Norman Powell Williams (1883–1943), known as N. P. Williams, was an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

theologian and priest. Educated at

Durham School Durham School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding and day school in the English Public school (UK), public school tradition located in Durham, England, Durham, North East England. Since 2021 it has been part of th ...

and at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

, he enjoyed a succession of appointments at that university: Fellow of Magdalen (1906), Chaplain of Exeter (1909), Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church (1927). In 1924 he was

Bampton lecturer The Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, England, were founded by a bequest of John Bampton. They have taken place since 1780. They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have sometimes been biennial ...

. His 1924 Bampton Lectures were published in 1927 under the title ''The Ideas of the Fall and of Original Sin'', which continues to be an influential source for students of original sin to this day and was included in Ronald W. Hepburn's 1973 entry on the "Cosmic Fall" in the ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas''. Williams argued for a "transcendental" or " pre-cosmic fall" that occurred in the "life-force" and "during an 'absolute' time" prior to the "differentiation of life into its present multiplicity of forms and the emergence of separate species." He served as the

Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity The Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity is the oldest professorship at the University of Cambridge. It was founded initially as a readership in divinity by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, in 1502. Since its re-endowment ...

at Oxford, from 1927 until his death in April, 1943. Also in 1927, he became the Canon of

. A collected edition of his works was published by Eric Waldram Kemp in 1954, entitled simply ''N. P. Williams''. On the flap jacket of this edition, N. P. Williams was given this description: Williams married Muriel, daughter of Arthur Philip Cazenove, of a landed gentry family; their son was

Charles Williams, Baron Williams of Elvel Charles Cuthbert Powell Williams, Baron Williams of Elvel, (9 February 1933 – 30 December 2019) was a British business executive, Labour life peer and member of the House of Lords. In his 20s he played first-class cricket while at university ...

.Who's Who, 90th edition, H. O. Addison et al, A. & C. Black, 1938, p. 3632

Selected works

*''The Christian Doctrine of the Last Things'', 11 December 1927 *''The Ideas of the Fall and of Original Sin'' (

Bampton Lectures The Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, England, were founded by a bequest of John Bampton. They have taken place since 1780. They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have sometimes been biennial ...

1924), 1927 *''The Grace of God'', 1930 *''Northern Catholicism''; ed. by N. P. Williams & Charles Harris. London. S.P.C.K., 1933 *''Deaconesses and "Holy Orders", 1938 *''Judicial Authority in the Church of England'', 1940 *''Sermons and Addresses, Compiled with a Memoir'', SPCK, 1954

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