Tribute to Don Cupitt
It is with great sadness that we share the news that on Saturday 18th January, Don Cupitt, inspirational philosopher and theologian, died following a short illness.
Sea of Faith owes its existence to Don Cupitt and he attended nearly all its conferences. As a tribute to him and an inspiration for our future work, there will be a regular feature in Sofia culminating in a special publication next year. If you would like to be part of the group behind this project or have ideas for it, please contact Stephen Mitchell at smitch4517@aol.com.
In this issue, we have an appreciation by Martin Spence, the Chair of the SOF Steering Group, as well as two papers reporting from conferences discussing his work and influence which had been arranged in 2024 to mark the 40th anniversary of the broadcast of The Sea of Faith: one in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in July and one at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden, Wales, in September.
Links to the Order of Service for an event to celebrate his life held at Emmanuel College on 14th February 2025, and a recording of the service, can be found on the college website at: https://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/about/news/?id=712.
An Appreciation
I am writing this just one week after Don Cupitt’s death on 18th January, and already his passing has been marked by tributes and obituaries in newspapers, journals, and on the BBC. If anyone doubted his significance, and his impact on theology and moral philosophy in this country, they can doubt it no longer.
There will be further opportunities to remember and discuss Don, his work, and his legacy in Sofia. This is therefore no more than an acknowledgement of his departure and our loss, and I have been asked to write it simply because I happen to be the current Chair of the Steering Group. I was not a close friend; I only met Don once and briefly; I am certainly not equipped to offer an informed reflection on his life.
And yet, Don touched my life just as he touched the lives of many others who had no close or personal connection with him. Whether by the 1980s TV series, or by his writings, or by the Sea of Faith Network itself, we have all been affected by him. I myself discovered the Network from reading about him, and became involved a decade ago, and have found in it a wonderful source of intelligent conversation and friendship. That’s thanks to Don who inspired the Network in the first place.
Finally: we should take comfort from last year’s events, marking the fortieth anniversary of the TV series and celebrating his life’s work more broadly. We should take comfort from the fact that Don was still with us in that anniversary year and could see how widely and deeply he had enriched the lives of others.