Peter Vardy (Theologian): Comparison
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  • religion
  • ethics
  • religious-studies

1. Introduction

Peter Christian Vardy (born July 1945)[1] is a British theologian. The author or co-author of 18 books about religion and ethics, Vardy was vice-principal of Heythrop College, a Jesuit college in London, from 1999 to 2011.[2] He is known for the religious-studies conferences he runs in the UK for schools.[3][4]

2. Early Life and Education

Vardy was born to Mark Vardy[1] and Christa Lund Vardy; his mother was Danish.[5] He attended Charterhouse, an independent school in Godalming, Surrey.[1] In 1974 he married his first wife, Anne Vardy, née Moore; the couple had two sons and three daughters before divorcing in 2004.[1] Vardy remarried in 2009; he and his wife Charlotte, née Fowler, have one daughter.[6]

Vardy trained as a chartered accountant, becoming a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA) in 1967.[1] He ran management-training sessions for the National Westminster Bank and Swiss Bank Corporation,[6] and was the chairman of H. Young Holdings plc from 1979–1983. At the age of 30, Vardy began to study theology, receiving a BA from the University of Southampton in 1979 and a PGCE (a teaching qualification) from the West Sussex Institute of Higher Education in 1980. He was awarded a master's degree in theology from King's College London in 1982,[1] and a PhD in theology in 1984, also from King's, for a thesis entitled The concept of eternity.[7]

3. Academic Career

Vardy taught philosophy of religion at King's College London and the Institute of Education.[8] He began lecturing at Heythrop College in 1986[5] and in 1999 became the vice-principal,[8] a position he held until his retirement in 2011.[9][10]

Whilst at Heythrop, he served on the University of London's Board of Theology (1990–1993).[6] Vardy served as President of the London Society for the Study of Religion from 1996 to 1998[6] and remained a member until at least 2007 when the Society celebrated its centenary.[11]

Vardy's primary academic interest is in the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard, whose work he taught at Heythrop for 25 years.[5] From 1987 he organized annual dinners in London on the anniversary of Kierkegaard's death,[12][13] and in 1996 his book Kierkegaard was published,[13] later published as The SPCK Introduction to Kierkegaard.

4. Work with Schools

4.1. Conferences

Vardy served as chair of the governors of Shebbear College, a Methodist school in Devon.[14] He has also worked as a member of the Methodist Schools Committee,[15] and has been a keynote speaker at conferences in the field of education, including for UNESCO and UNHRC.[16] While at Heythrop, Vardy served as an editorial adviser for Dialogue,[17] a journal of religion and philosophy aimed at sixth-form students, and made a series of teaching videos through Dialogue Education.[18] He began running day conferences for sixth-form students in the mid 1990s and set up Wombat Education Ltd in 1998.[19] In 2002 he and Julie Arliss of Richard Huish College, Taunton, organized a conference there and several others around the UK.[3] In 2009 Vardy and his second wife, Charlotte Vardy, set up Candle Conferences Ltd,[20][21] and in 2012 Candle Education Ltd,[22] through which they run day conferences for schools.[23]

Since 2010 Vardy has campaigned against the introduction of the English Baccalaureate, which he argues has led to a decline in numbers taking religion studies.[24] He views philosophy of religion as an exercise in exploring the terms left undefined by theology (such as "God" and "soul") and encouraging humility.[25] Education is a way to help young people become fully human, in his view, or good in the Aristotelian sense.[26] He described the approach in his books "What is Truth?" (2001) and "Being Human" (2003), and in a paper, "Becoming Fully Human", for Dialogue Australasia in 2007.[27]

4.2. Dialogue Australasia Network

In 1999 Vardy worked as a consultant for an Australian school, Geelong Grammar School, in Geelong, Victoria.[28] Later he helped to set up the Dialogue Australasia Network,[29] promoting the "five strands" approach to religious studies in schools that he proposed at the inaugural conference of Dialogue Australasia Network in 1997.[30][31] This was implemented in a number of Australasian Independent Schools.[32] He also served as an editor and occasional author for the journal Dialogue Australasia.[27]

