1 Prologue
The scientist, Howard Florey, is remembered for developing penicillin into a useful form of antibiotic drug and because his face made it onto the Australian fifty-dollar note. Leon Morris is remembered for his passion for the love of God seen in the truth of Christ’s cross. Florey worked to rescue us from disease. Leon worked to teach and share how God’s wonderful love rescues us for an utterly new way of living.
At a time in their careers, each man took a step in their chosen field that proved to be of lasting significance. Leon’s step occurred after a technical lecture in 1950 during a conversation with Professor Michael Ramsey, who would later become the one hundredth Archbishop of Canterbury. Behind it lay Leon’s belief in a God who is love and how that love is seen on a cross:
‘I don’t think you were right in that, sir.’
‘Oh’ he said. ‘Why?’
I said one or two things.
‘Would you write that out for me?’1
Leon expanded:
Between the two lectures I had a session with Professor Ramsey and tried to explain to him that Dodd is wrong in eliminating propitiation from the New Testament. It was a most interesting session and the old boy was most interested. I think he’s more than half convinced but he wants me to submit to him the thing written out, which I will now do. Or at least I will after I’ve had my little session with Flew on Saturday.2
Newton Flew met with Leon and warned him that Dodd was very sensitive to criticism. He suggested to Leon that any material which criticized Dodd’s view should be most carefully phrased as Dodd would very likely be one of his examiners.
Leon fixed a time to see Ramsey, and after discussing the matter further, Ramsey asked:
‘What are you going to do with this?’
‘I’m not going to do anything with it. You asked me to justify what I was saying and I’ve done it.’
‘Oh’ he said, ‘I think you ought to get it published. Send it off to The Expository Times, and if you like you can tell them that Professor Ramsey told you to send it.’
So I sent it off to The Expository Times, and I told them Professor Ramsey told me to send it, and they accepted it and published it … Ramsey was a gracious man, and very learned. He knew what he was talking about.3
Suddenly, after thirty-five years of relative obscurity and work behind the scenes, Leon emerged as a new voice and force. He was an enigma: a shy Australian mining-town boy who became the most influential and internationally effective Christian leader of his country.
His efforts saw him take on the academic theologians of his day and win a debate over the central and disputed doctrine of Jesus Christ’s work on the cross. Fundamentally, the insights he gained through his research caused a shift in theological history for all of those in the conservative stream. It recalibrated the way the cross of Christ could be understood, illuminated how God’s love could be seen, and empowered the Christian cause and God’s people.
Leon also worked sacrificially to communicate his studies on the cross of Christ in such a way that the truth was clear to ordinary people. Over his life he continued to champion this truth and related ground-level truths to celebrate God’s love for all people and promote the cause of Christ.
The influence of our background and the time in which we live shape our perspective and even our personality. We embrace some features around us while rejecting others. While Leon surely embraced some of the influences of his early years, his iron-willed discipline, faultless logic, infallible memory and emerging faith were a rare mix that go some way in explaining how he managed to influence so many people.
To more fully understand Leon and his impact, we begin by looking at his early years and the influences that shaped him.