WILLIAMS, Cyril Glyndwr 1921-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 1, 1921, in Carmarthenshire, Wales; died May 31, 2004. Minister, educator, and author. Williams was a Congregationalist minister who is best known for helping to introduce ideas of Eastern theology to Welsh audiences. Educated at the University of Wales, where he received his master's degree in 1955 and later went on to earn a Ph.D. in 1980, he was ordained in 1944. The next fourteen years were spent in the ministry in London and Wales, after which time he joined the faculty at the University of Wales as a lecturer in the history of religions. From 1968 to 1973, Williams taught at Carleton University in Ontario before returning to his native Wales. He was a reader in religious studies at his alma mater until 1983, then moved on to St. David's University as professor of religious studies and university dean of divinity. He also served as dean of Aberystwyth and Lampeter School of Theology from 1981 to 1983. An open-minded theologian, Williams felt it was important to ease Western religious conservatism by opening up people's minds to the beliefs of other religions, particularly Eastern religions. Toward this end he published Crefyddau'r Dwyrain in 1968 and translated the Bhagavad-Gita into Welsh as Y Fendigaid Gan. Williams, who believed in preserving Welsh culture and usually wrote in his native tongue, was also the author of two books in English: Tongues of the Spirit: A Study of Pentecostal Glossolalia and Related Phenomena (1981) and Basic Themes in the Comparative Study of Religion (1992).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

South Wales Echo (Cardiff, Wales), September 28, 2004, p. 24.

Times (London, England), August 26, 2004, p. 41.