Constellation Similarity Assertions

Leslie Dixon Weatherhead (1893-1976), Methodist minister and author was the son of Andrew Weatherhead, a Scottish Presbyterian and Elizabeth Weatherhead. He trained for the Methodist ministry at Richmond Theological College. He served as a chaplain to the Devonshire Regiment in Mesopotamia during the First World War and then in 1919 took charge of the English Methodist Church in Madras. He returned to England in 1922 firstly becoming minister at the Oxford Road Wesleyan Church, Manchester, 1922-1925 and then at Brunswick Methodist Church in Leeds, 1925-1936. In 1936, he became minister of the City Temple in London, a Congregational church where he stayed until his retirement in 1960. He remained a Methodist throughout his career and was twice elected President of the Methodist Conference. He established a national and international reputation as a preacher, counsellor, author and broadcaster, his hallmarks being a passionate simplicity, sympathy with the needs of ordinary people, a conviction of the day to day relevance of the gospel, and a questioning of many traditional theological assumptions. His numerous writings covered a broad range of subjects, tackled in popular terms, but he became especially well-known in establishing a partnership between religion and psychiatry. He was involved in establishing the City Temple Psychological Clinic where he worked with a team of medical doctors with psychological training. He was convinced that much physical and mental illness was caused by the loss of true religion, and he was especially outspoken on matters of sex, even at a time when the topic was still taboo in religious circles. He published extensively including more than 30 books. Some of the most popular titles are The Transforming Friendship (published in 1928, and which sold more than 100,000 in the English edition) and The Christian Agnostic, 1965.

Reference: The University of Birmingham Research Libraries Bulletin (No. 1, Winter 1994). ; The University of Birmingham Research Libraries Bulletin ( No. 4, Spring 1996). ; Lynne Price, Leslie Weatherhead and British Mission, 'More Questions than Answers', in Lynne Price, Juan Sepulveda & Graeme Smith (eds) Mission Matters, Studien zur interkulturellen Geschichte des Christentums, (Bd.103r, (Studies in the intercultural history of Christianity; Vol. 103), Frankfurt am Main, New York: Peter Lang, c1997). ; Who was who, 1971-1980.

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