Adjunct Lecturer
Cert.Ed. (Cambridge), CRK (London), BA (Open University), MA in Systematic Theology (Kings College, London), PhD (Manchester)
Before retirement John served as The Salvation Army’s Ecumenical Officer for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Territory and Chair of the territory’s Moral and Social Issues Council. In this role John was a director of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and also of the Free Churches Group. In addition to service with his wife Anne as corps officers, most recently at the Regent Hall in London’s West End, John has served in educational appointments at the William Booth College in London, and as Principal of Booth College of Mission in Wellington, New Zealand.
In retirement John has continued to undertake teaching assignments in the UK, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia.
John and Anne have two daughters: Joanna who is married to Steve, with three children, Hudson, Jude and Rosa, who live in a small village on the edge of the Cotswolds in England; and Lucy who is married to Tim, with two children, Ramona and Juno, who live on their own land between the Kaimai and Coromandel mountain ranges in New Zealand.
Areas of Expertise
- Spirituality and Spiritual Formation
- Systematic Theology
- 9th Century Evangelicalism and the Holiness Movement
- The Theology of Catherine Booth
Publications
- John Read, "Closer Communion? The Salvationist and the Sacraments," in The International Spiritual Life Commission (London: The Salvation Army, 1996)
- John Read, “Notes on Baptism” in Called to be God’s People (London: The Salvation Army, 1999)
- John Read, “Spirituality and Spiritual Formation” in John G. Merritt (Ed.) The A to Z of The Salvation Army (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006)
- John Read, Catherine Booth: Laying the Theological Foundations of a Radical Movement (Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 2014)
Presentations
- ‘Free as Air and Sunlight: a New Church for a New World’ Frederick Coutts Memorial Lecture, August 2002, Booth College, Sydney
- ‘Catherine Booth’, Women in Ministry Conference, 11th May 2012, University of Glasgow
- ‘God of Truth, God of Mercy – a Salvationist perspective’, UK Charismatic and Pentecostal Leaders Conference, 3rd December 2014, High Leigh Conference Centre
- ‘Catherine Booth’s Great Idea – the focal point of a revolutionary theology’ International Scholars Lecture, 10th February 2016, Catherine Booth College, Melbourne
- ‘Catherine Booth: a new theology; a new army; a new world’ Frederick Coutts Memorial Lecture, 20th July 2016, Booth College, Sydney
- 'Catherine Booth - First Salvation Army Social Reformer', 28th July 2016, University of Otago