The Bible in Church, Academy, and Culture

Essays in Honour of the Reverend Dr. John Tudno Williams

Alan P.F. Sell, Sell

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9781608994755
  9781498256339
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630877958
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

This collection of essays celebrates the contribution of John Tudno Williams to the church, to biblical scholarship and teaching, and to the culture of Wales. Written by biblical scholars, historians, theologians, and authorities on Welsh culture, the papers gather around the central theme of the Bible: its interpretation and exegesis and its place in hymns as well as in the visual culture of Welsh Presbyterianism, in theological colleges, and in theological reflection and construction.

1

Honouring John Tudno Williams:Minister, Scholar, Welshman

Alan P. F. Sell

The three terms in the above subtitle go some way towards personalizing the overall theme of this Festschrift; for we are honouring one whose detailed knowledge of the Bible has permeated his faithful churchly and academic service, most of which has been offered, and continues to be offered, within Wales, to the culture of which nation he is deeply committed. In this paper I shall first attempt a biographical sketch of my friend and former colleague,1 and I shall then briefly introduce the ensuing papers.

John was born on 31 December 1938 in Flint, where his father, Arthur Tudno Williams, an alumnus of Jesus College, Oxford, was minister of the Welsh Presbyterian Church. His mother, Primrose (née Hughes Parry), was raised on her father’s farm, where she lived until her marriage. Their family was completed with the arrival, two years after John, of his sister, Mair.

Evidence of the depth of John’s roots in Welsh Presbyterianism is found on both sides of his family. His great-great grandfather on his mother’s side was Robert Hughes (1811–1892).2 The son of a tenant farmer, Robert had little schooling. In 1830 he joined a cattle drove to London, where he became a member of Jewin Street Calvinistic Methodist Church.3 Three years later his father called him back to Wales to manage the large farm of Uwchlaw’r-ffynnon, Caernarfonshire. This was a daunting task, but in addition to his agricultural duties he became known for his wood carvings, and he began to write poems, for some of which he won prizes at eisteddfodau. He delivered his first sermon in 1838, and taught himself basic Greek, Latin and Hebrew. He received an offer of help to equip him as an Anglican clergyman, and another to study at University College, London, but his family and farming commitments would not permit him to leave. Ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1848, he went on preaching tours, and ministered without stipend at a chapel he built in 1857. At the age of sixty he took to painting with oils. In 1893 a volume containing his autobiography and some of his sermons was published.

In John’s paternal line we find a succession of Presbyterian ministers. His grandfather, John Tudno Williams, held pastorates at Walham Green, West London (1896–1906), Fron and Brookhouse, Denbigh (1906–1912), and Bettws-y-Coed (1912–1921). His father was ordained in 1936, and during his Flint pastorate he spent some time as a tutor at Coleg Clwyd, Rhyl. From Flint he went in 1945 to Garston, Liverpool, where he remained until 1951, in which year he removed to Lewisham, London. He returned to Wales on accepting the call to the pastorate of Llansantffraid, Montgomeryshire in 1969, and in 1973 he retired to Ruthin, where he died in November 1994. Of him it is written that

As a preacher he was a clear thinker and a strong reasoner, and the theologian and educationist would show through his sermons. He would never miss a Seiat (the midweek fellowship), and his contribution would always be precise, if not rather abrupt, but never unrelated or hazy . . . He was a keen ecumenist, an uncompromising pacifist, a warm-hearted nationalist, a great eisteddfodwr . . . He had a sweet singing voice . . . In Ruthin he supported all the events of the chapel, be it a service or a pantomime, concert or drama, the Seiat or the Literary Society . . . He was not ashamed of the Gospel, and he testified to it with humility and enlightenment.4

Among John’s early memories are those of German bombers flying over the family home towards Birkenhead and Liverpool, and of searchlights seeking to track them. Like many other children of his generation, John sat the 11 Plus examination at his primary school. This examination had been introduced nationally under the Butler Education Act of 1944, and it was the medium whereby children were selected for one of the available types of secondary education. Unlike most children of his generation John sat the examination at the age of ten, and earned his place at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, then under the Headship of John Robert Edwards, M.A. This school, founded in 1825, was controversially closed in 1985, and the premises now house the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, the co-founder of which is an alumnus of the School, Paul McCartney.5 Enrolled in 1949, it was at this school that John began to learn German, Latin and Classical Greek; and was here, too, that he was among the entire school of 921 boys who sang ‘The Soldier’s Chorus’ from Faust on Prize Day in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, under the direction of Dr. J. E. Wallace, music master at the School and for forty years Chorus Master of the Liverpool Philharmonic Choir.

