author
R. J. (Reginald John) Campbell
1867–1956
A celebrated London preacher who stirred intense debate, he became one of the best-known voices behind the early 20th-century “New Theology” movement. His career later took an unexpected turn into the Church of England, adding another chapter to an already eventful religious life.
2 Audiobooks
The Making of an Apostle
by R. J. (Reginald John) Campbell
The New Theology
by R. J. (Reginald John) Campbell
About the author
Born in London in 1867, Reginald John Campbell was the son of a Methodist minister and grew up in several British cities before studying at Christ Church, Oxford. He first planned on a career in the Church of England, but after a change in conviction he entered Congregational ministry instead.
Campbell became widely known as a gifted preacher, especially after succeeding Joseph Parker at the City Temple in London in 1903. There he drew large crowds and national attention, and his name became closely linked with The New Theology, a liberal religious movement that tried to rethink Christian belief in light of modern thought.
His theological views brought both fame and controversy. In 1915 he left the City Temple, and soon afterward he was ordained in the Church of England, later serving in parish ministry and as a canon of Chichester Cathedral. He died in 1956, remembered as a prominent and sometimes divisive religious figure whose preaching and writing captured the spiritual arguments of his age.