Arthur Darby Nock

Arthur Darby Nock (21 February 1902 – 11 January 1963) was an English classicist and theologian, regarded as a leading scholar in the history of religion. He was a professor at Harvard University from 1930 until his death.

Early life Nock was born in Portsmouth, England in 1902 to Cornelius and Alice Mary Ann Nock.

Education and career Nock studied at Trinity College at Cambridge University, where he was awarded his bachelor's degree in 1922 and master's degree in 1926. He became a fellow at Clare College in Cambridge in 1923 and then served as a university lecturer in Classics starting in 1926. In 1930, he became Frothingham Professor of the History of Religion at Harvard University in the United States (as successor to George Foot Moore), where he remained the rest of his life. At 28, he was the youngest full professor at Harvard in half a century. the Prussian Academy of Sciences (from 1937), the German Archaeological Institute (from 1937), the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (from 1938), He also received a doctorate from the University of Birmingham (Doctor of Letters in 1934) and an honorary doctorate from both the Sorbonne in Paris (1950) and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York (1960). The degree program was implemented in October 1934. As a member of the steering committee created to guide the creation of the doctorate, Nock ensured that it would include the study of all manner of religious beliefs, from ancient Greek and Roman to Jewish and Indian. This comparative study of world religions eventually became the main focus of the degree, following a review in the 1950s.

Death After a week of illness, Nock died on 11 January 1963 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Works Sallustius ‘Concerning the Gods and the Universe’, with Prolegomena and Translation, editor, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926). Conversion (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933). St. Paul (London: Butterworth, 1938).