Editor’s Note: Dr. Paul Helm, a theologian, philosopher, and former member of the Regent College faculty, passed away on December 29, 2025, at the age of 85. He is survived by his wife, Angela, five children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Like Christians around the world who have benefitted from Paul’s life and ministry, the Regent community is experiencing both grief for his departure and gratitude for his life, faith, and intellectual and spiritual legacy. We are pleased to share the following personal reflection from Bill Reimer, who got to know Paul during his time as Manager of the Regent Bookstore.

Paul Helm was truly a gentleman and a scholar. My wife Dorcas and I last saw Paul in September at Shepherd's Cottage, just outside Bourton-on-the-Water in the beautiful Cotswolds, where he had made his home with his wife, Angela, for the past two decades. Even though Paul's capacities were challenged in recent years by a severe stroke, he continued to carry himself with a quiet dignity, supported by the loving care of his family.

We had the pleasure of visiting Paul and Angela on a number of occasions over the years. I have a clear memory of how Paul would lean back on the chesterfield, hands clasped behind his neck, and speak conversationally on a range of topics in a room that overlooked a sheep pasture. Paul and Angela were lovers of animals, with a pair of pet sheep, Rosy and Hetty, a guinea pig, and a pair of tortoises, one of which Paul had owned since he was a teen. One once escaped the farm and was found two miles away—it was returned by the police to a grateful Paul and Angela.

Paul taught philosophy at the University of Liverpool for decades before moving to King's College London to teach philosophical theology, and then to Regent College, where he served as the first occupant of the J.I. Packer Chair of Theology from 2001 to 2005. Even after retiring from his full-time academic career, he served as a viva examiner at Oxford University, where he once served as an examiner for a 90-year-old candidate (who, Paul said, very much deserved the DPhil he was awarded).

Paul was as sharp as anyone who ever walked through the doors of Regent. He was a fixture in the atrium, enjoying coffee with his students. In the classroom, he kept students on their toes with an engaging, Socratic teaching style. My son Jonathan always mentions what a formative influence Paul's person and teaching had on him. On hearing of his death, he reflected, “when they close the book on me, I hope that my teaching and writing comes out like Paul.”

In 1958, decades before he became Regent’s first Packer Chair, Paul wrote a letter to Dr. Jim Packer. He asked Jim what advice he would give to a young Christian student, and also thanked Jim for his recently published Fundamentalism and the Word of God, in which Paul found both “comfort and reassurance” and a challenge to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.” Paul closed the letter with two biblical references: Jude 24, 25 and Philippians 4:8. Read together, these verses make for appropriate bookends for the life of Paul Helm.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” —Philippians 4:8

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” —Jude 24–25

Additional information about Paul Helm’s life and work is available in an obituary released by Banner of Truth, a publisher he worked with often.