Professor John Russell Hinnells (27 August 1941 - 3 May 2018) was Professor of Comparative Religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. At various times he held the posts of lecturer at Newcastle University, then Professor of Comparative Religion at Manchester University, and later at the University of Derby and Liverpool Hope University, and was a fellow at Robinson College, Cambridge.
After school, he spent some time at Mirfield as part of the Community of the Resurrection, where he was influenced by the work of Trevor Huddleston. He then went to King's College London, tutored by Christopher Evans and Morna Hooker, with Desmond Tutu as a tutorial partner. Later, he would undertake postgraduate work at the School of Oriental and African Studies with Sir Harold Bailey and Mary Boyce.
From 1967 on, he shaped his subject in several ways over a period of five decades:
He played a key role in the Shap Working Party, shaping the way religion has been taught in schools for the last fifty years.[1] In 1970, he edited Comparative Religion in Education,[2] with a foreword by the then Secretary of State for Education, Edward Short. This work argued that world religions should not be taught from a Western Christian perspective, but on their own terms, and in doing so, set the tone for religious education for the next 50 years.
He popularised the subject of comparative religion through books with a wide readership, including the 1991 Who's Who of World Religions.[3] the 1996 Handbook of Living Religions,[4] the first 1997 Penguin Dictionary of Religions,[5] the 2009 Handbook of Ancient Religions,[6] and the 2010 Penguin Handbook of the World’s Living Religions.[7]
He deepened the research base through books on research methods that geographers and sociologists also use, most notably through The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion,[8] and the series on Textual Sources for the Study of Religion, which applied biblical criticism techniques to other religious works.[9]
He widened the thematic study of religion through books on religious diaspora,[10][11][12] religion and violence,[13] religion health and suffering,[8] and religion wealth and giving.
He was an authority on Zoroastrianism. His books on Zoroastrianism include Persian Mythology,[14]Zoroastrians in Britain,[15] and The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration.[16]
In total, according to Worldcat he is believed to have authored or edited some 246 works in around 800 editions.[17]
A festschrift was published in his honour in 2017, building on his thematic study of religions to explore religion and material wealth.[18] His work was memorialised in The Times[19] and The Daily Telegraph,[20] and by a memorial lecture by Almut Hintze at SOAS,[21] His book collection is now at the Ancient India and Iran Trust in Cambridge,[18] and is being catalogued as the John Hinnells Collection and made available through the Cambridge University Library.[citation needed]
^Jackson 2019.
^Hinnells 1970.
^Hinnells 1991.
^Hinnells 1996.
^Hinnells 1997.
^Hinnells 2009.
^Hinnells 2010.
^ abHinnells 2011.
^"Textual Sources for the Study of Religion". University of Chicago Press.
^Hinnells 2007.
^Hinnells & Williams 2012.
^Coward, Hinnells & Williams 2000.
^King & Hinnells 2006.
^Hinnells 1997a.
^Hinnells 1996a.
^Hinnells 2005.
^"WorldCat".
^ ab"A Festschrift for John Hinnells". Ancient India and Iran Trust. 12 March 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
^"Professor John Hinnells: Register Determined expert on Zoroastrianism who founded degree courses on world religion and zipped across the world on crutches". The Times. 16 July 2018. p. 46. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
^"Professor John Hinnells: Scholar whose research transformed the study and understanding of the world's main religions". The Daily Telegraph. 7 August 2018. p. 25.
^SOAS University of London. "The Study of Religions at SOAS and Beyond: An Event in Memory of Professor John Russell Hinnells". YouTube. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
AP. 3 December 1974. Retrieved 19 January 2013.[permanent dead link] JohnHinnells (2005), The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration, OUP Oxford...
conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a single deity, worshipped...
(2007). "Iranians and Indians on the shores of Serendib (Sri Lanka)". In JohnHinnells; Alan Williams (eds.). Parsis in India and the Diaspora. Routledge....
focus on Sikh theodicy, in Religion, Health and Suffering (Editors: JohnHinnells and Roy Porter), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-7103-0611-1, pp. 111–132 Whitley...
(2007). "Iranians and Indians on the shores of Serendib (Sri Lanka)". In JohnHinnells; Alan Williams (eds.). Parsis in India and the Diaspora. Routledge....
Eduardo (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Infobase Publishing. p. 374. JohnHinnells; Richard King (2007). Religion and Violence in South Asia. Taylor &...
under the editorship of Albert de Jong. Hinnells, John (2010). "Boyce, Mary". Encyclopaedia Iranica. John R. Hinnells, 'Boyce, (Nora Elisabeth) Mary (1920–2006)'...
Media. 1971. p. 229. GGKEY:BDL52T227UN. Retrieved 27 October 2012. JohnHinnells (12 December 2007). Parsis in India and the Diaspora. Taylor & Francis...
3 March 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2013. Jaffrelot, Christopher (2006). JohnHinnells, Richard King (ed.). Religion and Violence in South Asia. Routledge...
і неосуфізм у Західній Європі". Українське релігієзнавство. 37: 92. Hinnells, John R. (2006). Sufism in the West. Routledge. p. 36. From “The new Murabitun”...
see: "Sufism in the West", bibliography pp. 190–202 (Jamal Malik and JohnHinnells ed. Routledge: London and New York, 2006). Talk:Idries Shah#Shah on...
PMID 24550805. Paden, William E. (2009), Comparative religion. In: JohnHinnells (ed.) (2009), "The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion", pp...
dissatisfaction with the Western world's scholarly study of Hinduism. JohnHinnells, a British scholar of comparative religions, considers Malhotra to lead...
Atlanta Falcons), complications from Parkinson's disease and dementia. JohnHinnells, 76, British theologian. György Holovits, 71, Hungarian Olympic sailor...
West, London and New York: Routledge, 2006 (co-author & co-editor with JohnHinnells) Religious Pluralism in South Asia and Europe, New Delhi: Oxford University...
68-75 (Penn State University Press, Fall 2018) p. 68 Jamal Malik and JohnHinnells (eds), Sufism in the West (Routledge, 2006) p. viii Merin Shobhana Xavier...
Scroll.in. Retrieved 2020-10-12. John R. Hinnells, The Zoroastrian Diaspora, Oxford, (2005) pp.225–6 John R. Hinnells, Zoroastrians in Britain, Oxford...
Dina Wadia Dies, Leaves Behind Disputed Property". 2 November 2017. Hinnells, John R. (2005) The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford University...
Kazhdan 1991, p. 136. Kazhdan 1991, pp. 75, 136; Parry & Hinnells 1999, p. 35. Parry & Hinnells 1999, p. 35. Diocese in Europe (20 May 2011). "Partners...
Malik; JohnHinnells; Pnina Werbner (2006). "7 - Seekers on the path. Different ways of being a Sufi in Britain". In Malik, Jamal; Hinnells, John (eds.)...
Buchgesellschaft, pp. 360–376 Gershevitch, Ilya (1975), "Die Sonne das Beste", in Hinnells, John R. (ed.), Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress...
Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020. Hinnells, John R. (28 April 2005). The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration...
jinni-like creature that strangles newborn babies on 6th day of their lives. Hinnells, John Russell (1973). Persian mythology. Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0600030904. v t...
religion in each state". WashingtonPost.com. Retrieved January 12, 2018. Hinnells, John R. "The modern Zoroastrian diaspora." Migration: the Asian experience...
released under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License John Russell Hinnells; Alan Williams (2007). Parsis in India and the Diaspora. Routledge...