Alexander Roper Vidler, known as Alec Vidler, was an English Anglican priest, theologian, and ecclesiastical historian, who served as Dean of King's College, Cambridge, for ten years from 1956 and then, following his retirement in 1966, as Mayor of Rye, Sussex.
12 Facts About Alec Vidler
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Alec Vidler was then an undergraduate at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and attended Wells Theological College and the Oratory House, Cambridge.
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Alec Vidler was then a curate and acting parish priest in Birmingham; he was one of the Anglo-Catholic clergy setting up a confrontation with the bishop, Ernest William Barnes, centred on the parish of Small Heath.
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In 1938 Alec Vidler became editor of Theology and librarian at Hawarden.
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Alec Vidler had been appointed an honorary canon of Derby Cathedral in 1946.
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Alec Vidler wrote regularly for the Church Times before it associated him with radicalism.
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Alec Vidler retired in 1966 to his house in Rye, where he wrote his autobiography and served as Mayor of Rye, as had his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.
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Alec Vidler was a lifelong friend of Malcolm Muggeridge, whom he met as an undergraduate at Selwyn.
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Alec Vidler was the editor of Theology until the 1950s and the author of several books that received wide attention.
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Alec Vidler edited, with Philip Mairet, Frontier, until 1953.
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Alec Vidler was interested in translating theology into the language of the people, but in the process he was willing to set aside many traditional teachings.
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In Objections to Christian Belief, Alec Vidler wrote of the "striking inconsistencies" in the New Testament writers.