John Bainbridge Webster

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John Webster
Born	John Bainbridge Webster June 20, 1955 Mansfield, England
Residence	Aberdeen, Scotland
Nationality	British
Education	MA, PhD (Cambridge)
Occupation	Professor, Theologian
Employers	King’s College University of Aberdeen
Title	Chair of Systematic Theology
Religious beliefs	Anglican Communion

Professor John B. Webster, MA, PhD, DD, FRSE is a notable contemporary British theologian of the Anglican communion writing in the area of systematic, historical and moral theology. Born in Mansfield, England on June 20, 1955, he was educated at the independent co-educational Bradford Grammar School and at the University of Cambridge.

Contents 1 Career 2 Theological Convictions 3 Selected Major Works 3.1 Translations or works on Eberhard Jüngel 3.2 Works on Karl Barth 3.3 Constructive works 4 Links to Audio Lectures 5 Sources 6 External links

[edit] 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--one of the seven colleges that comprise the Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto (1986-96)--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-). During Webster's seven-year tenure at Oxford (1996-2003) he also served as a canon-professor of Christ Church. In 2003, he was named as Professor of Systematic Theology at King's College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, one of the most conservative - if not quite fundamentalist - of all British university Schools of Divinity. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2005.^[1]

Together with the late Reverend Professor Colin Gunton (1940-2003), Webster co-founded the International Journal of Systematic Theology. He also sits on the editorial board of the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church and of the Scottish Journal of Theology Monographs. He is the series editor of The Great Theologians, Barth Studies for Ashgate, and co-editor for the Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology (2007).

[edit] Theological Convictions

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).^[2] Subsequently, Webster’s translations and theological interaction with Jüngel are largely responsible for introducing him to the English speaking academy^[3]. 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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.

[edit] Selected Major Works

[edit] Translations or works on Eberhard Jüngel

Webster, John (1991). Eberhard Jüngel: An Introduction to His Theology (2d ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jüngel, Eberhard (1995). Theological Essays II. Editor John Webster. Translators Arnold Neufeldt-Fast and J. B. Webster. Edinburgh: T & T Clark.
Jüngel, Eberhard (1998). Theological Essays I (2d ed.). Trans. John Webster. London: T & T Clark.
Jüngel, Eberhard (2001). God's Being is in Becoming: The Trinitarian Being of God in the Theology of Karl Barth. Trans. John Webster. London: T & T Clark.
Webster, John, ed. (2006). Possibilities of Theology: Studies in the Theology of Eberhard Jüngel in his 60th Year (New ed.) Edinburgh: T & T Clark.

[edit] Works on Karl Barth

Webster, John (1995). Barth's Ethics of Reconciliation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Webster, John (1998). Barth's Moral Theology: Human Action in Barth's Thought. Edinburgh: T & T Clark.
Webster, John, ed. (2000). The Cambridge Companion to Karl Barth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Webster, John (2004). Karl Barth (2d ed.). Outstanding Christian Thinkers. London: Continuum.
Webster, John (2004). Barth's Early Theology. London: T & T Clark. Webster, John (2005). Barth's Earlier Theology: Four Studies. London: T & T Clark.

[edit] Constructive works

Webster, John (2002). Word and Church: Essays in Church Dogmatics. London: T & T Clark.
Webster, John (2003). Holiness. London: SCM.
Webster, John (2003). Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Webster, John (2005). Confessing God: Essays in Christian Dogmatics II. London: T & T Clark.

[edit] Links to Audio Lectures

• Perfection and Presence: God With Us, According to the Christian Confession Kantzer Lectures in Revealed Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
• On Mercy 2007 Christianity and Ethics Conference at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

• Webster's page at the University of Aberdeen
• Kantzer Lectures at the Henry Center
• Prof. John Webster at Frost's Scottish Who's Who
• John Webster at Theopedia