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Reginald Fuller, 92; biblical scholar

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Times Staff Writer

Reginald H. Fuller, a British-born New Testament scholar and author who wrote several books about the historical Jesus and the early Christian church’s growing understanding of the meaning of his life, has died. He was 92.

Fuller, an Anglican priest, died April 4 at Westminster-Canterbury retirement community in Richmond, Va., where he had been a resident.

The cause was complications after surgery for a broken hip, according to a statement on the website of the Virginia Theological Seminary, where Fuller was an emeritus professor.

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Known for solid critical analysis combined with what he once referred to as “a firm commitment to the orthodox teachings of the church,” Fuller wrote more than 10 books, including “A Critical Introduction to the New Testament,” published in 1965, which has been used as a textbook in some Christian seminaries.

His interest in Christology, the doctrine of the identity and nature of Jesus Christ, was apparent in his 1965 book “The Foundations of New Testament Christology,” which explores how the early church developed its understanding of Jesus.

Fuller’s “The Formation of the Resurrection Narratives,” published in 1971 and reprinted with a new introduction in 1980, looks at how the early followers of Jesus came to understand the meaning of the events of the first Easter.

Fuller also translated works by several leading German theologians, including “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an outspoken opponent of Nazism who died in a concentration camp in 1945.

He was on the committee of scholars that worked on the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible in the early 1980s.

Born in Horsham, England, on March 24, 1915, Fuller was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1941 and taught at several universities in Great Britain before he came to the United States in 1955.

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He became an Episcopal priest in 1956 and began teaching at the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.

He later taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City before he joined the faculty at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria in 1972.

Fuller graduated from Cambridge University in England and went on to study at the University of Tubingen in Germany for one year before he started his teaching career.

He married Ilse Barda in 1942. They had three children, all daughters. His survivors include his wife, two of his daughters, a sister and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

After retiring from teaching in 1985, Fuller was a priest in residence at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Richmond and also served as a priest at his retirement home.

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mary.rourke@latimes.com

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