse at Cambridge, a post he held until his second retirement in 1993.

He edited several major texts and series, including the Oxford History of the Christian Church. His own scholarship included “Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition: Studies in Justin, Clement and Origen” (1966), in which he emphasized the importance of the Greek roots of the church.

He wrote a best seller, “The Early Church,” published by Penguin in 1967. It dealt with church history thematically, rather than chronologically, in 300 pages of relatively easy-to-read prose. Christian Book Reviews suggested that people read the book, digest its contests, then reread it.

Referring to the differences between Catholics and Protestants, the review continued, “The reader may come to the realization that many battle lines drawn between the two sides would have seemed alien territory to early Christians with an entirely different set of cultural presuppositions.”

In an interview with Contemporary Authors published in 2001, Professor Chadwick said he tried to write with “human sympathy,” in an effort to “reconcile, without fudge or smudge, bodies which live separate lives and have come to feel themselves to be rival groups.”

His later works included studies of the theologians St. Ambrose, Priscillian of Avila, Boethius and St. Augustine. He published “The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great” in 2002, and “East and West: The Making of a Rift in the Church” in 2003.

Professor Chadwick is survived by his wife of 63 years, the former Margaret Elizabeth Brownrigg; his daughters, Priscilla, Hilary and Juliet; and his brother, Owen Chadwick, also a historian of Christianity.

His most quoted line, spoken during a debate at the Anglicans’ General Synod in 1988, summarizes his own life’s work of finding answers in history. Professor Chadwick said, “Nothing is sadder than someone who has lost his memory, and the church which has lost its memory is in the same state of senility.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: June 29, 2008
An obituary last Sunday about the Very Rev. Henry Chadwick, a British historian of early Christianity, omitted a survivor. He is his brother, Owen Chadwick, also a historian of Christianity.

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