His father having accepted the call to Lewisham, John left the Liverpool Institute High School after five terms, and was enrolled at Colfe’s Grammar School at Easter 1951. John Glyn had founded a school at Lewisham in 1574, but Colfe’s was a more permanent institution: indeed, it continues to this day. Abraham Colfe (1580–1657), who founded the school in 1652, was Vicar of Lewisham from 1610 until his death. In accordance with the terms of his will the school was placed in the custody of the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers, with which body it is still associated. The premises had sustained severe bomb damage in 1944, and during John’s schooldays temporary accommodation was in use. In 1964 the school was re-opened on its present site. Its status had been that of a voluntary aided Grammar School, but in 1977 it became independent. The Headmaster from 1946 was Herbert Beardwood, M.Sc., J.P., who published an updated version of Leland Lewis Duncan’s The History of Colfe’s Grammar School to mark the school’s tercentenary in 1952.6 In further celebration of this event, approximately six hundred boys, John among them, were conveyed by double-decker buses to London’s Mansion House for a reception. Among Duncan’s other benefactions is the school song, “Carmen Colfanum,” set to music in 1897 by the then–music master, Frederick Leeds. It is not difficult to imagine a particularly lusty rendering of it from the subject of this biography:

Then gather, ye sons of Colfe around

Your voices lend with a will:

Here’s jolly good luck to ev’ry man,

And a cheer Hurrah! A cheer Hurrah!

For the School from the Hill.7

It is not quite so easy to imagine John as Portia in The Merchant of Venice, but he trod the boards to this end with Colfe’s Junior Players—before his voice changed. That change having occurred, in 1955 he began to sing solos accompanied by the school orchestra, and he appeared as the Grand Inquisitor in The Gondoliers, a joint production with the neighbouring girls’ school, whence came his sister, Mair, in the role of the Duchess of Plaza Toro. Lest it be thought that John was entirely consumed by high culture, mention should be made of his playing Rugby for the School, and of his emergence in his final years there as a champion sprinter. Academic pursuits were not neglected. On the contrary, John was among those able students who were permitted to accelerate their course. He was thus able to take his Ordinary Level examinations at the age of fourteen, thereby arriving young in the sixth form. The year thus gained enabled him to take five Advanced Level subjects: German, English Literature, Latin, Classical Greek and Ancient History, in all of which he succeeded. During his final year at Colfe’s he was School Captain.8

John left Colfe’s at the end of the summer term 1957, and in the autumn of that year, in the footsteps of his father, he began to read for the Honours Degree in Theology at Jesus College, Oxford. It would seem that John never considered any vocation other than that of Presbyterian minister, and he had begun preaching whilst still at school. But it was at Oxford that he laid his theological, and especially his biblical, foundations in earnest. Among his tutors were Denys Whiteley, the Pauline scholar, by whom John was greatly influenced; and David Jenkins, later Professor of Theology at Leeds University and thereafter Bishop of Durham. Whilst at Oxford John held offices in the University’s Welsh Language Society, and also served as secretary of the University Branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 1960 he graduated with second class Honours in Theology.

