Kenneth Escott Kirk (1886–1954), also known as K. E. Kirk, was an English

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

bishop. He was the

Bishop of Oxford The Bishop of Oxford is the diocesan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Oxford in the Province of Canterbury; his seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. The current bishop is Steven Croft, following the confirmation of his elect ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

from 1937 to 1954. He was also an influential moral theologian, serving for five years as

Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology The Regius Professorship of Moral and Pastoral Theology, together with the Regius Professorship of Ecclesiastical History, was founded at the University of Oxford by act of Parliament in 1840, and first filled in 1842. The act attached the chair to ...

at Oxford.

Early life and education

Kirk was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

on 21 February 1886 and was the son of Frank Herbert Kirk who, in turn, was the son of John Kirk (died 1875), a Methodist minister. He was educated at

Sheffield Royal Grammar School Sheffield Grammar School began in 1604 as "The Free Grammar School of James King of England within the Town of Sheffield in the County of York" in buildings in the Townhead area of Sheffield, resulting from the benefaction of John Smith of Crowl ...

and

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...

, obtaining a double first in classics. He was accepted for graduate study at

Keble College Keble College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to ...

, but moved to London instead to work with the Student Christian Movement (SCM). The group was beginning a ministry to the large numbers of Indian students that were coming to England to study. During his time in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

he also opened a residential hall for students of

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

known as Ealing Hall, served as an assistant to the Department of Philosophy there and held a number of executive positions with SCM. He began the process to become ordained as an

priest and was ordained a deacon on 21 December 1912 and moved to a church near Sheffield to begin a curacy, intending to go back to Keble College to finish his graduate study. When

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

broke out, however, that proved impossible. Instead, he spent 1915–1919 with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

as a chaplain in

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and

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

. Kirk was able to return to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1919, as a Prize Fellow at

Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

and tutor at

. He began working on his first book of moral theology, ''Some Principles of Moral Theology'', published in 1920. He adopted the method of casuistry, where general ethical principles are applied to the practical situations in which moral decisions are made. He revived the study of Christian ethics using

casuistry In ethics, casuistry ( ) is a process of reasoning that seeks to resolve moral problems by extracting or extending theoretical rules from a particular case, and reapplying those rules to new instances. This method occurs in applied ethics and ju ...

, drawing on the work of Caroline divine

Jeremy Taylor Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) was a cleric in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is sometimes known as the "Shakespeare of Divines" for his poetic style of expression, and he is fr ...

(1613–1667). In 1922 he was appointed Fellow and Chaplain of Trinity College and awarded a Bachelor of Divinity degree followed by a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1926. In 1927 he was named Reader in Moral Theology and in 1933 was made the Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology. His scholarly reputation rests on the books of moral theology that he wrote during the 1920s and 1930s, especially ''Conscience and Its Problems'' and ''The Vision of God: The Christian Doctrine of the Summum Bonum''. In many ways he revived the study of

moral theology Ethics involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy''"Ethics"/ref> A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply sati ...

in the Church of England and is considered one of the leading moral theologians of the 20th century.

Bishop of Oxford

Kirk was consecrated a bishop on St Andrew's Day 1937 (30 November), by

Cosmo Lang William Cosmo Gordon Lang, 1st Baron Lang of Lambeth, (31 October 1864 – 5 December 1945) was a Scottish Anglican prelate who served as Archbishop of York (1908–1928) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1928–1942). His elevation to Archbishop ...

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, at St Paul's Cathedral; he was enthroned as Bishop of Oxford at Christ Church Cathedral on 9 December 1937. He began his episcopacy by re-organizing the large, rural diocese and moving the episcopal offices to the city of Oxford. Kirk issued a temporary seal as the function of Chancellor of the Garter was dissociated from the See of Oxford in the wake of the Abdication Crisis. In piety as well as scholarship, Kirk followed in the tradition of the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

, emphasizing the sacramental nature of the Catholic Church and

apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...

