Michael Green (theologian)

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Michael Green (theologian)

Edward Michael Bankes Green, known as Michael Green, is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
theologian

Christian theology

Christian theology is discourse concerning Christianity faith. Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, rationality analysis and argument to understanding, explanation, test, critic#critique, defend or promote Christianity....
, Anglican priest

Priest

A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities....
, Christian apologist

Christian apologetics

Christian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a reason basis for the Christianity, defend the faith against objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views....
and author of more than fifty Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
books. He is serving as the Canon Missioner

Mission (Christian)

A Christianity mission has been widely defined, since the Lausanne Congress of 1974, as that which is designed "to form a viable indigenous Christian Church-planting and world changing movement." This definition is motivated by a Christian theology imperative theme of the Bible to make God known, as outlined in the Great Commission....
of Holy Trinity Church in Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the Capital of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats of Wake County, North Carolina. Raleigh is known as the ?City of Oaks? for its many oaks....
through 2007.
ael Green was born in 1930. His mother was Australian and his father was Welsh.

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Encyclopedia

Edward Michael Bankes Green, known as Michael Green, is a British

United Kingdom

Christian theology

Priest

Christian apologetics

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
books. He is serving as the Canon Missioner

Mission (Christian)

Raleigh, North Carolina

Education and career

Michael Green was born in 1930. His mother was Australian and his father was Welsh. He was converted through the ministry of E J H Nash

E J H Nash

Eric John Hewitson Nash , was an Evangelical Church of England clergyman. His ministry of Christian evangelism in the top thirty public schools was highly influential in the post-war Evangelical resurgence....
("Bash"). Educated at Clifton College

Clifton College

Clifton College is a coeducational Public school in Clifton, Bristol, England. It was founded in 1862....
. He studied at Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England and the 4th oldest college of the University....
(Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin language Artium Baccalaureus, is an Undergraduate education bachelor's degree awarded for either a course or a program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
1953, Master of Arts

Master of Arts (Oxbridge)

In the Universities of University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and University of Dublin, the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts is awarded to Bachelor of Arts of those universities on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university....
1956), and subsequently at Queens' College, Cambridge

Queens' College, Cambridge

Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge of the University of Cambridge. It was first founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou , and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville ....
(Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

Master of Arts (Oxbridge)

Bachelor of Divinity

In Western culture universities, a Bachelor of Divinity is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies....
1966) while preparing for ordained ministry at Ridley Hall. He has been admitted to the degree of Doctor of Divinity

Doctor of Divinity

Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in Divinity . Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christianity theology or related religion subjects....
by the Archbishop of Canterbury

Lambeth degree

Lambeth degrees are academic degrees conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury under the authority of the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 as successor of the papal legate in England....
(1996) and the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public university research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated a mile north of the city's Financial District, Toronto on grounds that surround Queen's Park ....
(1992). He was ordained deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a role in the Christianity that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions....
in 1957, priest

Priest

Curate

From the Latin curatus , a curate is a person who is invested with the Cure of souls of a parish. In this sense it correctly means a parish....
of Eastbourne

Eastbourne

Eastbourne is a large town and borough of East Sussex, on the south coast of England, with an estimated population of 94,816 as of 2007. The area has seen human activity since the stone age and it remained one of small settlements until the 19th century when its four hamlets gradually merged to form a town....
Holy Trinity 1957-60, Tutor at London College of Divinity

London School of Theology

London School of Theology is an evangelicalism theological college based in Northwood, London in the London Borough of Hillingdon.It was founded in the 1940s as London Bible College and was originally situated on Baker Street, London....
1960-69, Principal of St John's College, Nottingham

St John's College, Nottingham

St John's College, Bramcote, Nottingham, is a Church of England theological college. Primarily it offers theological and pastoral education to candidates for Holy Orders....
1969-75, and Rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings, but all of them indicate an academic, religious or political administrator.The word "rector" also appears in many modern languages, such as Albanian, Dutch language, Spanish language, Catalan language and Romanian language....
of St Aldate's, Oxford

St Aldate's, Oxford

St Aldate's is a street in central Oxford, England. It is named after Aldate. It runs south from the generally acknowledged centre of Oxford at Carfax, Oxford....
1975-86. He had additionally been an Honorary Canon

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest who is a member of certain bodies of the Christianity clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule .Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergyhouse or, later, in one of the houses within the precinct or close of a cathedral and ordering his life according to the orders or rules of the church....
of Coventry Cathedral

Coventry Cathedral

Coventry Cathedral, also known as Michael Cathedral, is the seat of the Bishop of Coventry and the Diocese of Coventry, in Coventry, West Midlands , England....
from 1970 until 1978. He then moved to Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, where he was Professor of Evangelism at Regent College

Regent College

Regent College is an international Graduate student school of Christianity Studies, located next to the campus of the University of British Columbia in the University Endowment Lands west of Vancouver, British Columbia, and is an affiliated college of that university....
, Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is the largest city in British Columbia and the second largest metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest region....
from 1987 until 1992. He returned to England

