Vigo Auguste Demant (1893 – 1983), known as V. A. Demant, was an English

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 ...

priest, theologian, and social commentator. He was one of the 14 committee members who served on the Wolfenden Report on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution.

Early life and education

Demant was born on 8 November 1893 in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

, England. He was educated in Newcastle, England and Tournan, France. He studied engineering at

Armstrong College, Durham Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a memb ...

. He then studied

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

at Manchester College, Oxford.

Career

Ordained ministry and academia

Demant had originally intended to become a Unitarian minister, but became attracted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

while studying at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and was received into the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

in 1918. He trained for

Holy Orders In certain Christian denominations, holy orders are the ordination, ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders inclu ...

Ely Theological College Ely Theological College was a college in Ely, Cambridgeshire, for training clergy in the Church of England. Founded in 1876 by James Woodford, Anglican Bishop of Ely, the college had a strong Anglo-Catholic tradition. Ely's "ritualistic" ( ...

, an

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...

theological college A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and Christian theology, theology, generally to prepare them for ordinatio ...

Ely, Cambridgeshire Ely ( ) is a cathedral city and civil parish in the East Cambridgeshire district, in Cambridgeshire, England, northeast of Cambridge, southeast of Peterborough and from London. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the built-up a ...

. Demant was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

as a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

in 1919 and as a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

in 1920. He served curacies at

St Thomas the Martyr's Church, Oxford St Thomas the Martyr Church is a Church of England parish church of the Anglo-Catholicism, Anglo-Catholic tradition, in Oxford, England, near Oxford railway station in Osney. It is located between Becket Street to the west and Hollybush Row to ...

; St Michael and All Angels Church, Summertown, Oxford; St Nicholas' Church, Plumstead, London; and All Saints' Church, Highgate, London. From 1929 to 1933, he was an assistant priest at

St Silas Church, Kentish Town The Church of Saint Silas the Martyr is a Church of England parish church in Kentish Town, London, England. The church is a grade II* listed building. History The church was built from 1911 to 1913, and designed by the architect Ernest Charles Sh ...

. Demant became

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of St John the Divine, Richmond, in 1933 and nine years later he became a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

. He served as canon chancellor of the cathedral from 1942 to 1948 and as canon treasurer from 1948 to 1949. He was a canon of

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 ...

, and Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the

from 1949 to 1971.

Other work

Demant served on the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. The committee's report, known as the '' Wolfenden report'' was published in September 1957 and recommended that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence." Demant was a regular broadcaster on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...

in the 1950s. He supported

Maurice Reckitt Maurice Benington Reckitt (19 June 1888 – 11 January 1980) was a leading English Anglo-Catholic and Christian socialist writer. He edited ''Christendom: A Journal of Christian Sociology'' from 1931 to 1950. He founded the charity Christendom T ...

in founding the Christendom Trust to encourage and fund research into the application of Christian social thought.

Later life

Demant retired from his post at Oxford to a cottage in

Headington Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston, Oxford, Marston to the north-west, Cowley, Oxfordshire ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, in 1971. He died there on 3 March 1983 at the age of 89.

Writings

* ''The Just Price'' (1930) * ''This Unemployment: Disaster or Opportunity?'' (1932) * ''God, Man and Society: An Introduction to Christian Sociology'' (1933) * ''Christian Polity'' (1936)Good Reads website, ''Vigo Auguste Demant'
/ref> * ''The Religious Prospect'' (1939)Amazon website, retrieved 2023-12-19
/ref> * ''Theology of Society: More Essays in Christian Polity'' (1947) * ''Our Culture: Its Christian Roots and Present Crisis'' (1947)Wipf and Stock website, ''V A Demant''
/ref> * ''The Responsibility and Scope of Pastoral Theology To-Day'' (1950) * ''Religion and the Decline of Capitalism'' (1952) * ''The Elements of Christianity'' (1955) * ''A Two-Way Religion'' (1957) * ''Christian Sex Ethics'' (1963) * ''The Idea of a Natural Order'' (1966) * ''Why the Christian Priesthood Is Male'' (1972)

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Demant, Vigo Auguste 1893 births 1983 deaths 20th-century English Anglican priests 20th-century English theologians Alumni of Armstrong College, Durham Alumni of Ely Theological College Alumni of Harris Manchester College, Oxford LGBTQ and Anglicanism Anglo-Catholic clergy Anglo-Catholic socialists Anglo-Catholic theologians British social crediters Christian socialist theologians English Anglican theologians English Anglo-Catholics English Christian socialists Regius Professors of Moral and Pastoral Theology