Come, Let Us Reason Together: A Life of John Wood Oman
Ebook
John Oman (1860-1939) was one of the most original and profound theologian-philosophers of his generation. Drawing on previously unpublished archival sources, Houston traces the influences on Oman's Orkney childhood and his student days in Edinburgh University and the Divinity Hall of the United Presbyterian Church. She reviews Oman's subsequent publications during his ministry in Alnwick, and his influential career as professor of systematic theology and college principal at Westminster College, Cambridge. Houston describes the extent to which Oman's view of the world was challenged and affirmed by his experience of the First World War. Oman's theological and religious perspectives, summarized as "reverence, freedom, and sincerity," are rooted in the concerns of daily life. Oman's experiences and reflections are sure to stimulate, challenge, and inspire readers today as much as they did in his own time.
“John Oman excelled as pastor, college principal, theologian, and philosopher. In this model biography, Fleur Houston sets a good man in context and brings him to life.”
—Clyde Binfield, professor emeritus in history, University of Sheffield
“The warmest welcome to this detailed intellectual biography of one of the most original and creative British theologians of the late-nineteenth and first-half-twentieth centuries. Rooted in his Presbyterian Reformed tradition yet resolutely pursuing truth in dialogue with contemporary philosophies, John Wood Oman’s wrestling with the realities of God and freedom, grace and personality, resonate powerfully and provocatively today when ‘relationality’ has become a vogue word in theology yet always in need of deeper reflection.”
—Keith Clements, former general secretary, Conference of European Churches
“In this extensive biography of the great Cambridge theologian John Wood Oman, Fleur Houston brings careful and detailed historical research together with profound and rich theological expertise to create an insightful and moving story of both the man and the era in which he lived. Contemporary theology—and, indeed, spirituality—can profit greatly from Houston’s scholarship and Oman’s wisdom.”
—Stephen Bevans, SVD, professor of mission and culture, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago
“In this scholarly and sympathetic biography, Fleur Houston has provided a valuable account of John Oman’s life and work. Drawing upon archival and published materials, she charts the development of his thought from its germination in Orkney to its fruition in Cambridge. Her biography will add significantly to our appreciation and understanding of an important theological figure of the early twentieth century.”
—David Fergusson, regius professor of divinity, Magdalen College, University of Cambridge
“Fleur Houston is the biographer John Oman has been waiting for. From his Orcadian childhood to his glory days as a distinguished philosopher of religion in Cambridge, her beautifully written and meticulously researched scholarship illumines his work as minister, church leader, and professor. She casts new and significant light on Oman whom we see anew as one of the most original and creative Christian thinkers of the first half of the twentieth century.”
—David Cornick, emeritus fellow, Robinson College, University of Cambridge
- Title: Come, Let Us Reason Together: A Life of John Wood Oman
- Author: Fleur S. Houston
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666775532, 9781666775518, 1666775517, 9781666775525, 1666775525, 1666775533
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666775532
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-01-31T07:34:46Z
Fleur Houston is a minister of the United Reformed Church. She is the author of You Shall Love the Stranger as Yourself: The Bible, Refugees and Asylum (2015).