John Macquarrie And George Carey

On 28th May the existentialist theologian John Macquarrie died. I thought I’d tell the one story I know about him. As a first year undergraduate at college our Principal, George Carey, had us read chunks of Macquarrie’s Principles Of Christian Theology. We duly bought copies at a local Christian bookshop. Unfortunately George was for ever using an earlier edition than us, making page references, sections and even some content different. Simon, a mature student, had a daughter at Oxford who knew Macquarrie. We clubbed together to buy an up-to-date copy of the Principles, and Simon’s daughter arranged for Macquarrie to autograph it with a personal dedication to George. We presented it to him at lunch-time notices one day. Poor George thought it was a student stunt! He took some persuading that it was genuine.

His apology in the wake of the embarrassment was a mark of his humility, as was his willingness to learn from Macquarrie, whose existentialism was far from his evangelicalism. In a seminar I once started ripping into Macquarrie’s thought (I can’t remember what it was in particular, but something to do with the existentialism). George just looked at me and said, “And I’m sure he’d wish you Happy Christmas, too.”

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