John Keble

John Keble
John Keble c.1860
Born	25 April 1792 Fairford, Gloucestershire, England, UK
Died	29 March 1866 The Hermitage Hotel, Bournemouth, Hampshire, England, UK
Church	Church of England

John Keble (25 April 1792 – 29 March 1866) was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford was named after him.^[1]

Life and writings

Early life

Keble was born in Fairford, Gloucestershire where his father, the Rev. John Keble, was Vicar of Coln St. Aldwyns. He attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and, after a brilliant academic performance there, became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and was for some years a tutor and examiner in the University. While still at Oxford he took Holy Orders in 1815, and became first a curate to his father, and later curate of St Michael and St Martin's Church, Eastleach Martin in Gloucestershire.

The Christian Year

Meantime, he had been writing 'The Christian Year', which appeared in 1827, and met with an almost unparalleled acceptance. Though at first anonymous, its authorship soon became known, with the result that Keble was in 1831 appointed to the Chair of Poetry at Oxford, which he held until 1841. Victorian scholar Michael Wheeler calls The Christian Year simply "the most popular volume of verse in the nineteenth century". In his essay on Tractarian Aesthetics and the Romantic Tradition, Gregory Goodwin claims that The Christian Year is "Keble’s greatest contribution to the Oxford Movement and to English literature." As evidence of that Goodwin cites E. B. Pusey’s report that ninety-five editions of this devotional text were printed during Keble’s lifetime, and "at the end of the year following his death, the number had arisen to a hundred-and-nine". By the time the copyright expired in 1873, over 375,000 copies had been sold in Britain and 158 editions had been published. Notwithstanding its widespread appeal among the Victorian readers, the popularity of Keble's The Christian Year faded in the twentieth century despite the familiarity of certain well-known hymns, e.g. "New every morning is the love." ^{[citation needed]}

Tractarianism and Vicar of Hursley

In 1833 his famous Assize Sermon on "national apostasy" gave the first impulse to the Oxford Movement, also known as the Tractarian movement. Along with his colleagues, including John Henry Newman and Edward Pusey, he became a leading light in the movement, but did not follow Newman into the Roman Catholic Church. In 1835 he was appointed Vicar of Hursley, Hampshire, where he settled down to family life and remained for the rest of his life as a parish priest at All Saints Church. He was a profound influence on a near neighbour, the author Charlotte Mary Yonge. ^{[citation needed]}

Other writings

In 1846 he published another book of poems, Lyra Innocentium. Other works were a Life of Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, and an edition of the Works of Hooker. After his death appeared Letters of Spiritual Counsel, and 12 volumes of Parish Sermons.

The literary position of Keble must mainly rest upon The Christian Year, the object of which was, as described by the author, to bring the thoughts and feelings of the reader into unison with those exemplified in the Prayer Book. The poems, while by no means of equal literary merit, are generally characterised by delicate and true poetic feeling, and refined and often extremely felicitous language; and it is a proof of the fidelity to nature with which its themes are treated that the book has become a religious classic with readers far removed from the author's ecclesiastical standpoint and general school of thought. Keble was one of the most saintly and unselfish men who ever adorned the Church of England, and, though personally shy and retiring, exercised a vast spiritual influence upon his generation. (John Cousins, A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910)

Biographies

Two lives of Keble have been written, one by John Taylor Coleridge (1869), and the other by Rev. Walter Lock (1895). In 1963 Georgina Battiscombe wrote a biography titled John Keble: a Study in Limitations. ^{[citation needed]}

Death

Keble died in Bournemouth at the Hermitage Hotel, after visiting the area to try and recover from a long term illness as he believed the sea air had therapeutic qualities. He is buried in All Saints' churchyard, Hursley.^[2]

Legacy

Keble's feast day is kept on 14 July (the anniversary of his Assize Sermon) in the Church of England, and on 29 March (the anniversary of his death) elsewhere in the Anglican Communion. Keble College, Oxford was founded in his memory.

See also

• Oxford Movement

References

Further reading

• Blair, Kirstie, ed. (2004) John Keble in Context. London: Anthem ISBN 1843311461 (Papers from a conference held at Keble College, Oxford, May 2003.)
• Cross, F. L., ed. (1957), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Oxford UP, p. 761 .
• Hooker, Richard (1841) The Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine Mr. Richard Hooker: with an account of his life and death by Isaac Walton; Arranged by the Rev. John Keble, M.A. late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, Professor of Poetry. 3 vols. Oxford: University Press
• Keble, John (1912) Keble's Lectures on Poetry, 1832-1841; translated by Edward Kershaw Francis. (In: Aesthetics and Religion in Nineteenth-century Britain. ISBN 1855069644 (6 vols.)) Bristol: Thoemmes, 2003 (reprint of the 1912 edition)
• Lott, Bernard Maurice (1960) The Poetry of John Keble, with special reference to the Christian Year and his contribution to the Lyra Apostolica. Thesis (PhD)--University of London, 1960
• Rowlands, John Henry Lewis (1989). Church, State, and Society, 1827-1845: the Attitudes of John Keble, Richard Hurrell Froude, and John Henry Newman. Worthing, Eng.: P. Smith [of] Churchman Publishing; Folkestone, Eng.: distr. ... by Bailey Book Distribution. ISBN 1-85093-132-1
• Woods, Mark Robert (1987) John Keble's Theory of Poetry and its Sources. Thesis (M.Litt.) - University of Bristol, 1987.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Keble

Wikisource has original works written by or about: John Keble

• Works by John Keble at Project Gutenberg
• Keble, John, Christian Year, CCEL 
• Keble, John, Works online, Project Canterbury .
• John Keble 1792–1866, The Cyber Hymnal .
• Yonge, Charlotte M, ed. (1898), John Keble's Parishes: a History of Hursley and Otterbourne .