Lecturer, St. Andrew's Trust for the Study
of Religion and Society, and Emeritus Professor
of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Lloyd Geering is a New Zealand icon having recently received New Zealand's highest award, the Order of New Zealand. Retired from a distinguished academic career in Religious Studies in 1984, he has continued to lecture widely throughout the world and been a regular media columnist and commentator on religious topics. Author of numerous books, his latest contributions are Wrestling With God - The Story of My Life and In Praise of the Secular. Professor Geering will undoubtedly provide a thought provoking and challenging view of the modern world and the changing culture we live in.

Lloyd Geering was made Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit topping New Zealand's new year's honors list for 2001. This is the first time the strictly New Zealand honors have been given. Previously New Zealand granted Imperial Honors, under which Lloyd Geering would have been made a knight commander.

Previously honored in 1988 as a Companion of the British Empire, Lloyd Geering is a public figure of considerable renown in New Zealand where he is in constant demand as a lecturer and as a commentator on religion and related matters on both television and radio. In 1966, he published an article on "The Resurrection of Jesus" and, in 1967, another on "The Immortality of the Soul," which together sparked a two-year public, theological controversy that culminated in charges by the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand—of which he is an ordained minister—of doctrinal error and disturbing the peace of the church. After a dramatic, two-day televised trial, the Assembly judged that no doctrinal error had been proved, dismissed the charges and declared the case closed.

Books by Lloyd Geering

• Christianity without God, 2002.
• Christian Faith at the Crossroads, revised 2001.
• The World to Come: From Christian Past to Global Future, 1999.
• Tomorrow's God: How We Create our Worlds, reprint 2000.
• In the World Today, 1988
• The World of Relation: An Introduction to Martin Buber's I and Thou, 1983
• Faith's New Age: A Perspective on Contemporary Religious Change, 1980
• Resurrection - A Symbol of Hope, 1971
• God in the New World, 1968

Academic Credentials

• B.A., University of New Zealand
• M.A., University of New Zealand
• B.D., Melbourne College of Divinity, 1942
• B.D., Melbourne College of Divinity, 1946
• D.D., University of Otago

Academic Appointments

• Lecturer, St. Andrew's Trust for the Study of Religion and Society, 1983–
• Emeritus Professor of Victoria University, 1984-
• Foundation Professor of Religions Studies, Victoria University of  Wellington, New Zealand, 1971-1984
• Professor of Old Testament Studies, Theological Hall, Knox College, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1960-1971
• Professor of Old Testament Studies, Emmanuel College, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 1956-1960

Awards and Honors

• Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, 2001
• Companion of the British Empire, 1988

Copyright

In Praise of the Secular
Now he has followed the lead of the Renaissance sage Erasmus, whose droll and counter-intuitive title "In Praise of Folly" similarly introduced a critical assessment of a conflicted and self-satisfied society. Our present ...
MORE

Coming Back to Earth From gods, to God, to Gaia
The mainline churches in the Western world are declining, concludes Lloyd Geering, because they are “all out of step” with the modern secular world. This is not so much a result of the supposed renegade behavior ...
MORE