I am sad to announce the death at 75 of John Bowden after a fight against cancer. John, whom I first met 42 years ago, was one of the most outstanding religious book publishers of the post war years. He was also an accomplished translator, editor and Anglican priest.
John took over as Managing Director of the SCM Press shortly after that publishing house had hit headlines and the jackpot with John Robinson’s Honest to God. At the last minute The Observer had decided to serialise the book and overnight it became an international publishing sensation.
John was a radical to his fingertips and the ethos of the new SCM Press suited him perfectly. He went on to publish more books by John Robinson but being well attuned to the theological ferment on the continent, he published Protestant theologians like Jurgen Moltman, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Martin Hengel as well as the outstanding Catholic theologians Hans Kung and Edward Schillebeeckx. To their amazement he not only studied their works closely he also increasingly translated their works himself. With his three cornered hat (editor, translator and publisher) John fizzed with intellectual energy.
At the Frankfurt Book Fair each year, he presided at the SCM stand while US publishers queued up to acquire North American rights in his incomparable list of publications. He was in his element and played the theological Grand Seigneur magnificently. Always he was ably assisted by Margaret Lydamore, his managing editor.
On his retirement from the SCM Press in 2000, he willingly accepted the invitation from Continuum to work closely with this newly founded publishing house. It was ironic that Continuum soon acquired the old established publishing house of T&T Clark which had for years been the only serious rival to SCM Press in the publishing of serious original theology.
I suggested to John that he compile and edit a major new work of reference called Christianity: The Complete Guide. This was designed as a competitor to The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church which seemed somewhat tired, dated and very Anglo-centric.
This brought out the best in John. It was scholarly and widely based, drawing on writers from all Christian traditions. Continuum benefited from his years of experience as a scholarly publisher and his prodigious energy. It was published in the USA by OUP and was a critical and commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic. He went on to compile a World Chronology of Christianity.
But illness struck and his energies flagged. As a token of his close friendship with Hans Kung, he did however translate the two volumes of Kung’s autobiography (My Struggle for Freedom and Disputed Truth) and at the end of last year he completed a translation of Kung’s small masterpiece What I Believe.
John and his wife lived in Highgate near children and grandchildren. He loved to entertain. Guests enjoyed his wife Rachel’s magnificent cuisine and John’s wine cellar and much spirited conversation. We shall all at Continuum miss him greatly.
Robin Baird-Smith
December 6th 2010
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