5. Media

Vardy has served as an editorial adviser for BBC and Channel 4 documentaries,[33][34][34] has been interviewed by ABC Radio in Australia,[35] and has written for several publications, including Times Higher Education,[36] Eureka Street,[37] and The Age.[28] Vardy's Introduction to Kierkegaard was recommended in 2003 by the BBC Radio 4 Open Book's Reading Clinic.[38]

6. Selected Works

Books

  • (1987). God of Our Fathers? Do We Know What We Believe? London: Darton, Longman and Todd.
  • (1988). And if it's True? London: Marshall Pickering.
  • (1989). Business Morality, People and Profit. London: Marshall Pickering.
  • (1990). The Puzzle of God. London: M. E. Sharpe.
  • (1992). The Puzzle of Evil. London: M. E. Sharpe.
  • (1994, with Paul Grosch). The Puzzle of Ethics. London: Fount Paperbacks.
  • (1995, with Mary Mills). The Puzzle of the Gospels. London: M. E. Sharpe.
  • . London: SCM Press.
  • (2012, with Charlotte Vardy).
  • Ethics Matters
  • . London: SCM Press.
  • (2013, with Charlotte Vardy).
  • God Matters
  • . London: SCM Press.
  • (2016, with Charlotte Vardy).
  • Bible Matters
  • . London: SCM Press.

Articles and chapters

  • (1987). "Review of Kierkegaard's Dialect of Inwardness
  • (2016).
  • The Puzzle of Christianity
  • . London: William Collins.
  • by Stephen N. Dunning", in Religious Studies. 23 (3):427–428.
  • (1993). "Technology in the Age of Automata", in Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal. 16(1): 209–226.
  • (1995). "A Christian Approach to Eternal Life", in D. Cohn-Sherbok and C. Lewis (eds.). Beyond Death. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • (1997). "Theology and Sharing the Economic Cake", in P. Askonas and S. F. Frowen (eds.). Welfare and Values. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • (2002). "Is Religious Education and ethical and moral debate a contradiction?", in Lynne Broadbent and Alan Brown (eds.). Issues in Religious Education. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
  • (1996).
  • Kierkegaard
  • (later The SPCK Introduction to Kierkegaard). London: Fount Paperbacks.
  • (1997). The Puzzle of Sex. London: M. E. Sharpe.
  • (1999). What is Truth? Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
  • (2003, with Julie Arliss). The Thinker's Guide to God. Alresford: John Hunt Publishing, Ltd.
  • (2005). "The Philosophy of Religion", in John R. Hinnells (ed). The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion. London: Routledge.(2003, with Julie Arliss). The Thinker's Guide to Evil. Alresford: John Hunt Publishing, Ltd.
  • (2003). Being Human. London: Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
  • (2010). Good & Bad Religion
  • (2014). "Theologians should face Peter Singer's challenge". Eureka Street. 24(14), July 2014.

