Gerald Bray facts for kids
Gerald Lewis Bray was born on November 16, 1948. He is a British expert in religion and history. He is a theologian, which means he studies religious beliefs. He is also a church historian, meaning he studies the history of the church. He serves as a priest in the Church of England.
Early Life and Education
Gerald Bray was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on November 16, 1948. He went to McGill University for his first degree. Later, he earned two more advanced degrees from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in France.
Teaching Career
From 1975 to 1978, Mr. Bray worked as a librarian at Tyndale House in Cambridge. In 1978, he became a priest in the Church of England. He worked in a church in Canning Town until 1980.
After that, he started teaching. From 1980 to 1992, he taught church history and religious ideas at Oak Hill Theological College in London. From 1993 to 2006, he taught at Beeson Divinity School. He is now a research professor there. He is also a special professor of Historical Theology at Knox Theological Seminary. Mr. Bray is also the director of research at the Latimer Trust at Oak Hill Theological College in London.
Important Books and Writings
Gerald Bray has written many books. His book, Biblical Interpretation: Past and Present, was chosen as one of Christianity Today's best books in 1997.
He has written a lot about the rules of the Church of England, called canon law. He published two main books on this topic. These books were The Anglican Canons 1529-1947 and Tudor Church Reform. Both were supported by the Church of England Record Society. He also put together old records from the Churches of England and Ireland. Mr. Bray was also the editor of the Churchman academic journal from 1983 to 2018.
His most important recent books include:
- God is Love, a Biblical and Systematic Theology (2012)
- God has spoken. A history of Christian theology (2014)
Since then, he has published other books:
- Augustine and the Christian Life (2015)
- The Church: A theological and historical account (2016)
- An edition of the Books of Homilies of the Church of England (2016)
- A special edition of a French pre-revolution document (1788) from the Archives Nationales in Paris (2017)
In 2021, he published a big study called The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland. In the same year, he also published The Attributes of God and Anglicanism.
Recently, in 2023, he published ″A Companion to the Book of Common Prayer″. This book helps students and others understand the classic 1662 Prayer Book of the Church of England.
