Religious Experience

When J. Ernest Davey died on 17 December 1960, leading figures said they had lost the most brilliant theologian Irish Presbyterianism had ever produced. Few realized that, in an unpublished valedictory manuscript, he had set out his final considered reflections on 'religious truth'. Some of the chapters were printed posthumously for private circulation - perhaps because of anxiety that the full text would be incendiary. In 1927 Davey had been acquitted of heresy in a high-profile case, and later became Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and Principal of its main theological college. But religious fundamentalism was on the rise in the early 1960s and the Rev Ian Paisley was arousing religious and political passions in Northern Ireland. Not until now have Davey's insights been available in full, and they point to a radical re-thinking of theology, and a re-evaluation of the nature of religious experience.