| Administrative History | John Martin Hull was born on 22 April 1935 in Corryong, Victoria, Australia. He was the second of four children of John Eaglesfield Hull and Madge Enid (nee Huntley). His father was a Methodist minister. The family moved regularly, due to his father's job, and spent time in a number of towns in Victoria and Tasmania. John Hull experienced poor health as a child, including chronic eczema and his visual problems began when he was thirteen, when he developed cataracts in both eyes and was blind for several months. He was educated at Bendigo High School and then Melbourne Boys High School. He studied for a general arts degree at the University of Melbourne from 1953 to 1955, and then trained as a primary school teacher. He taught at Caulfield Church of England boys grammar school in Melbourne from 1956 to 1959, at the same time as studying for a part-time postgraduate B.Ed in the philosophy and psychology of education.
John Hull travelled to the UK to study theology at Cambridge University from 1959 6o 1962. The biblical studies element of this degree course prompted a crisis of faith, and resulted in the development of a liberal/radical theological position which was influenced by the Christian theologians Paul Tillich and Charles Hartshorne. John Hull taught religious education at Selhurst boys' school in Croydon while studying for a part-time PhD in New Testament Studies. He was awarded a PhD by the University of Birmingham in 1969. 'Hellenistic Magic and the Synoptic Tradition', the book based on his thesis, was published in 1974
John Hull taught for two years at Westhill College of Education in Birmingham from 1966, and was then appointed lecturer in religious education at the University of Birmingham in 1968. He had worked with the previous holder of this post, Edwin Cox, and was influenced by Cox's research and teaching, and also by that of some of his contemporaries, including Harold Loukes and Ronald Goldman. John Hull's ideas were also linked to the work of Ninian Smart at the University of Lancaster, who advocated the use of phenomenological methods from religious studies in developing an objective understanding of religions, rather than aiming to develop students' personal faith. Hull adopted a distinctive approach which blended impartial study of religion with the development of students' own personal views, and presented religious education as a combination of a critically open study of religions with a critique of social and political assumptions and values from the perspectives of different religions. He argued against the practice of compulsory worship in inclusive schools in his book 'School Worship: An Obituary', published in 1975
John Hull was a member of the religious education conference that produced the Birmingham Agree Syllabus of 1975, which moved away from traditional ideas of religious instruction. He was a member of the group that produced a Groundplan for the Study of Religion, published by the Schools Council in 1977. Hull was promoted to senior lecturer in religious education in 1978, and Reader in 1986. In 1989 he was awarded a personal chair as the first Professor of Religious Education in a UK university. He also served as Dean of the then Faculty of Education and Continuing Studies from 1990 to 1994.
As part of the debate surrounding the 1988 Education Reform Act, Hull wrote 'Mishmash', published in 1999, which addressed rightwing opposition to inclusive and pluralistic religious education. He combined his interest in an open and critical religious education for all with concern for both children and adults in religious contexts. Publications in this area included 'God Talk with Young Children' in 1990, and 'What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning?' in 1991. His ideas influenced the British Council of Churches' reports 'The Child in the Church' published in 1976, and 'Understanding Christian Nurture' in 1981.
He served twice as president of the National Christian Education Council, in corporated into the new educational charity Christian Education in 2002, and in 1988 he initiated the Cathedrals Through Touch and Hearing project, which provided cathedrals with facilities to enable visitors with visual impairment to appreciate ecclesiastical architecture. From 1971 to 1996, John Hull was editor of 'Learning for Living', renamed the 'British Journal of Religious Education' in 1978, which reported theoretical and empirical research, and was on its UK Editorial Board until 2009. He co-founded, with the American religious educator, Dr John Peatling, the 'International Seminar on Religious Education and Values' (ISREV), which brought together international scholars at biennial conferences. He was general secretary from 1978 to 2010, and was president emeritus at the time of his death. He received the William Rainey Harper award from the Religious Education Association of the US and Canada.
John Hull was granted the title of Emeritus Professor of Religious Education by the University of Birmingham in 2002. In 2004 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Practical Theology in the Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham. Here he worked with candidates for the Christian ministry and taught courses on the theology of mission and on the church in the modern world. From 2008 he was Chair of the Committee for Prophetic Ministry in the Foundation's Centre for Ministerial Formation. He was an active lay person in the Church of England, and worshipped at All Saints, the parish church of Kings Heath in Birmingham. In 2003 he became Chair of the Social Justice Committee of this church. He was also a non-serving elder of the United Reform Church, and retained close links with Methodism. All his children were educated wholly or partly in Catholic schools.
Although John Hull's sight had been restored after he suffered from cataracts as a teenager, he experienced a series of retinal detachments, and became blind in 1980, with no light sensation since 1983.
He married for the second time in 1979, after his first marriage, to Daphne Brewer, ended in divorce. His wife, Marilyn (nee Gasson), was Head Teacher of the Ley Hill Junior and Infant School in Northfield, Birmingham. The couple had four children together, and John had a daughter from his first marriage. John Hull died on 28 July 2015, after a serious fall at his home, three months after celebrating his eightieth birthday with family and friends.
Sources: Obituary by Robert Jackson in 'The Guardian' 16 August 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/16/john-hull Accessed July 2017; biography and personal information on John Hull's website http://www.johnmhull.biz/ Accessed July 2017 |