References

  1. "Vardy, Peter". Who's Who 2018. 1 December 2008. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. https://archive.is/20180815233633/http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-4000666/version/2. 
  2. "Peter Vardy". HarperCollins. https://www.harpercollins.com/cr-123848/peter-vardy. 
  3. Day, Malcolm (10 December 2002). "Divine inspiration fills sixth-form pews". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/dec/10/furthereducation.religiousstudiesandtheology. 
  4. Evans, Jules and Vardy, Peter (28 November 2014). ‘Take ethics out of the classroom and you just make robots for the production line', Philosophy for Life, 28 November 2014. http://www.philosophyforlife.org/a-good-atheist-is-closer-to-god-than-most-the-real-enemy-is-indifference/
  5. Vardy, Peter (1996). The SPCK Introduction to Kierkegaard. London: Fount Paperbacks, p. ix.
  6. Who's Who 2011. London: A & C Black Publishers Ltd. 2011. pp. 2357. ISBN 978-1408128565. 
  7. "The concept of eternity / Peter Vardy", University of London. http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b1529547~S24
  8. "Dr. Peter Vardy". Heythrop College. Archived from the original on 9 February 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060209003039/http://www.heythrop.ac.uk/faculty/acad/vardyp/vardyp.htm. 
  9. enquiries@thetablet.co.uk, The Tablet - w. "Alumni say 'farewell' as Heythrop prepares to close" (in en). https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/9050/alumni-say-farewell-as-heythrop-prepares-to-close. 
  10. News, Independent Catholic. "New vice principal for Heythrop College | ICN" (in en). https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/18979. 
  11. de Waal, Victor (July 2007). "The Centenary of the London Society for the Study of Religion: Friedrich von Hügel, Claude Montefiore and Their Friends". Theology 110 (856, 2007): 251–259. doi:10.1177/0040571X0711000403.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2F0040571X0711000403
  12. Ward, Rodney A. (1995). "The Reception of Søren Kierkegaard into English". The Expository Times 107/2 (2): 43–47. doi:10.1177/001452469510700204.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2F001452469510700204
  13. Pattison, George (2009). "Great Britain: From 'Prophet of the Now' to Postmodern Ironist (and after)". in Stewart, Jon. Kierkegaard's International Reception, Volume 1. Farnham: Ashgate. p. 263. 
  14. "Newsletter". Shebbear College. 23 September 2016. http://www.shebbearcollege.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/SC_Weekly_Newsletter_230916.pdf. 
  15. Wilson, Zack (3 August 2011). "A biography of Peter Vardy (Philosophy Lecturer, Author)". Overblog. https://en.over-blog.com/A_biography_of_Peter_Vardy_Philosophy_Lecturer_Author-1228321782-art312961.html
  16. "Is God? Who God? The Existence and Nature of God". Diocese of Westminster. Autumn 2012. http://rcdow.org.uk/faith/faith-matters/faith-matters-spring-2009/dr-peter-vardy/. 
  17. "www.dialogue.org.uk". http://www.dialogue.org.uk/editor.php. 
  18. "'Arguments for the existence of God' by Peter Vardy". National Library of Australia. 2001. http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/42999798. 
  19. "Wombat Education Limited". London: Companies House. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03679698. 
  20. "CANDLE CONFERENCES LIMITED - Overview (free company information from Companies House)" (in en). https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07056392. 
  21. "Candle Conferences Limited". London: Companies House. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07056392. 
  22. "Candle Education Limited". London: Companies House. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08201405. 
  23. "Leading philosopher leads regional religious conference". 28 January 2013. http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/darlington/10189981.Leading_philosopher_leads_regional_religious_conference/. 
  24. "English Baccalaureate". https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmeduc/writev/851/ebac214.htm. 
  25. Baggini, Julian; Stangroom, Jeremy (2003). What Philosophers Think. London: Continuum. pp. (114–122), 121. 
  26. "Dr Peter Vardy on religion and values in education". Radio National. 8 August 2004. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionreport/dr-peter-vardy-on-religion-and-values-in-education/3423284. 
  27. Vardy, Peter (2007). "Becoming Fully Human". http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/740/1/P_Vardy_Human.pdf. 
  28. Vardy, Peter (28 May 1999). "Denying Catholic minds the quest for truth". The Age: p. 15. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/123072417/. 
  29. Rutledge, David (2 May 2002). "RAVE: about religious and values education". ABC Radio National. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/raveabout-religious-and-values-education/3529296. 
  30. "Five Strands" (in en-US). https://www.dialogueaustralasia.org/5-strands-approach/. 
  31. "Five Strands". Dialogue Australasia Network. http://www.dialogueaustralasia.org/?page_id=23. 
  32. Hunt, Alison (2004). "Values: Taught or Caught? Experiences of Year 3 Students in a Uniting Church School". International Education Journal 4 (4): 129. https://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v4n4/hunt/paper.pdf. 
  33. "Experts help North Tyneside add spirit to learning". North Tyneside Council. 24 May 2007. http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/browse-display.shtml?p_ID=4908&p_subjectCategory=23. 
  34. alphafoxtrotalpha1 (2010-08-24), Ian Rankine's Evil Thoughts: 1/7, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9HQ600SyQM, retrieved 2018-12-02 
  35. "Feature Interview: Dr Peter Vardy". 21 August 2015. http://www.abc.net.au/sundaynights/stories/s1443528.htm. 
  36. Vardy, Peter (18 August 2011). "Dead reckoning". Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/dead-reckoning/417177.article. 
  37. Vardy, Peter (31 July 2014). "Theologians should face Peter Singer's challenge". https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=41716#.Wckz5MiGOUk. 
  38. "The Reading Clinic". BBC Radio 4. 20 July 2003. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/openbook/openbook_20030720.shtml. 
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