Teachers who inspire

COMMENT

WHEN you think about your life, certain teachers usually stand out. I think this is a pretty universal experience. I want to speak about one teacher in particular; he is much in my mind because he has just celebrated his 90th birthday. More of that anon.

When I went to New College in 1970 to study theology, after three years at St Andrews University reading philosophy and history, I recognised that I was in the presence of some extraordinary teachers.

There were quite a few giants in the land. Tom Torrance was a formidable theologian with an international reputation. Professor John McIntyre was canny and brilliant, both as a theologian and as a university administrator. The Professor of Old Testament Studies, George W Anderson, was a polymath who was fluent in five languages.

Presiding over a very strong history department, Professor Alec Cheyne was quite simply the finest lecturer I ever heard at university level. Professor Hugh Anderson, who had built a strong reputation as a New Testament scholar at Duke University, North Carolina, was a charismatic and inspiring teacher. He took me under his wing, and I elected to do an honours degree in New Testament Language and Literature. At the end of my course, Hugh arranged for me to have a postgraduate scholarship at Duke.

I could go on, and on. New College was a thrilling place in which to study theology, and I was privileged to be part of that community at that time. So, what about the man whose 90th birthday was celebrated at New College recently? Professor D W D Shaw is a remarkable character. Some professors are rightly revered for their knowledge and others are loved for the ways in which they interact with their students; Bill Shaw has always been both revered and loved. Here’s one simple example. Bill would invite his honours students to come to his flat in Edinburgh of an evening. He would provide fondue and wine. As a wee guy from Cowdenbeath, I hadn’t even heard of fondue. Cowdenbeath didn’t do fondue. It was magical. But there was a catch: everyone attending had to bring a modern novel and talk about it. You see, Bill Shaw recognised how easy it was for budding ordinands to restrict their studies within very narrow limits, and thus miss out on a serious engagement with the modern world. As someone who had spent seven years in journalism and who loved writing, I was thrilled by these sessions that brought together theology and literature.

I don’t travel much from my northern eyrie these days, but I was glad to travel down to the deep South to participate in the day event – expertly organised by Professor David Fergusson – to honour Bill Shaw, who climbed the Matterhorn as a young man, who was a Scottish international squash player, who gave up a career as a lawyer to study theology, who broke new ground with his writings on process theology, who is one of the few living participants in the work of the Second Vatican Council – a generous, hospitable, kindly and inspiring man for all seasons who encourages people to think of theology as an exciting discipline.

So, let’s hear it for teachers who inspire, teachers who are passionate about their subjects, teachers who care about their pupils and encourage them to dream dreams. Let’s have a party – mine will be fondue and wine, by the way.

Ron Ferguson (right) and Professor Bill Shaw

This article appears in the June 2018 Issue of Life and Work

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