C. F. D.

Moule
Charles Francis Digby "Charlie" Moule CBE FBA[1] (/ˈmoʊl/;
The Reverend
1908–2007), known professionally as C. F. D. Moule, was an
C. F. D. Moule
English Anglican priest and theologian. He was a leading scholar of
CBE FBA
the New Testament and was Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity
at the University of Cambridge for 25 years, from 1951 to 1976. Born Charles Francis Digby Moule
3 December 1908
Hangzhou, China
Died 30 September 2007 (aged 98)
Contents Leigh, Dorset, England
Early life and education Nationality English
Ecclesiastical and academic career
Other names Charlie Moule
References
Ecclesiastical career
Further reading
External links Religion Christianity (Anglican)
Church Church of England
Ordained 1933 (deacon) · 1934 (priest)
Early life and education
Congregations St Mark's Church, Cambridge
Moule was born on 3 December 1908 in Hangzhou, China, near served
St Andrew's Church, Rugby
Shanghai, where his father, H. W. Moule, and mother were
Church of St Mary the Great,
missionaries.[2][3] He was their third son.[2] His family were
Cambridge
Anglican clerics from Dorset. His paternal grandfather George
Evans Moule was bishop of mid-China, and his great-uncle,
Academic background
Handley Moule, was the first Principal at Ridley Hall and later
Bishop of Durham. His family returned to England after the First Alma mater Emmanuel College,
World War. Cambridge
Ridley Hall
He was educated at Weymouth College in Dorset, and won a
scholarship to read classics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Academic work
graduating with first-class honours in both parts and winning the Discipline Biblical studies · theology
Jeremie Septuagint prize, the Evans prize, and the Crosse
Sub-discipline New Testament studies
scholarship. He studied theology at Ridley Hall, and was ordained
Institutions Ridley Hall
as a deacon in 1933 and as a priest in 1934.
Clare College, Cambridge

Ecclesiastical and academic career Doctoral Graham Stanton · James

students D. G. Dunn
He served as curate at St Mark's Church, Cambridge, from 1933 to
Influenced Rowan Williams
1934, during which time he was also a tutor at Ridley Hall in
Cambridge. He moved to Rugby in 1934, became curate of St
Andrew's Church, Rugby, before moving back to Cambridge in 1936 to become curate at Great St Mary's, Cambridge, the
University Church of the University of Cambridge, where he remained until 1940. He was also Vice-Principal of Ridley Hall
from 1936 to 1944.
He became a Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge, in 1944, serving as Dean from 1944 to 1951. He remained a Fellow at Clare
until his death, and was secretary of the Clare Association for many years. He was also a Faculty Assistant Lecturer in divinity at
Cambridge University from 1944 to 1947, and a University Lecturer from 1947 to 1951, when he was appointed Lady Margaret's
Professor of Divinity, succeeding F. S. Marsh. Founded as a readership by Lady Margaret Beaufort in 1502, it is the oldest chair
in the University of Cambridge, and is traditionally held by a New Testament scholar. He was also a non-residentiary Canon
Theologian at Leicester Cathedral from 1955 to 1976, and became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1966. He was a President
of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas in 1967, and became an honorary Fellow at Emmanuel in 1972. He delivered the
Ethel M. Wood lecture in 1964, on "Man and Nature in the New Testament".

He produced two main written works: The Birth of the New Testament, first published in 1962, which explores the context in
which the New Testament was written, and The Origin of Christology, published in 1977, which proposed that the church's
understanding of Jesus had not evolved but rather developed and matured over the centuries. He also contributed to the
translations of the Apocrypha and New Testament in the New English Bible, although he preferred the Revised Version. His other
published works include An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek (1953, 2nd ed. 1959), The Epistles to the Colossians and to
Philemon (1957), The Phenomenon of the New Testament (1967), The Holy Spirit (1978), and Essays in New Testament
Interpretation (1982) and Forgiveness and Reconciliation, and other New Testament Themes (1998).

He influenced many students who now hold chairs of divinity – including his successor as Lady Margaret's Professor, Graham
Stanton – or who rose high within the Anglican hierarchy, including future Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams (Moule
officiated at his wedding) and Archbishop of York John Sentamu. A humble, prayerful man, of slim build and small stature, he
held a profound faith. A friend, Joachim Jeremias, said, "In him could be seen no trace of original sin." Like his great-uncle, he
became known affectionately as "Holy Mouley".

He was a leading advocate for the Ridley Hall in the early 1970s, when it was threatened with closure. He retired in 1976 and
lived at Ridley Hall until 1980, acting as New Testament tutor. He moved to Pevensey in Sussex in 1981, close to his friend,
Bishop Stanley Betts. He continued to preach into his 90s.

He became an honorary Doctorate of Divinity at St Andrew's University in 1958, and won the British Academy's Burkitt Medal
for Biblical Studies in 1970. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1985[4] for his services to New
Testament studies and became an honorary Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge in 1988, in celebration of his 80th birthday.

He moved to a nursing home in Dorset in 2003, to be near his family. He died on 30 September 2007 in Leigh, Dorset, aged 98.
He never married.

References
1. "The Reverend Professor CFD Moule" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1564805/The-Reverend-Prof
essor-CFD-Moule.html). The Telegraph. London. 2 October 2007. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
2. Morgan, Robert (24 October 2007). "The Rev CFD Moule" (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/oct/24/guar
dianobituaries.religion). London. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
3. "The Rev Professor C. F. D. Moule" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080726154422/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t
ol/comment/obituaries/article2590618.ece). The Times. London. 5 October 2007. Archived from the original (htt
p://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2590618.ece) on 26 July 2008. Retrieved 26 October
2018.
4. "The Rev Professor C. F. D. Moule" (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/the-rev-professor-c-f-d-moul
e-394140.html). The Independent. London. 2 October 2007. Retrieved 26 October 2018.

Further reading
 Moule, C. F. D. (1964). Man and Nature in the New Testament: Some Reflections on Biblical Ecology (https://ww
w.theologicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/nature_moule.pdf) (PDF). London: Athlone Press. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
Moule, C. F. D. (2010). Morgan, Robert; Moule, Patrick (eds.). Christ Alive and at Large: Unpublished Writings of
C. F. D. Moule. Norwich, England: Canterbury Press. ISBN 978-1-84825-018-5.

External links
Bibliography at theologicalstudies.org.uk (http://www.theologicalstudies.org.uk/theo_moule.php)

Academic offices
Preceded by Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity Succeeded by
F. S. Marsh 1951–1976 Morna Hooker

Professional and academic associations

President of the Studiorum
Preceded by Succeeded by
Novi Testamenti Societas
Rudolf Schnackenburg Harald Riesenfeld
1967

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This page was last edited on 30 May 2019, at 03:47 (UTC).

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