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Leon Lamb Morris (1914—2006) was an Australian Reformed Anglican minister, scholar, theologian, and writer who contributed significantly to New Testament studies. His academic posts included warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge, principal of Ridley College in Melbourne, and visiting professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois. Morris published commentaries, devotionals, and popular studies on every New Testament book except Acts. His landmark thesis, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, published in 1955, sold over fifty thousand copies and set the tone for his future theological works on the atonement and the supremacy of the cross—books that would sell millions of copies worldwide.
Leon Morris grew up in Lithgow, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. He was the oldest of four children born to George Coleman Morris, the owner of an iron foundry, and his second wife, Ivy. Morris, who graduated high school as the Great Depression took hold, was fortunate to attend the University of Sydney on a teacher’s scholarship, earning a degree in science (1933). An additional year at Sydney Teachers’ College allowed Morris to enter the NSW Department of Education, for which he was required to work as a schoolteacher for five years.
Leon had attended church with his family in his formative years, but it wasn’t until studying in Sydney that he committed his life to Jesus Christ. He soon sensed a strong call to Christian ministry and began using his free time from teaching to study Greek and prepare to apply for ordination through the Australian College of Theology. When Morris scored highest in the nation on the theology licensing examination, the Anglican Diocese of Sydney arranged for his immediate ordination (1938) despite his lack of formal theological instruction.
After fulfilling his obligation to the NSW Department of Education in 1938, Morris began two years of practical training as curate to Cecil Short, rector of St. John’s Anglican Church in Campsie, Australia. In 1941, Leon married Mildred Dann, a nurse from Adelaide. The couple never had children but served the Lord for 62 years together until Mildred died in 2003.
Once married, Leon and Mildred set out to realize their dream of joining the Bush Church Aid Society. They served the vast but struggling outback community of Minnipa Mission in South Australia for five years—Leon as priest and Mildred, his driver. By taking the wheel, Mildred freed up time for her husband to study New Testament Greek as they traveled the long bush roads. Morris wrote about these experiences in Bush Parson (1995).
During this time, Leon Morris earned two degrees—a bachelor of divinity (1943) and a master of theology (1946)—from the University of London’s extension program. He accomplished this with a single eye, having lost the vision in his other eye in a childhood accident.
In 1945, Leon Morris entered the academic world, accepting a position as vice principal of Ridley College in Melbourne. He remained in this post until 1959, except for two years of leave (1950—51) to earn his PhD at the University of Cambridge in Oxford, England.
When Morris returned to Australia, his writing career budded with the publication of his doctoral dissertation, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (1955). With its meticulous examination of the language and vocabulary of atonement and the redemptive significance of Christ’s death, this composition established the quality, content, and method of Morris’ ministry as a biblical theologian. The book’s subject matter was later developed and circulated widely through numerous other published works, including The Atonement (1983), The Cross in the New Testament (1985), and New Testament Theology (1986).
Morris’ extraordinary esteem for Scripture and skill at explaining and interpreting it captured the attention of evangelical scholarship. In 1951, he was elected to the Society for New Testament Studies in England. He was the first Australian to receive this appointment. After studying for a year in the United States (1960—61), Morris was invited to join the team of scholars writing the Tyndale House commentaries in Cambridge. His extensive contributions to this commentary and the New International Commentary series were characterized by thoughtful word studies that looked at each term’s precise meaning in its biblical and historical context. His rich and voluminous analyses have since aided Bible students and scholars around the globe.
In 1964, Leon Morris returned to Ridley College as principal, steering the institution through a period of transition and expansion. That same year, he was made canon of Melbourne’s St. Paul’s Cathedral. Morris dedicated himself to the broader church, traveling extensively to lecture and preach throughout Australia, Asia, and North and South America. He served on the Anglican Doctrine Commission, the Council and Board of Studies of the Australian College of Theology, the Scripture Union, the Church Missionary Society, and the Bible Society. Morris presided over the Evangelical Alliance in Victoria and chaired the 1968 Billy Graham Crusade Committee there. He was also instrumental in establishing the TEAR Fund, a Christian aid organization in Australia.
Leon Morris stands as one of Australia’s most respected biblical and theological writers, with more than fifty books to his name. Never pretentious, Morris declined to wear the Anglican clerical vestments. He was described as a man “of deep but straightforward faith,” always aiming “to serve God in the place of his appointment” (Treloar, G. R., “Morris, Leon Lamb,” Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, ed. Larsen, T., et al., InterVarsity Press, 2003, p. 449).
In 1979, Leon Morris retired with the joyful anticipation of having more time to devote to studying. Still, he continued to travel, lecture, and preach until his death on July 24, 2006, in Kew, Australia. He was 92.