England

Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the Episcopal see that churches must be in communion with in order to be a part of the Anglican Communion....
and the Archbishop of York

Archbishop of York

File:Williamtemple1.jpgArchbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan bishop of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man....
for the Springboard Decade of Evangelism

Evangelism

Evangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to a religion. The term is used most often in reference to Christianity, but is also used to refer to other religions, including Judaism, Islam, and less frequently, Buddhism and Hinduism....
. In 1993 he was appointed Six Preacher of Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christianity structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....
. Despite having officially retired in 1996, he became Senior Research Fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. Historically, the term fellow was also used to describe a man, particularly by those in the upper social classes....
and Head of Evangelism and Apologetics at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford

Wycliffe Hall, Oxford

Wycliffe Hall is a Church of England Seminary and a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located on the Banbury Road in central North Oxford, between Norham Gardens and Norham Road....
in 1997 and lives in the village of Marston

Marston, Oxford

Marston is a village and associated suburb of Oxford, England, lying to the northeast of the city, within the A40 road Northern Bypass . The name is said to come from 'Marsh-town', because of the low-lying nature of the land near the River Cherwell, which in earlier times was liable to frequent flooding....
, near Oxford

Oxford

Oxford is a City status in the United Kingdom, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. It has a population of 151,000. The rivers River Cherwell and River Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre....
.

He is married to Rosemary, and they have four adult children, Sarah (who lives in Northern Ireland), Jenny, Tim, and Jonathan.

Apologetics & evangelism

Green has been a prolific writer, with much of his work written for a popular reading audience, although he has also contributed to academic studies. Many of his best known books discuss the twin topics of evangelism and apologetics

Apologetics

Apologists are authors, Personal journals, editors of Action research or Peer-reviews, and Reformism known for taking on the points in arguments, conflicts or positions that are either placed under popular scrutiny or viewed under Persecution examinations....
.

One of Green's objectives has been to equip lay Christian believers in their grasp of the gospel message, and to then have confidence to converse with others about faith matters. These practical objectives are very clear in books such as Evangelism, Now and Then and Sharing Your Faith With Friends and Family. At a technical level Green has contributed a valuable academic study of the praxis

Praxis

Praxis may refer to:* Praxis , the process of putting theoretical knowledge into practice* Praxis , the practice of faith, especially worship...
and theory of evangelism in Evangelism in the Early Church. This work explores the development of evangelism through the New Testament texts and from the early church fathers, and is a basic text in Christian missions. He has built on those foundational studies in his advocacy of evangelism at a parish church level, both through his personal ministry and in his book Evangelism Through the Local Church.

His apologetic work has generally focussed on popular misconceptions and objections held by non-Christians. In books such as You Must Be Joking, World on the Run and Why Bother With Jesus, Green deals with attitudes of religious indifference and scepticism. He also addresses a variety of objections concerning religious hypocrisy, religious pluralism

Religious pluralism

Religious pluralism is a loosely defined expression concerning acceptance of different religions, and is used in a number of related ways:* As the name of the worldview according to which one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus that at least some truths and true values exist in other religions....
, and popular questions of doubt and unbelief. He has also examined the evidences for the life, death and resurrection of Christ in Man Alive and again in the revision of that book The Day Death Died.

Green has also explored academic challenges to faith, such as in the collection of essays he prepared as a reply to Don Cupitt

Don Cupitt

Don Cupitt is an English philosopher of religion and scholar of Christian theology. He is an Anglican priest and an emeritus professor of the University of Cambridge, though is better known as a popular writer, broadcaster and commentator....
's work on The Myth of God Incarnate. In that analysis Green and his colleagues addressed the problems of myth and history as propounded in modern biblical scholarship, especially concerning the relationship between the events of Jesus' ministry and teaching, and the doctrine of the Incarnation

Incarnation

Incarnation which literally means embodied in flesh, refers to the Conception and birth of a Sentience creature who is the material manifestation of an entity or force whose original nature is immaterial....
.

His recent work The Books the Church Suppressed: Fiction and Truth in The Da Vinci Code is an argument for Orthodox Christianity against Gnosticism, as it is presented in The Da Vinci Code. Green here links Gnosticism with a decline in society (pp 152-4). He also claims that Gnosticism leads to a decline in morality, so that by ordaining a homosexual bishop, the Episcopal Church of the United States has itself shown Gnostic tendencies (pp 154-161).

He has considered aspects of apologetic methodology and strategy in his co-authored work with Alister McGrath

Alister McGrath

Alister Edgar McGrath is a Christian theology, with a DPhil in molecular biophysics, as well as an earned Doctor of Divinity degree from Oxford, noted for his work on historical, systematic and scientific theology....
.

