Elizabeth Templeton was a gifted woman who was the first woman to hold a full-time lecturer post in the Faculty of Divinity, New College, and was committed to the Church as community of faith, but whose vocation as an educator was mostly lived ‘on the edge’. Elizabeth (known as Anne to her family) was from Glasgow, where she was brought up by parents who were both teachers and pacifists. Her intellectual brilliance and questing mind were apparent from an early age, and she studied Philosophy and English Literature at Glasgow University. Having been nurtured in the Christian faith, the logical positivism she learnt there seemed to exclude all grounds for belief in God. She wanted to test herself and others who claimed such belief, so she came to Edinburgh to study theology at New College. It was here that she discerned that faith is at heart a matter of relationship and community which gives space and freedom to live with fundamental questions. One of her professors described her as the most brilliant student he had ever taught. In 1970 she was appointed as Lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion. Her inspirational dialogical teaching, fearless encouragement to explore and gift for friendship had a deep and enduring impact on a generation of students. In turn, she was profoundly influenced by her colleague John Zizioulas – a radical Greek Orthodox scholar for whom, as she said ‘doctrine was less important than human joy and human freedom’.
In 1977 she married Douglas Templeton, who lectured in New Testament, and in 1980 she left her academic post to bring up their young family. For the rest of her life, Elizabeth operated as a ‘freelance theologian’: widely regarded and called upon as a writer, lecturer, worship leader, facilitator and educator in diverse contexts including the Lambeth Conference, the World Council of Churches and as a religious broadcaster. She worked for the Religious Education Movement, and was at the cutting edge of ecumenical and interfaith initiatives, but remained a loyal, though always critical, lay member of the Church of Scotland. Her vision was for theology to break free from the confines of the academy and become integrated into the everyday lives, struggles and joys of ordinary people. This was the inspiration for ‘Threshhold’ – a walk-in centre in Tollcross which she ran for several years, and her work as consultant with the Adult Learning Project (ALP), rooted in the radical pedagogy of Paulo Friere. In 2006, Douglas and Elizabeth’s adult son disappeared, and for six years they lived with the terrible pain of loss and uncertainty until his body was found in 2012. With courage and clarity, she continued to confront the hardest questions about human existence, and was involved in the ‘Missing People’ charity. Living in rural Perthshire, she was a regular preacher and much loved friend in her local church.
Elizabeth Templeton was a woman of outstanding intellect and compassion who made her mark on New College and far beyond, exploring the freedom of Christian faith, the strangeness of God and the ‘unmanageability’ of human life.
