Theology for Changing Times: John Atherton and the Future of Public Theology.
A new volume in honour of John Atherton has been commissioned by SCM Press, to be edited by Professor Chris Baker and Canon Professor Elaine Graham.
John very sadly passed away last year, and this volume will provide a critical appreciation of his prodigious output over several disciplinary fields and across many definitive decades in the life of the nation. It will also begin the important task of identifying key themes and motifs that emerge for future generations of public and practical theologians, as well as seeking to shed light on John Atherton the man.
The book will feature contributions by colleagues and friends of John, including Malcom Brown, Ellen Charry, Carl-Henric Grenholm, Normunds Kamagrausis, Maria Power, John Reader, Anna Ruddick, Hilary Russell, Peter Sedgewick, Ian Steedman and Will Storrar.
In addition to holding numerous other prestigious appointments and postings, over four decades John was Director and then Associate Research Fellow at the William Temple Foundation. The Foundation’s current Director and co-editor of the forthcoming volume, Professor Chris Baker, comments:
“Our wish for this volume is not only that the progressive and multifaceted nature of John Atherton’s work as a public theologian is recognised, but that it also begins to sketch out the new directions and contours that public theology needs to adopt in our present era. This is very much what John would have wanted.”
Publication is scheduled for 2018, in honour of a much-loved colleague and very much missed mentor and friend.
A full obituary for John, originally published in the Church Times, can be downloaded here >>
John’s final publication was an e-book written for our Temple Tracts series which he co-wrote with John Reader; Mapping the Material: Religious Practices in Changing Times is available to download.
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