Adrian Hastings (1929-2001) was Professor of Theology at the University of Leeds between 1985 and 1994.
From the guide to the Material on Archbishop Robert Runcie and Oliver Tomkins, compiled by Adrian Hastings, ca.1920-2000, (GB 206 Leeds University Library)
Adrian Christopher Hastings (1929-2001) was a theologian, church historian, and priest. Born on 29 June 1929 in Kuala Lumpur, where his father practised law, he was brought up in Great Malvern, Worcestershire, as a Roman Catholic and educated at Douai Abbey, from where, in 1946, he went up to Worcester College, Oxford. There he read history, but felt a growing call to go to Africa as a missionary. He was trained for the priesthood in Rome, where he was ordained in 1955, before going to Africa to work for the church in Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia. In 1972 he returned to Britain to take academic posts in Selly Oak College, Birmingham, then (1973-1976) the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and later (1976-1982) Aberdeen University. Between 1982 and 1985 he was professor of religious studies at the University of Zimbabwe, before taking up the professorship of theology at the University of Leeds, which he held until his retirement in 1994. His best-known writings include The Church in Africa 1450-1950 and A History of English Christianity 1920-1985, and he edited The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought and the respected Journal of Religion in Africa . Throughout his life he was a forthright commentator on the contemporary church and its leaders and also involved himself with political causes both in Africa, such as the Wiriyamu massacre in Mozambique, and in Europe, most recently Bosnia and Kosovo. Rejecting the church dogma of compulsory celibacy for the priesthood, he married Ann Spence in 1979. He died on 30 May 2001.
From the guide to the Correspondence, papers, and publications of Professor Adrian Hastings, ca.1943-2001, (GB 206 Leeds University Library)