. As a result, at the time of the independence of the Anglican Church in India from the

, Kirk was a leader of the Anglo-Catholic party at

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

in 1948 that warned the Church from compromising its catholicity by adopting intercommunion too quickly, when not all of the clergy of the United Church of South India would have received episcopal ordination. He worked with the Archbishops of Canterbury, William Temple and his successor

Geoffrey Fisher Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, (5 May 1887 – 15 September 1972) was an English Anglican priest, and 99th Archbishop of Canterbury, serving from 1945 to 1961. From a long line of parish priests, Fisher was educated at Marlb ...

, and with

George Bell George Bell may refer to: Law and politics * George Joseph Bell (1770–1843), Scottish jurist and legal author * George Alexander Bell (1856–1927), Canadian pioneer and Saskatchewan politician * George Bell (Canadian politician) (1869–1940) ...

Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's seat ...

, however, in devising a compromise solution, and in May, 1950 a resolution was passed in the English Convocation allowing for limited intercommunion. Kirk died on 8 June 1954, before the resolution was passed in July, 1955, formally inaugurating the communion of the two churches. The title of his last published work, '' Beauty and Bands'', is that of a sermon he gave at the episcopal consecration of

Glyn Simon William Glyn Hughes Simon (14 April 1903 – 14 June 1972) was a Welsh prelate who served as the Anglican Archbishop of Wales from 1968 to 1971. Early life Simon was born in Swansea, where his father was curate at St Gabriel's church. He was bap ...

in Brecon Cathedral.

Personal life

In 1921 Kirk married Beatrice Caynton Yonge Radcliffe; they had three daughters and two sons. Their elder son was Sir

Peter Michael Kirk Sir Peter Michael Kirk, (18 May 1928 – 17 April 1977) was a British writer, broadcaster, Conservative politician, minister in the governments of Alec Douglas-Home and Edward Heath, and leading European Parliamentarian. Early life The elder s ...

(1928–1977), a Conservative politician. Beatrice died in 1934. One of their daughters, Patricia, married

Eric Waldram Kemp Eric Waldram Kemp (27 April 1915 – 28 November 2009) was a Church of England bishop. He was the Bishop of Chichester from 1974 to 2001. He was one of the leading Anglo-Catholics of his generation and one of the most influential figures in the ...

, Chaplain of

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth-oldest college of the un ...

and later

, and author of ''The Life and Letters of Kenneth Escott Kirk, Bishop of Oxford, 1937–1954'' (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1959).

Major works

*''A Study of Silent Minds'' (1918)
''Some Principles of Moral Theology''
(1920) *''Ignorance, Faith and Conformity'' (1925) *''Conscience and Its Problems'' (1927) *''The Vision of God'' (The

Bampton Lectures The Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, England, were founded by a bequest of John Bampton. They have taken place since 1780. They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have typically been biennial ...

of 1928) (1931)
''The Threshold of Ethics''
(1933) *''Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans'' (1937) *''The Story of the

Woodard Schools Woodard Schools is a group of Anglican schools (both primary and secondary) affiliated to the Woodard Corporation (formerly the Society of St Nicolas) which has its origin in the work of Nathaniel Woodard, a Church of England priest in the Anglo- ...

'' (1937)

Other works

''The Church in the Furnace''
(contributor) (1917) *''Essays Catholic and Critical'' (contributor) (1926) *''Essays on the Trinity and the Incarnation'' (contributor) (1928) *''Marriage and Divorce'' (1933) *''The Fourth River'' (1935)
''The Study of Theology''
(editor and contributor) (1939) *''The Apostolic Ministry'' (editor and contributor) (1946) *''The Church Dedications of the Oxford Diocese (1946) *''Beauty and Bands'' (collection of articles and sermons) (1955)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Kenneth Escott 1886 births 1954 deaths Clergy from Sheffield Alumni of St John's College, Oxford World War I chaplains Royal Army Chaplains' Department officers Bishops of Oxford Fellows of Trinity College, Oxford Anglo-Catholic bishops British Army personnel of World War I English Anglican theologians Regius Professors of Moral and Pastoral Theology People educated at Sheffield Grammar School 20th-century English theologians English Anglo-Catholics Anglo-Catholic theologians 20th-century Church of England bishops