Keith Ward

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The Reverend Professor (John Stephen) Keith Ward (born 22 August 1938) is a British cleric, philosopher, theologian, and scholar. He is a fellow of the British Academy and (since 1972) an ordained priest in the Church of England. He was a Canon of Christ Church, Oxford until 2003. The interplay between science and faith and comparative theology are two of his main topics of interest.

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[edit] Academic work

Ward originally graduated with a BA from the University of Wales, and holds MA and DD degrees from both Cambridge and Oxford, as well as a B Litt from Oxford.[1] He has held a number of academic posts. He lectured in philosophy at Glasgow, St Andrews, London, and Cambridge. He was appointed Dean of Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1972, F. D. Maurice Professor of Moral and Social Theology at the University of London in 1982, Professor of History and Philosophy of Religion at King's College London in 1985. Perhaps most notably, he was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford in 1991, a post from which he retired in 2004. In 1993-94 he delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow. Ward is currently Gresham Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London.

[edit] Focus and beliefs

One of his main focuses is the dialogue between religious traditions, an interest which lead him to be joint president of the World Congress of Faiths (WCF) between 1992-2001. His work also explores concepts of God and the idea of revelation. Ward also has written on the relationship between science and religion. [2] As an advocate of theistic evolution he regards them as essentially compatible, unlike his Oxford colleague Richard Dawkins, a geneticist and vocal atheist. Ward has said that Dawkins's conclusion that there is no God or any purpose in the universe is "naive" and not based on science but on a hatred for religion. Professor Dawkins's virulent anti-religious views originate, according to Ward, from earlier encounters with "certain forms of religion which are anti-intellectual and anti-scientific .. and also emotionally pressuring."[3] He has also been highly critical of Materialist philosophers of conciousness such as Daniel Dennett as well as social scientists such as Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, arguing that they each attempt to reduce the Human person into aspects of their own discipline. Ward has described his own Christian faith as follows:

I am a born-again Christian. I can give a precise day when Christ came to me and began to transform my life with his power and love. He did not make me a saint. But he did make me a forgiven sinner, liberated and renewed, touched by divine power and given the immense gift of an intimate sense of the personal presence of God. I have no difficulty in saying that I wholeheartedly accept Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior.[4]

He has criticized modern day Christian fundamentalism, most notably in his 2004 book What the Bible Really Teaches: A Challenge for Fundamentalists. He believes that fundamentalists interpret the Bible in implausible manners and pick and choose which of its passages to emphasize in order to fit preexisting beliefs. Ward argues that the Bible must be taken seriously, but not always literally and he does not agree with the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy, saying that it is not found in the Bible. He elaborates that

There may be discrepancies and errors in the sacred writings, but those truths that God wished to see included in the Scripture, and which are important to our salvation, are placed there without error. ... The Bible is not inerrant in detail, but God has ensured that no substantial errors, which mislead us about the nature of salvation, are to be found in Scripture.[4]

[edit] Books

  • The Concept of God (1977)
  • Rational Theology and the Creativity of God (1982)
  • Holding Fast to God (1982) – a critique of Taking Leave of God by the radical theologian Don Cupitt
  • A Vision to Pursue (1991)
  • Religion and Revelation (1994)
  • Religion and Creation (1996)
  • God, Chance and Necessity (1996)
  • Religion and Human Nature (1998)
  • God, Faith and the New Millennium(1998)
  • In Defence of the Soul (1998)
  • Christianity: A Short Introduction (2000)
  • God, A Guide for the Perplexed (2002)
  • What the Bible Really Teaches: A Challenge for Fundamentalists (2004)
  • Pascal's Fire- Scientific Faith and Religious Understanding (2006)
  • Is Religion Dangerous?(2006)

[edit] External Links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Professor Keith Ward, Gresham College profile, Accessed Nov. 7, 2006
  2. ^ Keith Ward's Oxford University profile, Accessed Nov. 7, 2006
  3. ^ Video interview by Robert Wright for meaningoflife.tv at 28:00 and following
  4. ^ a b Keith Ward. What the Bible Really Teaches: A Challenge for Fundamentalists (2004)
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