Lloyd Geering: Prophet or Heretic

Description

Title: Lloyd Geering: Prophet or Heretic
Author: Jim Veitch
Format: Paperback
Publication date: 21/10/2025
Imprint: Coventry Press
ISBN: 9780648982296

This is the story of the Reverend Professor Sir Lloyd Geering, biblical scholar and minister within the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, who was formally put on trial for heresy in 1967.

It recalls the events, the personalities, the locations, the deep divisions, the historical situation of the churches in New Zealand, the controversies, the reporting of the trial in the secular press, the concerns of other churches, the outcome of a series of compromises that led ultimately to the trial being abandoned.

Meticulously researched and documented, the book reflects the growing awareness in the churches of the effects of contemporary biblical scholarship on well-established ways of interpreting and affirming traditional creeds and statements of faith.

Jim Veitch is Associate Professor in the Strategic Studies Programme of the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, and New Zealand Co-Chair of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific.

He previously served as Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where he had taught courses in Christianty since 1978 and served as Chairperson for seven years.

An ordained Presbyterian minister, he also served as parish minister for more than twenty years. During the mid-1980s, he took time off from teaching to help establish the Council for Mission and Ecumenical Cooperation of the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches of New Zealand.

Veitch is the author of several books, including a modern translation of the New Testament arranged in chronological order, and the editor of International Terrorism: New Zealand Perspectives (2005).
Jim Veitch lives in Masterton.