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News and Ideas from around the Anglican World |
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September 2006
Noted New Testament scholar the Rev. Canon Dr. Leon Morris, former Principal of Ridley College in Melbourne, died on July 24, aged 92.
Born in Lithgow in March 1914, his father was an iron founder. Morris began training as a teacher in 1931 with a degree in science. In his first year he was converted to Christ and the next year felt the call to ordained ministry. Having qualified as a science teacher he was required to serve out the five years of his bond to the Department of Education. However while he worked as a teacher, he studied in his spare time for a Licentiate in Theology and topped the Australian College of Theology List. The Archbishop of Sydney paid out his bond and he was ordained to a curacy in Campsie in 1938.
In 1940, under the auspices of the Bush Church Aid Association, he began five years as priest in charge of the vast Minnipa Mission in outback South Australia during World War II. He continued his private studies, gaining the Bachelor of Divinity from London University with first class honours in 1943 and the Master of Theology in 1946. Mildred, whom he married in 1941, would drive the bumpy, dusty roads of South Australia while Leon studied New Testament Greek in the passenger seat.
In 1945, Morris was invited to take the position of Vice-Principal of Ridley College in Melbourne. He spent 1950-51 in Cambridge gaining his Ph.D. which was later published as The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, a book which became seminal for modern evangelical theology of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. [His doctoral dissertation was so lengthy that after its completion, Cambridge put a page limit on future dissertations!]
In 1961, Morris accepted the position of Warden at Tyndale House in Cambridge, a significant evangelical biblical research centre. In 1964, he courageously left this ideal academic post and returned to Ridley College as Principal when the college was in severe difficulty, convinced this was God’s call. During his fifteen years as Principal, he strengthened the college [tremendously].
During these years he continued his prolific writing, publishing commentaries on almost every book of the New Testament, many of which remain classics. He was in demand as a lecturer and preacher in Australia and overseas. His style was famous for his dry wit, conciseness, simplicity and attention to the detail of the biblical text applied relevantly.
He served on the boards of a number of Christian organizations including the Evangelical Alliance, Scripture Union, Church Missionary Society, Bible Society, and he chaired the 1968 Billy Graham Crusade Committee. As President of the Evangelical Alliance, he established TEAR Fund, a significant Christian aid and development agency in Australia. He was a translator for the New International Version of the New Testament.
He preached his final sermon, on the opening verses of John’s gospel, late in 1997. Typically he preached from the Greek text with few notes. As always, he was remarkably lucid. The Gospel of John held a place close to Leon Morris’s heart and his magisterial commentary on John remains perhaps his magnum opus. Morris was well known for his humble manner and gracious Christian character. He leaves a vast legacy of theologically equipped ministers throughout the world upholding biblical Christian faith centred on the atoning death of Jesus Christ.
_________________________________________________________ For further reading: The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross; The Atonement: Its Meaning and Significance; New Testament Theology; and The Gospel According to John (part of the New International Commentary on the New Testament series). |
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