Terence Copley

Terence Copley (19 August 1946 – 17 January 2011) was a British academic and author. Terence Copley was Professor of Educational Studies (Religious Education) at the University of Oxford, England and also Emeritus Professor of Religious Education at the University of Exeter, England.

He was Professor of Religious Education at the University of Exeter from 1997 until 2007. Before that, he was a Religious Education teacher and then deputy headteacher of a comprehensive school. He was a well-known speaker at academic conferences and teacher training provision.

His writings cover the history of Religious Education and 'spiritual development' in state-maintained schools in England and Wales and methods of teaching biblical narrative in primary and secondary schools. Copley has also published a biography of Thomas Arnold in which he challenged T. W. Bamford's long standing interpretation of Arnold, set forth in Bamford's writings in the 1960s and 70s, and instead upheld the more favourable view of Arnold's legacy put forth by Archer in the 1920s.

Copley was a significant Christian educationist who argues that a process of secular indoctrination is occurring in British society in which vocal secularists are using the media to exclude religion from the public square. By contrast, Copley argues for religious values to be instilled in young people through state-maintained schooling. His work includes the BIBLOS project on teaching the Bible in a secular environment. As well as writing for academics'and teachers, he has written a number of books for children.

He had a Methodist background but had been a Quaker for many decades.

In 2008 he received a Lambeth degree of DD from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Terence Copley had been a key figure in the life and thinking of the Religious Education community in recent decades. He died from cancer on Tuesday, 17 January 2011. His funeral was held on Thursday, 27 January 2011 in Devon.