Peter Vardy (theologian)

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]

For other people with the same name, see Peter Vardy (disambiguation).

Peter Vardy
BornJuly 1945
NationalityBritish
Education
OccupationTheologian, author, conference organizer
Organization
  • Candle Conferences Ltd.
  • Candle Education Ltd.
Spouse(s)
  • Anne Vardy (m. 1974–2004)
  • Charlotte Vardy

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]

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.

Work with schools

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]

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]

Media

Vardy has served as an editorial adviser for BBC and Channel 4 documentaries,[33][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]

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.
  • (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.
  • (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. 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.
  • (2016). The Puzzle of Christianity. London: William Collins.

Articles and chapters

  • (1987). "Review of Kierkegaard's Dialect of Inwardness 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.
  • (2005). "The Philosophy of Religion", in John R. Hinnells (ed). The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion. London: Routledge.
  • (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/9780199540884.013.U4000666. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018.
  2. "Peter Vardy". HarperCollins. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  3. Day, Malcolm (10 December 2002). "Divine inspiration fills sixth-form pews". The Guardian.
  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.
  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. p. 2357. ISBN 978-1408128565.
  7. "The concept of eternity / Peter Vardy", University of London.
  8. "Dr. Peter Vardy". Heythrop College. Archived from the original on 9 February 2006.
  9. [email protected], The Tablet - w. "Alumni say 'farewell' as Heythrop prepares to close". The Tablet. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  10. News, Independent Catholic. "New vice principal for Heythrop College | ICN". www.indcatholicnews.com. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  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. S2CID 221072658.
  12. Ward, Rodney A. (1995). "The Reception of Søren Kierkegaard into English". The Expository Times. 107/2 (2): 43–47. doi:10.1177/001452469510700204. S2CID 169161771.
  13. Pattison, George (2009). "Great Britain: From 'Prophet of the Now' to Postmodern Ironist (and after)". In Stewart, Jon (ed.). Kierkegaard's International Reception, Volume 1. Farnham: Ashgate. p. 263.
  14. "Newsletter" (PDF). Shebbear College. 23 September 2016.
  15. Wilson, Zack (3 August 2011). "A biography of Peter Vardy (Philosophy Lecturer, Author)". Overblog.
  16. "Is God? Who God? The Existence and Nature of God". Diocese of Westminster. Autumn 2012.
  17. "www.dialogue.org.uk". www.dialogue.org.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  18. "'Arguments for the existence of God' by Peter Vardy". National Library of Australia. 2001.
  19. "Wombat Education Limited". London: Companies House.
  20. "CANDLE CONFERENCES LIMITED - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  21. "Candle Conferences Limited". London: Companies House.
  22. "Candle Education Limited". London: Companies House.
  23. "Leading philosopher leads regional religious conference". The Northern Echo. 28 January 2013.
  24. "English Baccalaureate". publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  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.
  27. Vardy, Peter (2007). "Becoming Fully Human" (PDF). Dialogue Australasia.
  28. Vardy, Peter (28 May 1999). "Denying Catholic minds the quest for truth". The Age. p. 15.
  29. Rutledge, David (2 May 2002). "RAVE: about religious and values education". ABC Radio National.
  30. "Five Strands". www.dialogueaustralasia.org. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  31. "Five Strands". Dialogue Australasia Network. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  32. Hunt, Alison (2004). "Values: Taught or Caught? Experiences of Year 3 Students in a Uniting Church School" (PDF). International Education Journal. 4 (4): 129 – via https://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles.
  33. "Experts help North Tyneside add spirit to learning". North Tyneside Council. 24 May 2007.
  34. alphafoxtrotalpha1 (24 August 2010), Ian Rankine's Evil Thoughts: 1/7, retrieved 2 December 2018
  35. "Feature Interview: Dr Peter Vardy". ABC Radio. 21 August 2015.
  36. Vardy, Peter (18 August 2011). "Dead reckoning". Times Higher Education.
  37. Vardy, Peter (31 July 2014). "Theologians should face Peter Singer's challenge". Eureka Street.
  38. "The Reading Clinic". BBC Radio 4. 20 July 2003.
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