MORE THAN YOU KNOW: Albert Moore – An Autobiography. More Than You Know, the title of a jazz song, is the life story of academic pioneer Albert Moore (1926-2009). Born in Island Bay Wellington, New Zealand on the cusp of the Great Depression, he trained as a teacher in Wellington and a theological minister at Knox College, Dunedin. His distinguished academic career included gaining a doctorate in Manchester, UK, in 1954, and being an exchange student in Göttingen, Germany, where be became fluent in German. In 1959 he married Alexa, a well-travelled Karitane nurse from Tapanui. Albert took his young family overseas to Chicago in the 1960s to study comparative religions under Mircea Eliade and Paul Tillich. Moore published many papers and books. His magnum opus is generally agreed to be Iconography of Religions (1977), which analyses world religions through the lens of art. With his wife he attended many international conferences and was a visiting academic at Princeton University in 1980. He was Associate Professor of religious studies at Otago University for 25 years, and after retiring continues to be active in publishing and teaching. Albert believed strongly in the transformational power of art. He and Alexa – lovers of life and people – participated in Dunedin’s art and culture scene well into their retirement.
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Writer: Rachel Ovens