Edwin Hatch

For the nuclear power plant, see Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Generating Station.

Edwin Hatch

Edwin Hatch (1835–1889) was an English theologian born on September 4, 1835 in Derby, England. He is best known as the author of the book Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church, which was based on the lectures he presented during the 1888 Hibbert Lectures and which were edited and published following his death.

Hatch attended King Edward's School, Birmingham, where he studied under James Prince Lee, who later became the Bishop of Manchester; it was during this period of his life that he was first noted for his strong mental independence and extreme study habits. He graduated from Pembroke College at Oxford University in 1857, where he was a dominant figure in the Birmingham Set, after undergraduate studies at Cambridge University.^{[citation needed]} In 1858, Hatch won the Ellerton prize. In 1859, he was ordained as an Anglican priest, and travelled to Toronto, Canada, where he was professor of classics at Trinity College until 1862. Between then and his return to Oxford in 1867, he served as rector of the High School of Quebec and professor of Classics at Morrin College, both in Quebec City. He served as vice-principal of Saint Mary Hall until 1885. In 1884 he was appointed university reader in ecclesiastical history.

In 1873, Hatch edited The student's handbook to the University and colleges of Oxford, which appeared in several revised editions during and after his time at the University.

Hatch was a Bampton lecturer in 1880. He served as a Grinfield lecturer from 1880 to 1884, during which time he presented his concordance on the Septuagint. He is also remembered as the composer of the hymn "Breathe on me, breath of God."

Hatch died on November 10, 1889 in Oxford.

Written works

• The organization of the early Christian churches (1881) – the Bampton lectures of 1880
• The Growth of Church Institutions (1887)
• Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church (1888)
• Essays in Biblical Greek (1889)
• A Concordance to the Septuagint (1889)
• Toward Fields of Light (1889) – sacred poems
• The God of Hope (1890)

References and links

• Online 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica

• Memorials of Edwin Hatch: sometime reader in ecclesiastical history in the University of Oxford, and rector of Purleigh, edited by his brother (Samuel C. Hatch). London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1890.

• Aspects of Edwin Hatch, by Peter Colin Carlsson. Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of Southampton, Dept. of Theology, 1974.