Living Wittily

Rev Professor David F Wright, 1937-2008

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Jason picked up from the New College website the sad news that the Rev Professor David F Wright has died. In leaving a comment on Jason’s blog, I found myself writing an appreciation of this good, wise and humbly faithful man, whose intellectual gifts were consecrated to the service of Christ and His church. I simply repeat here what I wrote there.

David Wright was one of Scottish Evangelicalism’s leading lights. Professor Wright was a remarkably gifted church historian and theologian, whose expertise in Patristics as in Reformation studies was encyclopedic in scope and profound in the depth of his thought. Few scholars successfully become a recognised authority in two major periods of Church History – but David did this while also ranging throughout the wider disciplines of Christian scholarship with a most enviable facility.

But as with a number of his generation it was his scholarly humility, his generous encouragement of others, his lifelong commitment to theological education as itself both spiritual discipline and intellectual vocation, his genuine enthusiasm for learning, that made him such a respected and loved teacher. He was one of a cluster of luminaries which included the late Tom Torrance, Alec Cheyne, John McIntyre – each of them scholar pastors whose learning was devoted to the service of Christ.

Like Jason, I value the Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology – there isn’t a book like it, and it is only one of the legacies David leaves. British Evangelicalism in general, and the Scottish church in particular, have lost the presence and gifts of a Christian thinker steeped in the traditions of our faith, a man of measured, generous judgement, and an example to those of us who aspire to be scholars in the school of Christ.

May the peace of Christ enfold him, and Anne-Marie and his family, while we in mourning his loss, give thanks for his life – and the way that life enriched ours.

Comments

4 responses to “Rev Professor David F Wright, 1937-2008”

  1. Ruth Gouldbourne avatar
    Ruth Gouldbourne

    He was my first “official” tutor in church history – and today I am sad. His lectures were at 12.00. And when the 1.00 o’clock gun went off, the collective sigh of disspointment that it was over could be heard round the room. A rare gift in a teacher.

    Reply
  2. Ruth Gouldbourne avatar
    Ruth Gouldbourne

    He was my first “official” tutor in church history – and today I am sad. His lectures were at 12.00. And when the 1.00 o’clock gun went off, the collective sigh of disspointment that it was over could be heard round the room. A rare gift in a teacher.

    Reply
  3. John R Smith avatar
    John R Smith

    I knew David Wright at three different stages in my life. As a teenager, I came with a friend, Alan Thomas, to the Scottish Christian Youth Assembly in Edinburgh. Local folk offered hospitality, and Alan and I stayed in David’s flat in the West End. (Alan died in his thirties from cancer.) David was a generous host.
    Then, as part of the “Cheyne gang”, he was on the faculty at New College when I was a student there (1969-72). David was a generous teacher.
    He was Moderator of Edinburgh Presbytery a year or two before I served in that capacity. But we worked closely together over such items as support for the staff of Crossreach during a very difficult spell in that organisation. David was a generous friend.
    Our theologies could never have been described as being in the same stable – but that never diminished David’s interest and friendship, and experience I know that many shared.
    I valued him greatly in all those contexts

    Reply
  4. John R Smith avatar
    John R Smith

    I knew David Wright at three different stages in my life. As a teenager, I came with a friend, Alan Thomas, to the Scottish Christian Youth Assembly in Edinburgh. Local folk offered hospitality, and Alan and I stayed in David’s flat in the West End. (Alan died in his thirties from cancer.) David was a generous host.
    Then, as part of the “Cheyne gang”, he was on the faculty at New College when I was a student there (1969-72). David was a generous teacher.
    He was Moderator of Edinburgh Presbytery a year or two before I served in that capacity. But we worked closely together over such items as support for the staff of Crossreach during a very difficult spell in that organisation. David was a generous friend.
    Our theologies could never have been described as being in the same stable – but that never diminished David’s interest and friendship, and experience I know that many shared.
    I valued him greatly in all those contexts

    Reply

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