The Rev Prof Maurice Wiles, Regius Professor of Divinity for 21 years and a Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, has died, aged 81.

As Regius Professor of Divinity from 1970-91, he represented the moderate liberal wing of theology in the Church of England.

He was educated at Tonbridge School, where he gained a life-long love of classics and cricket. He later played for four Oxford cricket teams as a canon professor.

His scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge, was deferred by the war. Following Pearl Harbour he was recruited to learn Japanese fast and work at Bletchley Park on the military attach code, and later the Army-Airforce code. Even close friends did not learn about this work for many years.

After the war he read moral sciences and theology and remained in Cambridge to train for ordination at the liberal evangelical institution, Ridley Hall.

After two years as curate in Stockport, he returned to Ridley as chaplain, and then in 1955 accepted a lectureship in New Testament Studies at Ibadan, Nigeria.

In 1959 he returned to Cambridge as Dean of Clare College and university lecturer in early Christian doctrine.

His 15 books included The Christian Fathers (1966), and The Bampton Lectures Faith and the Mystery of God (1982) which won the Collins biennial book award.

He became embroiled in controversy in 1977 when he contributed to a highly controversial volume of essays, The Myth of God Incarnate, which raised questions about the concept of incarnation.

After retiring he continued to lecture in the United States where he had close relationships with Yale and Princeton.

He is survived by his wife Paddy, his sons David and Andrew, his daughter Alix, and six grandchildren.