John Webster (theologian) explained

Pre-Nominals:The Reverend
John Webster
Birth Name:John Bainbridge Webster
Birth Date:20 June 1955
Birth Place:Mansfield, England
Death Place:Aberdeen, Scotland
Nationality:English
Other Names:J. B. Webster
Module:
Child:yes
Religion:Christianity (Anglican)
Ordained:1984[1]
Module2:
Child:yes
Discipline:Theology
Alma Mater:Clare College, Cambridge[2]
Thesis Title:Distinguishing Between God and Man
Thesis Year:1982
Doctoral Advisor:George Newlands[3]
Doctoral Students:Richard Topping
Influenced:Michael Allen

John Bainbridge Webster (1955–2016) was an Anglican priest and theologian writing in the area of systematic, historical, and moral theology. Born in Mansfield, England, on 20 June 1955, he was educated at the independent Bradford Grammar School and at the University of Cambridge. After a distinguished career, he died at his home in Scotland on 25 May 2016 at the age of 60.[4] At the time of his death, he was the Chair of Divinity at St. Mary's College, University of St Andrews, Scotland.[5]

Career

Webster began his career as a chaplain and tutor at St John's College, Durham University (1982–86) and went on to teach systematic theology at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto – one of the seven colleges that comprise the Toronto School of Theology (1986–1996) – before becoming the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford, a prestigious chair in which he was immediately preceded by Rowan Williams who later became Archbishop of Wales (1999–2002) and then Canterbury (2002–2012). During Webster's seven-year tenure at Oxford (1996–2003), he also served as a canon of Christ Church. In 2003, he was installed in the Chair of Systematic Theology at King's College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland. In Summer 2013, he became Chair of Divinity at the University of St Andrews. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2005.[6]

Together with Colin Gunton (1940–2003), Webster co-founded the International Journal of Systematic Theology. He was also a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church and of the Scottish Journal of Theology Monographs. He was the series editor of The Great Theologians, Barth Studies for Ashgate, and co-editor for the Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology (2007).

Theological commorancy

His PhD thesis was on the German Lutheran systematic and philosophical theologian Eberhard Jüngel: Distinguishing Between God and Man: Aspects of the Theology of Eberhard Jüngel (1982).[7] [8] Subsequently, Webster's translations and theological interaction with Jüngel are largely responsible for introducing him to the English speaking academy.[9] Through study of Jüngel, Webster became well acquainted with the theology of Karl Barth whom he has written on extensively and developed a unique account of, which stresses the significant role of biblical interpretation and the Reformed tradition in Barth's work.[10] Jüngel and Barth present important influences on Webster's own constructive dogmatic work, which offers that the most reliable articulation of Christian truth is that made in shared attention with the Reformation's renewal of Chalcedonian Christianity and guided by the perfect and free God who makes himself the proper object of extended paraphrase by his active self-presentation in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.[11]

In September 2007, Webster delivered the inaugural lectures of the Kantzer Lectures in Revealed Theology moderated by Kevin Vanhoozer through the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.

Selected works

Thesis

Translations or works on Eberhard Jüngel

Works on Karl Barth

Constructive works

Exhortative works

Other

Articles

External links

Links to audio lectures

Notes and References

  1. Davidson . Ivor J. . Ivor Davidson . 2016 . In Memoriam: John Webster (1955–2016) . International Journal of Systematic Theology . 18 . 4 . 362 . 10.1111/ijst.12191 . 1463-1652.
  2. Davidson . Ivor J. . Ivor Davidson . 2016 . In Memoriam: John Webster (1955–2016) . International Journal of Systematic Theology . 18 . 4 . 361 . 10.1111/ijst.12191 . 1463-1652.
  3. Book: Webster, J. B. . 1991 . 1986 . Eberhard Jüngel: An Introduction to His Theology . Cambridge, England . Cambridge University Press . vii . 978-0-521-42391-5.
  4. Web site: Professor John Webster's passing . https://web.archive.org/web/20160624032945/http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity/about/news/title%2C527274%2Cen.php . 24 June 2016 . 2016-10-29 . dead .
  5. Web site: Professor John Webster Appointed to Chair in St Mary's College . 29 April 2013 . 29 April 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130502002340/http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity/about/news/title%2C217819%2Cen.php . 2 May 2013.
  6. The Royal Society of Edinburgh: The Fellowship, Current Fellows. 18 October 2007. [online]. [Accessed 26 December 2007]. Available from World Wide Web:
  7. Cambridge University Library Manuscripts & Theses (Newton Catalogue)
  8. Webster . J. B. . 1982 . Distinguishing Between God and Man: Aspects of the Theology of Eberhard Jüngel . PhD . Cambridge, England . Cambridge University Press . 556399864.
  9. Webster, Eberhard Jüngel: An Introduction to His Theology, back cover
  10. see *Webster's personal page
  11. Webster, "Theological Theology." In Confessing God: Essays in Christian Dogmatics II, 20, 26, 29. Cf. Ford, David F. "British Theology After A Trauma: Divisions and Conversations." Christian Century 117 No. 12 (2000): 425-32.

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