Nigel G. Wright
{{short description|British Baptist theologian (born 1949)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = The Reverend Dr
| name = Nigel G. Wright
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSA|FRHistS|FHEA|size=100%}}
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1949|05|13|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Manchester, England
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| nationality = British
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| module = {{Infobox clergy |child=yes
| religion = Christianity (Baptist)
| church = {{nowrap|Baptist Union of Great Britain}}
| ordained = {{circa|1971}}
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| module2 = {{Infobox academic |child=yes
| alma_mater = {{ubl | University of Leeds |University of London University of Glasgow | King's College, London[Spurgeon's College}}
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| doctoral_advisor = Colin Gunton
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| discipline = Theology
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| workplaces = Spurgeon's College
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Nigel Goring Wright {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSA|FRHistS|FHEA}} (born 1949) is a British Baptist theologian.{{cite book|author=Stephen Sprinkle|title=Ordination: Celebrating the Gift of Min|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jta75EzFrp8C&pg=PA37|publisher=Chalice Press|isbn=978-0-8272-2744-6|pages=37–}}
Early life and education
Wright was born on 13 May 1949 in Manchester and joined the Baptist church at the age of fifteen. He attended the University of Leeds, graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in modern languages. He further gaining a BD degree from the University of London. He earned a Master of Theology degree from the University of Glasgow in 1987 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1994 from King's College, London.{{cite book|author=James Leo Garrett|title=Baptist Theology: A Four-century Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=epEHq0mTsKgC&pg=PA686|year=2009|publisher=Mercer University Press|isbn=978-0-88146-129-9|pages=686–}}
Career in the Baptist church
Wright trained for the ministry at Spurgeon's College in London and served as a Baptist minister at Ansdell in Lytham St Annes on Lancashire's Fylde coast from 1973 to 1986, then as a tutor at Spurgeon's College, again as a local minister in Altrincham, and became principal of Spurgeon's College in 2000.{{cite book|author1=Jane Fitz-Gibbon|author2=Andrew Fitz-Gibbon|title=Secular Monasticism: A Journey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7b4yjRGQSi4C&pg=PA27|date=1 September 2012|publisher=Xlibris Corporation|isbn=978-1-4797-0719-5|pages=27–}}{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=January 2018}} He was elected President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain in 2002 and retired in 2013. He is married to Judy, has two children and now lives in Cheshire.
Author and theologian
Wright has written a number of books{{cite book|author=Alan P. F. Sell|title=Nonconformist Theology in the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qHxNAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA105|date=17 September 2012|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=978-1-62032-422-6|pages=105–}}{{cite book|author=Christopher J. H. Wright|title=The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIeCwHb3OsQC&pg=PA433|date=23 October 2006|publisher=InterVarsity Press|isbn=978-0-8308-2571-4|pages=433–}} and essays{{cite book|author1=David J. Cohen|author2=Michael Parsons|title=Beyond 400: Exploring Baptist Futures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sXxMAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA237|date=1 January 2011|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=978-1-60899-337-6|pages=237–}} on various Baptist theological topics.{{cite book|author=Malcolm B. Yarnell|title=The Anabaptists and Contemporary Baptists: Restoring New Testament Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QhRkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA178|date=15 September 2013|publisher=B&H Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4336-8174-5|pages=178–}} His views are summarized in Free Church, Free State: The Positive Baptist Vision, published by Paternoster in 2005.{{cite book|author=Stephen R. Holmes|title=Baptist Theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IT91FUoL7HsC&pg=PA168|date=19 April 2012|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-567-00031-6|pages=168–}}{{cite book|author1=Ian M. Randall|author2=Toivo Pilli|author3=Anthony Cross|title=Baptist Identities: International Studies from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7NLAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA377|date=1 August 2006|publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers|isbn=978-1-59752-833-7|pages=377–}} His writings have been widely cited and discussed by other theologians.