1967: The Heretic
November 5, 2019
By AHNZ
Today in New Zealand history, 6 November, 1966, Professor Lloyd Geering, Principle of Knox Theological Hall, was tried on the charge of heresy and doctrinal error by his church. Geering, in 1966/7 had become a wolf among the flock and dropped some theology bombs from within. The Presbyterian brass was not impressed!
In 1966, the Professor created controversy by publicly refuting the resurrection of Jesus. After that had blown over, in 1967, Geering followed it up by doubting the immortality of the soul! Similar to the Radio Hauraki Pirates of ’66, Geering was disrupting the conservative orthodoxy. He was doing for prayer-waves what Hauraki did for the air-waves.
Dutiful Loner
Geering’s parents met in the workplace, Kaiapoi Woollen Mills, before moving to Loburn to farm. Here, little Lloyd was born (1918) and named for the wartime PM at that time, Lloyd George. The family soon moved once again, Mr Geering Snr being a bit of a restless chap when it came to staying put. Lloyd’s father was also a public figure in local politics wherever he went, both Canterbury and Southland. Like father like son.
Lloyd was strong in math so simply carried on, achieving a math degree at Otago. As a youth, he says he was a dutiful loaner. Geering kept to himself and followed ‘the yellow brick road’ laid out for him by his betters. Upon discovering the Presbyterian church, specifically the Student Christian Movement, the lonely boy was Love Bombed into fraternal connection and community he had never known before. Like so many before, this scored a convert for the church which is how the memeplex spreads. Unlike other times, the church had a tiger by the tail in this young man because Geering was not content to be a follower.
I Was Never A Believer
Lloyd Geering would never say he was converted to Christianity. Rather, he made an informed and rational decision with his mathematics student brain and his own free will. However, Geering resolved to “go in boots and all” rather than just show up. There is no zealot like a convert! He would be an active Christian or none at all, so the young rationalist who had found fellowship set down the pathway to being a Presbyterian Minister.
“I was never a believer in miracles or supernatural things. I was never a theist really. In saying the Creed I implied it, but I never though of God in personal terms. I was never particularly happy about prayer. I participated because it was the thing to do, but I never practised personal prayer. Corporate prayer, intercessions, these had some meaning, but I never expected God to do anything.”- Geering; Grimshaw (2018)
To me it seems as if Geering somehow slipped through what should have been an important formal vetting process. He did not come from a family with religious affiliations, let alone Presbyterian credentials. Like Colin Scrimgeour (Uncle Scrim,) Geering used the church as a vehicle for his own career path and the overseers let them!
At Opoho, Geering replaced prayer meetings with lectures. Ministering at St James, he instituted a parish forum as it to make his flock into a university class. Geering had never really been a sincere Christian, an oath-taking and oath-keeping Presbyterian Minister. By some turn of his mind he was always able, without guilt, to treat piety and sacraments as a sort of inside joke never spoken of. Loyalty to the church’s doctrine and the position of authority Geering accepted was some sort of metaphore. Like some math-based android simulating Christian human behavior, Geering just blended in and rose to the top!
“We may freely say that the bones of Jesus lie somewhere in Palestine”- Secular Christianity, R.G. Smith (1966)
Some time after losing his first wife, and after 21 years in the business, Geering was “forced to undertake my first piece of theological research¹.” on the occasion of giving a public lecture. Then came an awakening catalysed by the above quote from Professor Smith. Like Neitzsche, Geering found himself drawing a sharp distinction between the teachings of Jesus and the rebooted version of Saint Paul. Like Euhemerus of Messana in 300AD, Geering conceived as Gods as personified powers of nature or else just human heroes deified by popular imagination. Like Death-of-God Theology and Jordan Peterson, Geering found a way to vivisect Christianity and dispose of the body parts they could not accept.
Heretic Unchallenged
Geering may have carried on as an ‘old fashioned liberal’ unchallenged. Nearly 50, he had a responsible position teaching the new generations of students at Knox Theological Hall. Then, some pedagogical frocked bureaucrat had the radical idea that a guy like that should believe in God. After all, Lloyd was shooting his mouth off about Jesus not being in Heaven and souls not being immortal to the public!
Instead of taking him down, the heresy trial of 1967 fizzed out very fast. Geering kept his job until 1971 and is, to this day, a registered minister on the Presbyterian books. No great debate (which Geering would have welcomed) occurred, just more stale Dignity Culture treading water trying not to self-reflect or actually confront what was occurring in our society. Simon & Garfunkel (1966) said it all…
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
Geering met that Silence and resolved to slay it like a dragon but it ran away and hid in 1967. The national debate didn’t end him but made him famous instead. Geering became a hungry reader and has put out many books of his own. He became a founding professor of a new department in Religious Studies at Victoria University. He was Knighted. He has been interviewed and has contributed to New Zealand’s cultural life all these many years. He was a friend and spiritual guide to the Centrepoint community, while it lasted. Perhaps his greatest achievement, Lloyd Geering is alive and still active. He will be 102 years old in February 2020.
My opinion of Geering is dimmed by the fact that he infiltrated someone else’s church without conscience. Many atheists have too much integrity to enjoy the resources and connections of a Scrim or a Geering at the expense of fooling those who provide it to ever join or remain in a church. By all means, be a Cultural Presbyterian and teach Religious Studies! But how can it ever be justified that one join and participate and pledge themselves to such a sacred honour (a doctorate of divinity, the principle of theology, a minister,…) and never even blush to think what a trick they are playing on everyone who accepts their oath? Students who look up to him, teachers who he hires, clergy that entrust him with Knox College, an old woman who attends his services and helps clean the church, couples who are wed by him, brothers buried at funerals presided over by him…..they had a right to know if their Presbyterian Priest was really a Presbyterian Priest and he took that choice away from them all. That’s the crucial personality bug in Geering that is never discussed in all the materials I’ve researched to learn about him. How could you?
—
Note: Is there not ample evidence to say that Presbyterianism has collapsed from within because non-Presbyterian’s are just as welcome in the ranks and administration? About 50 years ago, St James in Mt Eden was surrendered and started caving in before accidentally catching fire. Maybe not so accidental. Likewise, Presbertarians are out, Hindus are in at the old Balmoral Church. How can we not think of these changes and Geering’s reception in 1967 together?
Ref. Geering Interviews; Mike Grimshaw (2018)
1 p130, ibid
Image ref. The Last Western Heretic
Image ref. Kaiapoi Woolen Mills, 1916; Ref unknown!
image ref. Peterson; Newshub; AHNZ
Image ref. Colin Graham Scrimgeour, an anouncer with Radio 1ZB; Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
Like Comment Share
