John F. Wenham

John William Wenham (1913 – 13 February 1996) was an Anglican Bible scholar, who devoted his professional life to academic and pastoral work. Two of his four sons Gordon Wenham and David Wenham are also noted theologians.

Wenham was born in Sanderstead, Surrey and was educated at Uppingham School, Pembroke College, Cambridge and Ridley Hall. After his ordination in 1938, he was curate at St Paul's, Hadley Wood and taught at St John's College, Highbury. He served as a Royal Air Force chaplain during World War II, followed by vicar of St Nicholas' Church, Durham between 1948–1953, and seventeen years as vice-principal of Tyndale Hall, Bristol.

Wenham had the distinction of being a conservative theologian, a defender of Biblical inerrancy, and one who held to the position of "conditional immortality" – or the belief that the human soul is not by default eternal in nature; this belief goes hand in hand with the notion that sinners, once cast into hell, are at some point burned up and essentially no longer exist. (This doctrine is also frequently referred to as annihilationism.) In his book Facing Hell, An Autobiography 1913–1996, Wenham writes, "I believe that endless torment is a hideous and unscriptural doctrine which has been a terrible burden on the mind of the church for many centuries and a terrible blot on her presentation of the Gospel. I should indeed be happy, if before I die, I could help in sweeping it away." Facing Hell was published shortly after his death and is largely autobiographical, though also containing a paper Wenham published in regard to the doctrines of conditional immortality and the limited temporal nature of hell.

...
Wikipedia