Religious historian The Rev Owen Chadwick has died, 99 years of age

The Rev Owen Chadwick, priest, professor, and prolific author of religious history works, is remembered in an in-depth obituary published by the Guardian.

In addition to his many scholarly achievements, Chadwick was a leading figure in the Church of England, leading it through a difficult transition period as a member of the Chadwick Commission.

From the Obituary:

However, his greatest public service lay in his work for the Church of England, and especially his skilled chairmanship of the commission that bore his name (1966-70), and that refashioned the institution’s government. He resisted strong pressure from within his commission to opt for dis-establishment, but he secured a considerable freeing up of church from state, most obviously by giving the church more control over episcopal appointments, and by removing the necessity of parliamentary confirmation from changes in worship and doctrine.

He also secured a modest degree of democratisation and a broad laicisation of the standing commissions of the church and of its central deliberative and decision-making body, to be renamed the Synod. The report incorporates a very formidable history of the relations of church and state since the Reformation and has provided much of the framework for the modernisation of British religious culture in recent years.

Chadwick has received obituaries in numerous papers.

The Times obituary
The Telegraph obituary

Were you influenced by Chadwick’s work? Do you have any memories of this remarkable priest?