Hubert Richards was a theologian who made the Scriptures come alive through his ability to express the deepest truths about God in simple, intelligible English.
He had a transforming power over the lives of those who came to know him. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster, described him as “a Scripture scholar of the highest repute . . . a marvellous teacher . . . with a wonderful gift of clarity and simplicity in his writings”.
Scholastic language was not for Richards, who preferred plain Anglo-Saxon words and storytelling. In God Speaks to Us (1963) he wrote: “There are many people who imagine that they can get along quite comfortably without the Bible, that it is a luxury reserved for specialists with antiquarian interests. There is a short answer to this widespread misconception. The Bible is the Word of God and, when God speaks, he has all his children in mind, not only scholars.”
He made it his life’s work to put the findings of modern biblical scholarship at the disposal of those who might be discouraged by technical detail, and to lead them beyond the text to the one thing that mattered, the Word of God.
Hubert John Richards was born in 1921 in Weil der Stadt, near Stuttgart. Not long after his birth his family settled in England. He attended Finchley Grammar School, North London, and spent his Saturdays serving in his father’s butcher’s shop in Portobello Road. To the many houses and convents in the Bayswater area, the young Richards would deliver orders. After the start of the war he went to study for the priesthood at the English College in Rome (1940-46), transferred temporarily to St Mary’s Hall, Stonyhurst, gained his licentiate in theology and was ordained in 1946. Three years later he graduated from the Biblicum, Rome, with his licentiate in sacred Scripture.
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In 1949 he was appointed Professor of Scripture at St Edmund’s College, Ware, Hertfordshire, the Westminster diocesan seminary, where he taught for 15 years. While at Ware, he re-edited Ronald Knox’s translation of the Psalms in 1964, making the prayers more accessible and encouraging readers “to make these prayers our own . . . if we are to approach our Father in heaven as Christ did”. He also worked as a principal collaborator on The Jerusalem Bible (1966). At the same time he began a series of talks to the Sisters of Sion. From this came invitations to meet other groups. One of the largest met weekly at the French Church in Leicester Square. His audiences were moved by his commitment to making known the message of the Scriptures.His contributions to such journals as The Furrow, Scripture and The Clergy Review, of which he was assistant editor, showed that he was ahead of his contemporaries in his understanding of theology and the challenges of ecumenism.
In 1964, after Richards had spent a period lecturing at Lumen Vitae, Brussels, a centre devoted to catechetics, Cardinal Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster, appointed him principal of a new institution, Corpus Christi College, London. This college would allow priests, religious and laity to study scripture, theology and catechetics. When the college opened, in 1965, Richards informed its students that as the college was situated strategically between the rich and the poor world — half in Bayswater and half in Notting Hill — “It is just about the best place to be.”
With the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, Richards and his staff understood their task to be one of finding approaches to religious education which took account of contemporary developments. For the next seven years students from across the world, many having senior leadership roles in the Church, came to the college to engage with the challenges posed by the programme of studies.
Despite the college’s success, its style of teaching came under criticism, and in 1972 the staff resigned because they no longer felt able to develop the kind of religious education appropriate for today’s world. Richards went on to become senior lecturer in religious studies at Keswick Hall, later the School of Education, University of East Anglia. There his passion for the Scriptures became celebrated, his courses often being oversubscribed. Students valued his meticulously prepared sessions, his patience with their attempts to grapple with perplexing theological problems, his sense of humour and the twinkle in the eyes giving constant assurance. The genial pipe-smoking tutor fitted easily into university life, often concluding a teaching session by strumming his guitar and singing one of his gospel songs.
After leaving the priesthood in 1975 he continued to teach, to lead pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to write. His work included theological and scriptural texts, children’s books, Gospel song books and pilgrim guides. Still writing at 85, he described The Four Gospels (2007) as his last will and testament. For him the Gospels were always an invitation to join the pilgrim way.
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He is survived by his wife, Clare, and their twin son and daughter.
Hubert Richards, Scripture scholar, was born on December 25, 1921. He died on March 24, 2010, aged 88