Ray Billington

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Raymond John Billington (born April 18, 1930 in Hitchin , † September 1, 2012 ) was a British philosopher and author. The former Methodist gained notoriety for his demand for a "religion without God".

Life

Ray Billington was the son of a Methodist minister and his wife who served in the Salvation Army . As a teenager he taught Sunday School and began preaching at the age of 17. He refused military service and instead worked in agriculture. At 19 he began studying theology in Birmingham, graduating in 1952. He then worked as a Methodist clergyman, u. a. in Glasgow , Cologne (in the 1950s for the Royal Air Force ), Hereford (1958 to 1961 for the Special Air Service ) and Woolwich .

In the 1950s Billington began to doubt the Christian religion, influenced, among other things, by the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls , writings of Paul Tillich and discussions with the Anglican Bishop John AT Robinson ( Honest to God , 1963). The reading of Julian Huxley's Essays of a Humanist also had a great influence on him . Since then he has shared his humanistic ideas and became a staunch atheist . Since then, like John AT Robinson, he has held the view that religion has been adopted by the world religions and is rather to be sought in people.

In 1971 he published The Christian Outsider , in which he denied the existence of a God personified and an afterlife. He was then accused of heresy and dismissed from office by the Methodist Conference. For years afterwards he was a representative of materialism , but most recently he turned to Eastern mysticism .

Billington taught humanities at Bristol Polytechnic , first as a lecturer from 1968 to 1970 , then as a senior and principal lecturer. Until 1995 he headed the philosophy department at the university. From 1972 he also taught educational studies at the Open University . 1984/1985 he was an exchange professor at the University of California . He worked as an external examiner for the European Baccalaureate and gave philosophy courses at the universities of Oxford, Cardiff and Bath . In the places where he lived he introduced philosophical discussion groups, most recently he worked in the Tintern Philosophy Circle for twenty years until his death .

Billington's best-known work is Religion Without God (2001), in which he describes the idea of ​​a religion without God through transcendence in everyday life. His introduction to ethics , Living Philosophy: An Introduction to Moral Thought (1988), became the standard work of philosophy for students. In addition to books, Billington also wrote columns for the Guardian's Spiritual "Face to Faith" section and has participated in religious radio broadcasts.

Billington died of throat cancer in 2012 at the age of 82 .

family

He was married to Shelagh Billington and had three sons. Since 1990 he lived with Hatti Pegram.

Work (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Jane O'Grady: Ray Billington obituary, Maverick philosopher who fell in and out of love with God. In: The Guardian . September 28, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  2. ↑ Billington, Ray (moon John). In: The Writers Directory 1980-82. Macmillan Press Ltd., London 1979, p. 106.
  3. ↑ About Us tintern-philosophy.org. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Billington, Ray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Billington, Raymond John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Hitchin
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 2012