John Charles Fenton (5 June 1921 – 27 December 2008) was a British Church of England priest and New Testament scholar.
[5] He then returned to Lincoln Theological College, where he had trained for ordination, having been appointed its chaplain in 1947 and promoted to sub-warden in 1951.
[5] In 1958, Fenton began his career as a senior member of the church hierarchy, having been appointed Principal of Lincoln Theological College.
[6] Lincoln was a community of both young more mature ordinands: in addition to teaching them the New Testament, he saw it as his duty to challenge their faith.
[5] As sub-dean, he was tasked with leading the daily cycle of worship at the cathedral and also its administration; the dean was then free to run the university college.
[3] A scholar of the New Testament, he did not superscribe to Biblical literalism: "he understood the Gospels to consist largely of the teaching material of the earliest Christian communities, rather than historical or biographical fact".
[2] He believed that layers of later hands had to be stripped back from the Bible, and that the first-century context of Christ's teaching had to be recognised to truly understand them.