David Thomas: the Hearing of Two Vocations a Biographical Sketch

chapter 1 David Thomas: The Hearing of Two Vocations A Biographical Sketch

John Davies

David Richard Thomas was born in 1948 and brought up in South Wales, in the town of Neath. Early academic promise won him a place at the boys Gram- mar School, and that same potential led him on to a place at Brasenose College Oxford to read English. Some of his academic studies there stirred his imagina- tion but so too did religion. The Christian faith was encountered through the lens of Anglicanism, formally in the college chapel, more informally at a parish church in the city. As a young man, the idea of ordination began to form in David’s mind. He does not point to a particular time or place when the vocation became appar- ent, and it seems to have been a gradual sense of calling that came to him. His parents moved to Wells in Somerset during David’s time as an undergraduate, and Wells Cathedral certainly had an impact with its glorious architecture, fine music and devotional atmosphere. David eventually became an ordinand spon- sored by the diocese of Bath and Wells. The Church of England was at that time suggesting to ordinands emerging from university that, before embarking on theological training, they should see a wider world. David took such advice very seriously and set off to see a world wider than most. He went as a Voluntary Ser- vice Overseas Volunteer to teach English in a Sudanese school at Wad Medani. David can still speak eloquently about this period in the early 1970s. He did not stay for one year, but for two, perhaps because a world was opening up which fascinated him, the world of Arabic culture and Muslim belief. Coming back to the uk in 1973 as an Anglican ordinand, David became a member of Ridley Hall, one of the two Anglican theological colleges in Cam- bridge. His ecumenical spirit meant that, in due time, he became the student chair of the Cambridge Federation, the umbrella body for the theological training colleges in Cambridge of four denominations. As a potential theological educator David was also made a member of Fitzwilliam College so he could read for a Cambridge degree in theology. After immersion in Christian doctrine and church history, he had the chance, as part of that degree course, to branch out and explore other faiths and their beliefs. Professor John Bowker, then Dean of Corpus Christi College, was a formative influence as David explored Islamic belief and thought in an initial way.

Completing the theological tripos degree in two years, David would normally have passed on, in 1975, to a third year at Ridley Hall to explore pastoralia and undertake some pastoral placements. In fact the Wad Medani experience and the later parts of the tripos meant that further research appealed rather more. A second vocational call had been heard, distantly perhaps; a vocation to explore Islamic belief and theology, and to work as a historian and interpreter on the boundary between Christianity and Islam. Hence, directly after leaving Cambridge, David undertook research for a PhD at Lancaster University, then and still famous for its multi faith approach to theological exploration. Ninian Smart had been a founding professor of the department, and John Bowker had just moved from Cambridge to Lancaster. David’s doctoral supervisor was Professor Walid Arafat, and Professor Montgomery Watt of Edinburgh was the eventual external examiner when the thesis, ‘Anti-Christian Polemic in Early Islamic Theology’, was presented.

Fulfilling Two Vocations

Following three years immersed in medieval Islamic thought, and with ancient and contemporary questions arising about the relations between Muslims and Christians, David nevertheless still felt loyal to his calling as a Christian priest. Nine months at Queen’s College Birmingham, 1979–1980, fulfilled the requirements of pre-ordination training, and led to ordination in Liverpool Cathedral and an inner city curacy in Anfield. Here David was up to his neck in the challenges and joys of the inner city, associated with a parish church, St Columba’s Anfield, which was remarkably buoyant and colourful. He learnt his priestly craft in a good but demanding school. From there David moved to a short second curacy at Liverpool Parish Church in 1983, on the famous waterfront, near the banks and iconic buildings of the city. The post allowed a certain freedom, and David was able to take up the offer of some part time teaching at what is now John Moores University, lecturing in Islamic history and theology. His next post also allowed David to fulfil both his vocations. As Fellow and Chaplain of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, from 1985, David was responsible for worship in the college chapel together with pastoral care of students and staff; but there was also space and encouragement for academic work, again in the area of medieval Christian-Muslim relations, and so work began on what was to be David’s first book (after a number of articles already published in learned journals): Anti-Christian polemic in early Islam.1

1 David Thomas, Anti-Christian polemic in early Islam: Abu Isa al-Warraq’s “Against the Trinity” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).