Aside from his apologetic writings, Green has also addressed issues of discipleship in the Christian life, ministry and leadership in the church, the doctrine of baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted as a full member of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered....
, pneumatology (the Holy Spirit) and demonology

Demonology

Demonology is the systematic research of demons or beliefs about demons. Insofar as it involves exegesis, demonology is an orthodox branch of theology....
. He has also written non-technical commentaries on certain books of the New Testament.

Adventure of Faith is his spiritual autobiography.

Humorous reference

Michael Green was a good-natured victim of the Hoax letter writers

Hoax letter writers

This article covers various hoax letter writers....
The Reverend Toby Forward and The Reverend David Johnson, writing under the pseudonym Francis Wagstaffe

Hoax letter writers

This article covers various hoax letter writers....
. They describe him as "the famous evangelist and mild arsonist" in letters to Euston Films

Euston Films

Euston Films was a United Kingdom film and television production company. It was a subsidiary company of Thames Television, and operated from the 1970s to the 1990s, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network....
, Roy Jenkins

Roy Jenkins

Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead Order of Merit Privy Council of the United Kingdom was a British politician. Once prominent as a Labour Party Member of Parliament and government minister in the 1960s and 1970s, he became the first British President of the European Commission and one of the four principal founders of the So...
, and Hodder & Stoughton

Hodder & Stoughton

Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hodder Headline.The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged fourteen, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational church....
. They received a letter from Dr Green in which he admitted, "I had a fairly wild time before becoming a committed Christian: that included things like a little mild arson, but not fornication!" (p. 71) There was a serious point behind his repudiating any involvement with fornication: as Rector

Rector

St Aldate's, Oxford

St Aldate's is a street in central Oxford, England. It is named after Aldate. It runs south from the generally acknowledged centre of Oxford at Carfax, Oxford....
he famously had a sofa in his study, "where scores of people knelt to entrust their lives to Christ!" (ibid.)

See Toby Forward and David Johnson, eds, The Spiritual Quest of Francis Wagstaffe (Leominster
Leominster

Leominster is a market town at in Herefordshire, England. It has a population of approximately 11,000 and is on the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater in North Herefordshire....
: Gracewing, 1994), pp. 70, 71, 72-3, 74, 98, 123, 196.

Bibliography

Called to Serve, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1965.
Man Alive, InterVarsity, Leicester, 1967.
Evangelism in the Early Church, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1970.
New Life, New Lifestyle, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1973.
I Believe in the Holy Spirit, William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1975.
You Must Be Joking: Popular Excuses for Avoiding Jesus Christ, Hodder & Stoughton, 1976.
(ed), The Truth of God Incarnate, Hodder & Stoughton, 1977.
Evangelism, now and then, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1979.
Why Bother With Jesus? Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1979.
Church and Homosexuality, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1980 ISBN 0-340-25483-1
The Day Death Died, InterVarsity Press, Leicester, 1982.
Freed to Serve, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1983.
The Empty Cross of Jesus, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1984.
World on the Run, InterVarsity Press, Leicester, 1985.
Second Epistle of Peter and the General Epistle of Jude, 2nd edition, InterVarsity Press, Leicester/William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1987.
Baptism, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1987 ISBN 0-340-41056-6
I Believe in Satan's Downfall, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1988 ISBN 0-340-42543-1
Evangelism Through the Local Church, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1989 ISBN 0-340-52916-4
Exposing the Prince of Darkness, Servant, Ann Arbor, 1991.
The Dawn of the New Age, Darton Longman & Todd, London, 1993.
My God, Oliver Nelson, Nashville, 1993.
Springboard for Faith (with Alister McGrath), Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1993.
New Testament Spirituality (with R. Paul Stevens), Eagle Publishing, 1994 ISBN 0-86347-113-7
Who Is This Jesus?, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1998? ISBN 0-340-72225-8
The Message of Matthew (Bible Speaks Today Series), InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 2001 ISBN 0-8308-1243-1
But Don't All Religions Lead to God?: Navigating the Multi-Faith Maze, Baker, Grand Rapids, 2002 ISBN 0-8010-6439-2
After Alpha, Kingsway Publications, 2003 ISBN 1-84291-024-8
Thirty Years That Changed the World: The Book of Acts for Today, William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2004 ISBN 0-8028-2766-7
St.Thomas Becket, Gracewing, 2004 ISBN 0-85244-590-3
Avoiding Jesus: Answers for Skeptics, Cynics, and the Curious (Southern Icons), Baker, Grand Rapids, 2005 ISBN 0-8010-6561-5
Sharing Your Faith With Friends and Family, Baker, Grand Rapids, 2005.
The Books the Church Suppressed, Monarch Publications, 2005 ISBN 1-85424-698-4

Autobiography

Adventure of Faith: Reflections on 50 Years of Christian Service, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2001 ISBN 0-00-710542-8

Links

'GREEN, Canon Edward Michael Bankes', in Crockford's Clerical Directory (97th edn, London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
: Church House Publishing, 2001), p. 298

Michael Green (theologian)

Education and career

Apologetics & evangelism

Humorous reference

Bibliography

Autobiography

Links

Footnotes