Geoffrey Parrinder
Geoffrey Parrinder, who has died aged 95, will be fondly remembered as distinguished scholar, friend, colleague, and happy family man. Through numerous writings, lectures, radio and television talks, his work with educational bodies and academic associations, he exercised a wide influence on the modern study of world religions in schools and universities, both in Britain and abroad. A towering academic figure with an impressive career, he always remained humble and kind, even a little shy, and never boasted about his academic achievements.
A tall, gaunt figure with a mass of hair and erect bearing, he always had a twinkle in his eye, an infectious smile, and a welcoming gesture towards guest and stranger. Family and friends knew him as a spirited, witty raconteur with a great love for stimulating conversation, whether pursuing an intellectual or political argument, or just small talk about the latest academic affairs.
Edward Geoffrey Simons Parrinder was born on April 30, 1910 in New Barnet, Hertfordshire, to a family of liberal and tolerant religious ethos. His father, from a practising Wesleyan Methodist family, worked for glove firms in the city of London and eventually set up his own business, going bankrupt in 1930. In 1919, the family had moved to Leigh-on-Sea where Geoffrey went to school until 16, when he started working as a booking clerk at the local station, his job for the next 2 ½ years. His family takes pleasure and pride in the fact that, after much effort and highly focused studies, he eventually rose from the position of a railway clerk to that of an internationally known professor with three doctorates (two from the University of London, one honorary doctorate from Lancaster University)!
He experienced an early vocation to become a Methodist minister and missionary to Africa, but his parents tried to dissuade him from this. Through a close family friend the young Geoffrey learnt early about different Christian groups and people of other faiths, especially Buddhism. During his time at the railway he qualified as a local preacher and then trained between 1929-1932 for the Wesleyan Methodist ministry at Richmond College in London. He soon responded to a call from the Methodist Mission House to serve in French West Africa by going out in 1933 to Dahomey (now Benin), after acquiring enough theology and French in Montpellier. This was the beginning of his formative experience of Africa where he worked on and off for 19 years.
It was Methodism that made Geoffrey Parrinder what he was. It led him to his initial vocation, provided his early training and launched him on his academic career by sending him to Africa. It also gave him his strong Christian faith and fellowship that remained with him for the rest of his life. Methodists will claim him as one of their own, but as one of the internationally renowned religious studies figures of the twentieth century, Geoffrey Parrinder also grew far beyond his own church.
His missionary career in Dahomey and the Ivory Coast lasted from 1933-1946. In 1936, he returned to England to get ordained and marry Mary, a nurse met at a Methodist meeting some years before. A couple deeply devoted to each other throughout 69 years of married life, Mary and Geoffrey much enjoyed their growing family life with one daughter and two sons. When on leave in England in 1940, they could not return to Dahomey because of Vichy rule in France, and Parrinder then worked in the Methodist Circuit in Redruth, Cornwall (1940-1943), and in the French Circuit in Guernsey (1946-1949), with another spell in West Africa in between. During this time he took London BA and BD degrees externally, worked for an MA, MTh and PhD, based on pioneering empirical research on the indigenous religious beliefs of West Africa. His first book, West African Religion (1949), was soon followed by more research on religion in Ibadan, published as Religion in an African City (1953), which gained him a London University DD. Other important publications were African Psychology (1951), African Traditional Religion (1954), Witchcraft (1958), The Story of Ketu (1956).
In 1949, he was appointed to the highly innovative Department of Religious Studies at University College Ibadan in Nigeria, first as a lecturer (1949-1950), then as senior lecturer (1950-1958), influencing many African students and making lasting friendships. In 1958, he obtained the new post of Reader in the Comparative Study of Religions at King’s College, University of London. Awarded a personal chair in 1970, he was Dean of the Faculty of Theology (1972-1974) and retired after 19 years’ work in 1977.
It is through his teaching, writing, radio and television talks that Geoffrey Parrinder exercised a wide influence on students, teachers and the general public. Best known among his former students is Archbishop Desmond Tutu who graciously wrote the foreword to a Festschrift published by former students, colleagues and friends for Parrinder’s eightieth birthday in 1990.
Parrinder was a founder member of the British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR), acted as its Honorary Secretary (1960-1972) and subsequently became its President (1972-1977), and then a life member. He was also very active in the London Society for the Study of Religion (LSSR), whose President he was from 1980-1982, and in the London Society of Jews and Christians (LSJC), which elected him President (1981-1990), and then Honorary Life President (1990). Other important activities included the World Congress of Faiths and the Shap Working Party on World Religions in Education of which he was a founder member and Co-President until 1987. He argued for the study of world religions at all levels of education and gave much encouragement to those working in schools and colleges.
He served on the editorial boards of several journals and gave many special lectures: the Charles Strong Lectures in Sydney (1964), the Wilde Lectures in Natural and Comparative Religion at Oxford (1966-1969), the Westcott Teape Lectures in India (1973). He was also a visiting professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo (1977-1978) and a visiting lecturer at the University of Surrey (1978-1982).
His publishing output was phenomenal. A bibliography of his writings lists 29 single-authored and six edited books between 1949 and 1992, apart from numerous shorter works. He last wrote in January 2003 when he produced once more his report on ‘Religion’ for the Annual Register of World Events, which he had done for 45 years, the first and only person to do so.
As to the lasting contribution and originality of his research, his pioneering work on African religions probably ranks highest, but his wide influence is largely due to the many works he wrote on Indian religions, on Islam, and on comparative themes which appealed to a wide reading public. The much used textbook What World Religions Teach has been his best-selling title, and his first work, West African Religion, was in print for forty years while others have often been reprinted.
His memory and influence will live on in the people he touched through his presence, his work, his unstinting efforts at promoting dialogue, better understanding and closer collaboration between members of different faiths and cultures, and in advancing the study of religions as a significant subject area which deserves its rightful place in all educational institutions, from schools to universities. A service of thanksgiving for his life was held on July 4 at Orpington Methodist Church where he and his wife Mary worshipped for more than forty years. It was a life of many blessings, richly lived with and for others. It was a service that honoured a truly great and good man, blessed with a sense of abundance and a love of life, a man of learning, a man of family and many friends from many lands.Geoffrey Parrinder was a man of great compassion, kindness and a large heart who flourished as a human being and made others flourish around him. He is survived by his wife Mary, a daughter and a son, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. One son predeceased him.
Ursula King
