Au revoir, Professor Max Turner (1947–2026)

Professor Max Turner was an outstanding New Testament scholar who made ground breaking contributions to study of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. He switched from medicine to Theology at Cambridge after coming to faith in Christ as a undergraduate through the friendship of (later Professor) Hugh Williamson. After a year teaching Chemistry in Kent and Zambia, he returned to Cambridge to do a PhD on the work of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts, a seminal study which challenged the important work of Jimmy Dunn in Baptism in the Holy Spirit (SCM, 1970). From his PhD thesis onwards, Max engaged in lively debate with Dunn and with pentecostal scholarship, not least with Robert (Bob) Menzies (Empowered for Witness, Sheffield Academic, 1994), publishing a string of important articles in the 1980s and 1990s, culminating in his two key books: The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts Then and Now (Paternoster/Hendrickson, 1996) and Power from on High: The Spirit in Israel’s Restoration and Witness in Luke-Acts (JPTSup 9; Sheffield Academic, 1996). These came out of a five-year spell teaching at the University of Aberdeen (1986-91) alongside his friend Professor Howard Marshall, who encouraged him to publish books to share his learning with others.

Prior to going to Aberdeen, Max had taught at London Bible College (later London School of Theology) since 1974, and he returned there in 1991 to be Director of Research, energetically developing the college’s research programme. In 1996 he was made Vice-Principal, and in 1998 became the first lecturer at LBC to be recognised as professor. He supervised some fifteen doctoral theses to successful completion, and was in demand as a rigorous but fair examiner. With Peter Cotterell, Max pioneered study of linguistics in New Testament interpretation, co-authoring Linguistics and New Testament Interpretation (InterVarsity, 1989), still an important study. Max was elected to membership of SNTS, the international society for New Testament studies (1998), as well as FRSA (1999). He presented an important plenary paper at the British New Testament Society arguing for a ‘trinitarian’ understanding of the Spirit in the New Testament, later published (Asbury Theological Journal 58:1 [2003], 167-86). His scholarship was recognised in 2012 by a Festschrift published in his honour, The Spirit and Christ in the New Testament and Christian Theology: Essays in Honor of Max Turner (Eerdmans), edited by Howard Marshall and two former students, Volker Rabens and Cor Bennema (the latter is now Professor of New Testament at LST). It included contributions from Richard Bauckham, Don Carson, Jimmy Dunn, Joel Green, and Howard Marshall.

I had the privilege to be Max’s colleague from 1999 onwards, and team-taught with him on upper-level undergraduate and Master’s modules on the Holy Spirit. I learned an immense amount from him about both the subject-matter and how to enable students to engage with a controversial topic in an irenic way. This reflected the way Max maintained warm friendships with scholars he debated with—Jimmy Dunn and William Atkinson (a pentecostal scholar whom Max had taught) spoke at a small symposium around the time of his retirement He was a great personal encouragement to me in growing as a scholar, teacher and research supervisor.

Max enjoyed the outdoors, and ‘bagged’ all 136 ‘Monroes’ (Scottish peaks over 1000 m high), as well as skiing. We thank God for Max, and send our love to his wife Lucy (whom he met at LBC) and his children and grandchildren.