Henry Chadwick, Scholar of Early Christianity,
Dies at 87
Published:
June 22, 2008
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.”
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.
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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