Talk:Henry Wansbrough

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I am somewhat bemused as to what anybody could possibly mean by suggesting that this entry lacks information about the importance of its subject.

Firstly, Henry Wansbrough was almost single-handedly responsible for the production of the New Jerusalem Bible, which is the version of the Bible used not only by most non-American English-speaking Catholics, but also by many non-Catholics throughout the English-speaking world. Alongside the Revised Standard Version (some would say the New RSV) it is one of the best editions of the Bible in English (for example, when I did A-level New Testament a number of years ago the NJB was one of the two versions of the Bible set for examination gobbets).

Secondly, he was a senior figure in the University of Oxford (which, let us admit, is one of the top universities in the world) for nearly fifteen years, serving as a Head of House, Chairman of the Faculty, university lecturer in New Testament, university tutor in Greek, and lecturer in theology for several colleges. Perhaps the range of his duties at Oxford needs to be expanded in the entry.

Thirdly, as the entry says, he has been a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission for the last ten years. This is an international group of Catholic biblical scholars which meets under the presidency of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). They might be regarded as the top twenty Catholic biblical scholars in the world, and they are certainly among the most influential within the Catholic Church (to which around one in six people on our planet belongs), as well as beyond it.

Fourthly, he is a very senior Benedictine monk. He has been a member of the Ampleforth community for more than fifty years and before that he was a pupil at Ampleforth College. For much of that time, he was a House Master in the College (which is one of the most prestigious public schools in England - for the benefit of non-English, especially American, readers, that means it's pretty much on a par with Eton and Winchester - and the most prestigious of Catholic schools) and a tutor for members of the Abbey. He is currently the Magister Scholarum of the English Benedictine Congregation, which recently elected him to one of its titular priories, conferring the style "Very Reverend".

Fifthly, Henry Wansbrough's writing and lecturing has brought him to a very wide audience. He has close to 200 publications to his name and has lectured to academic and non-academic, Catholic and non-Catholic audiences throughout the UK, in the USA, the Middle East, and Africa.

Finally, one might note that he has become well known to a whole generation of students at Oxford for activities ranging from his pursuit of roller-blading (rare among Oxford dons, especially ones in monastic habit), to his annual trip to the Holy Land. Also interesting is the fact that he was a close friend of the late Miles, Duke of Norfolk and he educated Edward, the present Duke, when he was at Ampleforth.

--Oxonian2006 23:07, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
 * As ana academic - admittedly not in theology, though I am a canon lawyer - I can attest to the importance of this subject. I too am a little surprised that anyone would question this.Ncox 17:36, 9 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree and have nothing useful to add. Accordingly, I have changed the tag to an "expand" tag.  The comments of Oxonian2006 above will be useful in expanding the page (if, that is, Oxonian2006 doesn't get there first!) Bencherlite 13:36, 13 February 2007 (UTC)