{{cite book|author1=Helen Dare|author2=Simon Patrick Woodman|title=The "plainly Revealed" Word of God?: Baptist Hermeneutics in Theory and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zq0QQLGKPSQC&pg=PA154|year=2011|publisher=Mercer University Press|isbn=978-0-88146-237-1|pages=154–}}{{cite book|author=Benjamin G. McNair Scott|title=Apostles Today: Making Sense of Contemporary Charismatic Apostolates: A Historical and Theological Appraisal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Q-QBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA44|date=2 June 2014|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=978-1-62564-118-2|pages=44–}} Wright identifies with a "radical evangelicalism," a "development from" conservative evangelicalism: it is "prepared to decide issues concerning the form of scripture on their relative merits [...] It is not inherently suspicious of 'higher criticism' [..] not wedded to the 'conservative' assumptions of much recent evangelicalism."{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Nigel G. |title=The Radical Evangelical: Seeking a Place to Stand |page=11}}
Wright is also a frequent speaker and presenter about Baptist theological renewal.{{cite book|author=Peter Hocken|title=The Challenges of the Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Messianic Jewish Movements: The Tensions of the Spirit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ziw73-alUrMC&pg=PA64|year=2009|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-6746-9|pages=64–}}
In 2009, at the age of 60, he was honoured by a festschrift: Lalleman, Pieter J. (ed.), Challenging to Change: Dialogues with a Radical Baptist Theologian: Essays Presented to Dr. Nigel G. Wright on His Sixtieth Birthday. London: Spurgeon's College, 2009. {{ISBN|9780950068237}}[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/436970327 WorldCat]
Publications
The Radical Kingdom: Restoration in Theory and Practice. Eastbourne: Kingsway, 1986.
The Fair Face of Evil: Putting the Power of Darkness in Its Place. London: Marshall Pickering, 1989. American title: The Satan Syndrome: Putting the Power of Darkness in Its Place. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990.
Lord and Giver of Life: An Introduction to the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. Illustrated by June Gascoigne. The Baptist Union of Great Britain, 1990.
Challenge to Change: A Radical Agenda for Baptists. Foreword by David Coffey. Eastbourne: Kingsway, 1991.
Charismatic Renewal: The Search for a Theology. With Tom Smail and Andrew Walker.
London: SPCK, 1993. And as: The Love of Power and the Power of Love: A Careful Assessment of the Problems Within the Charismatic and Word-of-Faith Movements. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1994.
The Radical Evangelical: Seeking a Place to Stand. London: SPCK, 1996. Wipf and Stock, 2016.
Power and Discipleship: Towards a Baptist Theology of the State. The Whitley Lecture for 1996-97. Oxford: Whitley Publications, 1996.
Disavowing Constantine: Mission, Church and the Social Order in the Theologies of Jurgen Moltmann and John Howard Yoder. Carlisle: Paternoster, 2000. Wipf and Stock, 2007.
New Baptists, New Agenda. Paternoster, 2002.
A Theology of the Dark Side: Putting the Power of Evil in Its Place. Carlisle: Paternoster, 2003. A “reworked and rewritten” version of The Fair Face of Evil/The Satan Syndrome.
Free Church, Free State: The Positive Baptist Vision. Foreword by Denton Lotz. Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 2005. Also: Wipf and Stock, 2011.
God on the Inside: The Holy Spirit in Holy Scripture. Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship, 2006.
Baptist Basics. 12 vols. Didcot: Baptist Union of Great Britain, 2009.
The Real Godsend. 2009.
Jesus Christ - The Alpha and the Omega: Bible Readings and Reflections for Lent and Easter. The Bible Reading Fellowship, 2010.
Vital Truth: The Convictions of the Christian Community. Eugene: Oregon: Cascade, 2016.
How to Be a Church Minister. Wipf and Stock, 2018.
Editor
Truth That Never Dies: The Dr. G. R. Beasley-Murray Memorial Lectures 2002-2012. Wipf and Stock, 2014.
References
{{reflist}}
- Ian M. Randall, "Part of a movement: Nigel Wright and Baptist life" in Pieter J. Lalleman (ed.), Challenging to Change (London, 2009)
{{Authority control}}
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Category:20th-century English Baptist ministers
Category:20th-century British Christian theologians
Category:21st-century English Baptist ministers
Category:21st-century British Christian theologians
Category:Alumni of King's College London
Category:Alumni of Spurgeon's College
Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds
Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Category:English Baptist theologians