18 Facts About Tom Harpur

Thomas William Harpur was a Canadian biblical scholar, columnist, and broadcaster.

Tom Harpur was the author of a number of books, including For Christ's Sake, Life after Death, The Pagan Christ, and Born Again.

Tom Harpur went on to study literae humaniores at Oriel College at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar from 1951 to 1954 where he read the ancient historians completely in their original texts.

Tom Harpur graduated in 1954 with a BA degree and was conferred a Master of Arts degree two years later.

Tom Harpur returned to Oxford in 1962 and 1963 for his postgraduate studies where he read the Church Fathers.

Tom Harpur was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1956.

Tom Harpur served as a curate at St John's York Mills, North York from 1956 to 1957.

From 1964 to 1971, Tom Harpur was an assistant professor and then a full professor of New Testament and New Testament Greek at Wycliffe, and from 1984 to 1987 he was part-time lecturer on the Theology and Praxis of Mass Media course at the Toronto School of Theology in the University of Toronto.

Tom Harpur worked as a journalist at the Toronto Star for thirty years, twelve of which were as the newspaper's religion editor.

Tom Harpur met his wife Susan at the Star, where she worked in the legal department, and married her in 1980.

Tom Harpur wrote a number of books on religion and theology, ten of which became Canadian bestsellers and two of which were made into TV series for VisionTV.

Tom Harpur was, over the years, a frequent commentator on religious news events for most of the Canadian networks, especially CBC.

Tom Harpur was a Fellow of the American Religious Public Relations Council, and in 1976 won a State of Israel Silver Medal for Outstanding Journalism.

Tom Harpur's biography is included in the American Who's Who in Religion, Canadian Who's Who, and Men of Achievement.

In 2008 the CBC documentary The Pagan Christ, based upon Tom Harpur's book, won the Platinum Remi Award at the Houston International Film Festival and the Gold Camera Award at the US International Film and Video Festival in Redondo Beach, California.

Tom Harpur belonged to the Canadian Association of Rhodes Scholars and the Writers' Union.

Tom Harpur published a more scholarly sequel called Water into Wine in 2007.

Tom Harpur died in Lion's Head, Ontario, on January 2,2017, at age 87.