With a view to preparing for the Presbyterian ministry, John immediately proceeded to The United Theological College, Aberystwyth, then led by Principal William Richard Williams, who served in that capacity from 1949 to 1962. The College was housed in the former Cambrian Hotel, which had been bought and donated to the Presbyterian Church in 1906. This was an imposing building, situated directly opposite the somewhat gaudier pier. The first students and staff were transferred there from Trevecca College, Breconshire. In 1922 the Presbyterian Theological College at Bala united with its Aberystwyth counterpart, hence the term “United” in the College’s name. As time went on, significant developments affecting theological education occurred in the region. In 1971 St. David’s College, Lampeter, an Anglican foundation dating from 1822, became a constituent college of the federal University of Wales, and thereafter the Aberystwyth and Lampeter School of Theology of the University was constituted. Ten years later the Congregationalists transferred their Memorial College from Swansea to Aberystwyth, and in 1989 their Bala-Bangor College united with their Aberystwyth institution. These developments were of both ecumenical and educational significance. Teaching and other facilities could be shared, and there was a greater number of theological scholars in the town. As the colleges increasingly opened their doors to undergraduates who wished to read Theology but were not destined for the ministry (or were destined for the ministry of churches other than the Congregational and Presbyterian) this increase of resources proved invaluable, and it became more common to offer the full range of theological degrees. Students benefited not only from the libraries of the two colleges, but also from the University College Library and the copyright library, The National Library of Wales.

Like all Presbyterian ordinands, John experienced the challenge of preaching before church members, academic staff and, above all, fellow students, in Aberystwyth churches, and this with a view to ensuing criticism. A 1963 photograph of the staff and students of the College shows John and twenty-four other students, and the following Professors: Principal S. Ifor Enoch (New Testament), R. Nantlais Williams (Philosophy of Religion), Gwilym H. Jones (Old Testament) and R. Buick Knox (Church History). To his ministerial training John added a programme of research. He enrolled through the Department of Classics of the University College Aberystwyth (the senior College of the University of Wales), as a candidate for the University’s Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The Professor of Classics at the time was W. H. Davies,9 but John’s principal supervisor was Ifor Enoch of the Theological College. In 1976 he was awarded the PhD for his thesis entitled, “Cultic elements in the Fourth Gospel, with special reference to sacrificial and priestly ideas.”

In the meantime John had been ordained in 1963, and inducted to the pastorate at Borth, Cardiganshire. At first he was responsible for four churches, to which two more were subsequently added. On 31 October 1964 John married Ina, the daughter of the Congregational minister, David Gwyn Evans and his wife Margaret Ann Evans. The wedding took place at Pencader, Carmarthenshire, where Ina’s father was minister, and both he and Arthur Tudno Williams took part in the service. In due course Haf was born, to be followed four years later by Tomos. Ina’s teaching career culminated in a period of twenty years as Primary Education Course Leader within the Department of Education of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

In 1966 John was appointed part-time lecturer in Biblical Studies at The United Theological College, and in 1973 he assumed the Chair in that discipline. Thus began a full-time teaching ministry that extended over thirty years until his retirement in 2003. During this time he travelled the length and breadth of Wales conducting worship in both Welsh and English. His published writings are largely in Welsh. They include Problem Dioddefaint a Llyfr Job (The Problem of Suffering and the Book of Job),10 commentaries on 1 Corinthians, and Galatians and Philippians, and a number of articles and reviews in Y Traethodydd (The Essayist) and Diwinyddiaeth (Theology). Among English writings are articles and reviews in The Expository Times, The Journal of Semitic Studies, and the Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. He has also contributed to a number of multi-author volumes,11 and most recently he and Glyn Tudwal Jones jointly edited the bilingual volume, A Book of Services.12

For an authoritative judgment on John’s contribution to biblical studies, with special reference to the new translation of the Bible into Welsh—a project in which John was in...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Honouring John Tudno Williams:Minister, Scholar, Welshman
• Chapter 2: The Challenge of Being Biblical
• Chapter 3: The Ethics of the Old Testament:Historical and Literary Approaches
• Chapter 4: ‘Let Us Maintain Peace’ (Romans 5:2):Reconciliation and Social Responsibility
• Chapter 5: The Growth Motif in the Letter to the Philippians
• Chapter 6: Striving for Office and the Exercise of Power in the “House of God”: Reading 1 Timothy 3:1–16 in the Light of 1 Corinthians 4:1
• Chapter 7: On Serving Two Masters
• Chapter 8: Hymns and Scripture: The Welsh Experience
• Chapter 9: The Transmission of Biblical Visual Imagery in the Calvinistic Methodist / Presbyterian Church of Wales
• Chapter 10: ‘From “Monastic Family” to Calvinistic Methodist Academy’: Trefeca College (1842–1906)
• Chapter 11: A Chapter in the History of Welsh Theology
• Chapter 12: Divine Election: An Exercise in Bridge-Building