James Pike

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Albert Pike (February 14, 1913 - September 1969) was an American Episcopal bishop. He was the fifth Bishop of California. After his election as bishop-coadjutor in 1958 and his ascension to the See a few months later (following the death of his predecessor), he served until his abdication/resignation in 1966. At that point, he began to work for the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, a private-sector think tank.

His episcopate was marked by both professional and personal controversy. He was involved with introducing the ordained ministry of women into the Episcopal Church, a living wage for workers in San Francisco, the acceptance of LBGT people in the church, and civil rights. Among his notable accomplishments, Pike marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Selma, Alabama. His theology was profoundly challenging to the Church, as Pike wrote condemning a number of widely regarded theological stances, including the virginity of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the doctrine of the Trinity. He was censured by his brother bishops in 1966 for this and resigned his position shortly thereafter.

In his personal life, Pike was a chain-smoker, an alcoholic, craved attention, and was likely addicted in some way to romance and relationships.^{[citation needed]} His charismatic personality drew many people to him, including his secretary, with whom he developed a romantic relationship that cost him his marriage to his second wife in 1969.

1 Paranormal phenomena
2 Death
3 Bibliography
4 External links

[edit] Paranormal phenomena

Pike took the suicide of his son very hard and led a public (and for the church, embarrassing) pursuit of various spiritualist and clairvoyant methods of contacting him in order to reconcile. In September 1967, Pike participated in a televised seance with his dead son through the medium, Arthur Ford, who served at the time as a Disciples of Christ minister.

[edit] Death

In 1969, following an obsession with gnostic spirituality stemming from attempts to contact his dead son, Pike and his new wife drove into the Israeli desert. They were unprepared for the journey, and when their car broke down and became stuck, they separated in order to search for help. Accounts differ and an exact determination is impossible, though it is likely that Pike either fell into a wadi/oasis/creek bed to his death or else climbed in and subsequently died of exposure and thirst sometime between September 2nd and 9th. His body was recovered and buried (following his wishes and those of his family) in the Protestant cemetery in Jaffa, Israel.

James Pike was a loose inspiration for the character Timothy Archer in Philip K. Dick's book, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer.

[edit] Bibliography

Robertson, David M. (2004). A Passionate Pilgrim : A Biography of Bishop James A. Pike. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41187-9
Merrill Frederick Unger; The haunting of Bishop Pike;: A Christian view of The other side
Jess Stearn, "Bishop Pike's Strange Seances," This Week, The Baltimore Sun, January 28, 1968.