Geoffrey Parrinder

Geoffrey Parrinder
Born(1910-04-10)April 10, 1910
DiedJune 16, 2005(2005-06-16) (aged 95)
Occupationsacademic and minister

Edward Geoffrey Simons Parrinder (April 10, 1910 – June 16, 2005) — known as E.G. Parrinder or Geoffrey Parrinder — was a professor of Comparative Religion at King's College London, a Methodist minister, and the author of over 30 books on world religions. At least one, What World Religions Teach Us (1968), achieved bestseller status. He was an authority, and pioneering researcher, on West African indigenous religions.

Biography

Parrinder was born in Hertfordshire, England; he studied for Methodist ministry at Richmond College and the Faculté de Théologie Protestante in Montpellier, France.

Between 1933 and 1940 he worked as a missionary in Benin and Côte d'Ivoire, and he spent another year there after WWII. He became an authority on indigenous West African religions.

After serving in the Channel Islands and publishing his first book, he travelled to Nigeria to teach at the new University College of Ibadan, Nigeria.

In 1958 he returned to England; from then until his retirement in 1977, he taught the comparative study of religion at King's College London. Among his students there was the future Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

He was also a co-founder, secretary and president of the British Association for the History of Religions.

He traveled widely in Africa, and in India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, Israel, Jordan and Turkey and held lecturing appointments in Australia, India and America and at Oxford.

Books

References

  1. ↑ King, Ursula (5 August 2005). "Obituary: Geoffrey Parrinder". The Guardian.
  2. ↑ Geoffrey Parrinder (2000). The Routledge Dictionary of Religious & Spiritual Quotations. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-23393-4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Walls, Andrew F. "Parrinder, Geoffrey". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  4. ↑ Ogunbiyi, O. O. (21 May 2022). "African Traditional Religion and Humanities' Scholarship: The Contributions of Edward Geoffrey Parrinder and Kofi Asare Opoku". Springer. The Palgrave Handbook of African Traditional Religion. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  5. ↑ John Pritchard (2016). Methodists and their Missionary Societies 1900-1996. Routledge. p. 5-PT52. ISBN 978-1-317-09702-0.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Geoffrey Parrinder". Thrift Books. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  7. ↑ "Geoffrey Parrinder". Simon and Schuster. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Books by Geoffery Parrinder". World of Books. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  9. ↑ "Geoffery Parrinder". New Directions Books. Retrieved 24 March 2026.