David Ananda Hart
British theologian
David Ananda Hart (1954 – 1 March 2024) was a British radical theologian, Anglican priest and a practising Hindu.
Early life
Educated at Keble College, Oxford, and Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, Hart gained a doctorate in the Philosophy of Religion from the University of Derby.
Career
From 1979 to 1984, Hart taught at Gresham's School in Norfolk. While there, he was ordained as a priest of the Church of England and became the assistant school chaplain.
Appointed next as an Anglican chaplain at Loughborough University, remaining into the 1990s, Hart attended the second Sea of Faith conference and became a prominent member of a group of non-realist theologians inspired by the work of Don Cupitt. In 2006, Hart was the subject of some controversy after newspapers in India and England reported that he had converted to Hinduism, changing his middle name from Alan to Ananda, but without renouncing Christianity or his priestly orders. Hart was India Secretary of the World Congress of Faiths. He was also a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar (USA) and Samvada (India). His proposed book 'An Introduction to Hinduism' (London: Continuum 2009; Series Editor: Clinton Bennett) was intended to examine the breadth of the Hindu faith as he discovered it living in India and show how he regards his position as a Hindu believer as entirely compatible with being an Anglican priest in good standing with his diocesan bishop back in England.
In September 2014 David Ananda returned to his home in South India to take up a position as Consultant and Teacher for the Venad Education and Social Services, a registered NGO in India providing educational opportunities for the children of the marginalised Christian fishing communities in five centres in Kerala and one in Sri Lanka.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “David Ananda Hart” as british theologian. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as british theologian. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5230757. VIAF identifies the subject as 63218820. The Library of Congress control number is n93048697. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954, 2024, 1979 and 1984.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “David Ananda Hart”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow David Ananda Hart primary sources, David Ananda Hart archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “David Ananda Hart”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “David Ananda Hart” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.