Alan Le Grys, Tutor for New Testament and NT Greek

Alan Le Grys

Tutor for New Testament and NT Greek

“It’s good to be back teaching ministerial students after a break of ten years. I’ve missed the energy, determination and curiosity of students committed to learning ore about their faith and thinking through the issues for practical ministry.”

Alan is about to retire, having worked for the University of Kent since leaving SEITE in 2005. He has continued to teach over the intervening years, delivering the occasional course on Biblical Studies but focusing mostly at Kent on Doctrine, Church History and Christian Ethics. He has also delivered occasional lectures and courses for other universities, including Birkbeck College (2010-11).

Alan was Principal of SEITE from 1996-2005, and before that, Lecturer in New Testament Studies at Ripon College, Cuddedon. He was ordained as a deacon and priest in the St. Albans Diocese in the mid 1970s, so recently celebrated (quietly) 40 years of ordained ministry, working in both parishes and theological education.

Alan’s academic interests focus mostly on the interface between Biblical Studies and practical ministry – the way the Bible is used and interpreted in contemporary Christian discourse, particularly in relation to Christian Ethics.

Alan lives with his wife Linda and two of their children (the boomerang generation) in Chatham, where he also serves as an honorary Assistant Priest at St. Stephen’s Chatham and on the Rochester Diocesan Synod. He loves music (mostly classical) and has recently turned his attention to getting much fitter, running the 2016 London Marathon in 4 hours 58 minutes.

Publications

  • The Pastor’s Opportunities: Social and Political issues (Expository Times, 1988) (reprinted in ed. C. Rodd, The Pastor’s Opportunities, T & T Clark 1990)
  • Conflict and Vengeance in the Book of Revelation (Expository Times 1992)
  • Preaching to the Nations (SPCK 1998)
  • The Wisdom of Too Much Eschatology, eds. C. Rowland and C. Fletcher-Lewis), in Understanding, Studying & Reading (Sheffield Academic Press 1998)
  • Distinctive Ministries: Priests, Deacons and Readers (The Reader, 1998)
  • The Birth of Jesus and Ascension and Pentecost (BRF 1994 and 2002)
  • Mark and Mission (USPG 2004)
  • Plus numerous Book Reviews for JNTS, Modern Believing, Religion, Theology, etc.

Lectures, talks and conference papers

  • The Letter of James (BNTS Conference paper 2000)
  • Myth, history, story: faith and the creative imagination (Church Lecture 2001)
  • Faith in the Community (University of Kent Conference 2007)
  • Everyday Religion in Medway (University of Kent Conference 2008)
  • In a Language understood of the People: 400th anniversary of the KJV (University of Kent public lecture, 2011)
  • Is there a future for the Old Testament? (Conference paper KCL 2011)
  • Sexuality and Purity in the NT (BNTS Conference paper 2014)
  • Making Sense of Sex (Church Lecture 2015)
  • Is Christianity inescapably hostile to sex? (Religious Studies paper 2015)
  • The Alpha God (Religious Studies paper 2015)
  • Shaped by God’s Story (Church Lecture, 2015)
  • Why is God so disgusted by sex? (BASR Conference 2015)