Geoffrey Parrinder

Edward Geoffrey Simons Parrinder (April 10, 1910 – June 16, 2005) — known as E.G. Parrinder or Geoffrey Parrinder — was a professor of Comparative Religion at King's College London, a Methodist minister, and the author of over 30 books on world religions. At least one, What World Religions Teach Us, achieved bestseller status. He was an authority, and pioneering researcher, on West African indigenous religions.

Biography

Parrinder was born in Hertfordshire, England; he studied for Methodist ministry at Richmond College and the Faculté de Théologie Protestante in Montpellier, France.

Between 1933 and 1940 he worked as a missionary in Benin and Côte d'Ivoire, and he spent another year there after WWII.

After serving in the Channel Islands and publishing his first book, he travelled to Nigeria to teach at the new University College of Ibadan, Nigeria. Among his students there was the future Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

He was also a co-founder, secretary and president of the British Association for the History of Religions. as e-book (1995); Oneworld Publications The Christian Approach to the Animist (1966); Edinburgh House Press [Pamphlet] The Christian Debate: Light from the East (1966); Doubleday & Co African Mythology, Hamlyn Publ Group Ltd (1967), Religion in Africa (1969); Penguin 2nd edition (1976) as Africa's Three Religions; Sheldon Press Avatar and Incarnation: A Comparison of Indian & Christian Beliefs, London: Faber & Faber, (1970), Oxford University Press. (1982) Man and His Gods: Encyclopaedia of the World's Religions (1971) U.S. title: Religions of the World: From Primitive Beliefs to Modern Faiths; Madison Square Press Revised edition (1983) as World Religions: From Ancient History to the Present; Facts on File, Upanishads, Gita, and Bible: A Comparative Study of Hindu and Christian Scriptures, Harper & Row (1972), Sex in the World's Religions, Oxford University Press. (1980), Revised edition (1996) as Sexual Morality in the World's Religions, Oneworld Publications A Concise Encyclopedia of Christianity (1998); Oneworld Publications The Sayings Of The Buddha (1998); Ecco Wisdom of Jesus, Oneworld Publications (2000), In the Belly of the Snake: West Africa Over Sixty Years Ago, Methodist Publishing House (2000), West African Psychology: a Comparative Study of Psychological and Religious Thought, James Clarke Company, (2002),