David Jenkins (bishop)

David Edward Jenkins (born 26 January 1925) is a Church of England cleric and theologian. He is a former Bishop of Durham, a position he held from 1984 until 1994. Since retirement, he has continued to serve as an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds.^[1][2]

Jenkins was born in Bromley, Kent and educated at St Dunstan's College, Catford.

During the Second World War, he was called up in the autumn of 1943.^[3] He was commissioned in the Royal Artillery after officer training at Harrogate in April 1945.^[4] At the end of the war he was a staff officer at General Headquarters in India.^[5] In 1946 he was attached to the 10th Indian Field Regiment, Royal Indian Artillery before its disbandment.^[6] He demobilised as Captain in 1947.^[7]

Having attended a Church of England ordination conference at Bangalore during his service in India, he took up scholarship to enter Queen's College, Oxford^[3] where he graduated as MA in 1954.^[7] The same year he was ordained priest by the Bishop of Birmingham after training at Lincoln Theological College and serving as curate at St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham.^[8]

At time of his consecration he had been a lecturer in theology at the University of Oxford, Chaplain and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford and worked for the World Council of Churches and the William Temple Foundation before being appointed Professor of Theology at the University of Leeds in 1979. Jenkins left Leeds in 1984 with the title Emeritus Professor.^[9]

In addition to his teaching appointments Jenkins had been Examining Chaplain to the Bishops of Lichfield (1956–69), Newcastle upon Tyne (1957–69), Bristol (1958–84), Wakefield (1978-84) and Bradford (1979–84).^[7]

He has written numerous books on Christian theology which include:

• Guide to the debate about God original edition 1966 (2nd ed. Cambridge ; Cambridgeshire : Lutterworth Press, 1985.)
• The glory of man, London : SCM Press, 1967
• Living with questions Investigations into the theory and practice of belief in God, London: SCM Press, 1969
• What is Man, London : SCM Press 1970, 1985
• The contradiction of Christianity, London : S.C.M. Press, 1976 (based on the Edward Cadbury Lectures given at the University of Birmingham in 1974)
• The God of freedom and the freedom of God, London : The Hibbert Trust
• God, miracle and the Church of England London : SCM, 1987
• God, Jesus and life in the spirit London : SCM Press, 1988
• God, politics and the future, London: SCM Press 1988
• Still living with questions, London : SCM, 1990
• (with Rebecca Jenkins) Free to believe, London : BBC Books, 1991.

He has also given Bampton Lectures on the Incarnation at Oxford.^[10]

His selection as Bishop of Durham was controversial due to allegations that he held heterodox beliefs. His "conjuring trick with bones" comment, about the resurrection of Christ, was criticised in particular, though the actual words as recorded on television say the reverse; the resurrection is NOT a conjuring trick with bones. The original line appears to have been "[the Resurrection] is real. That's the point. All I said was 'literally physical'. I was very careful in the use of language. After all, a conjuring trick with bones proves only that somebody's very clever at a conjuring trick with bones." ^[11] He had stated on other occasions his view that the resurrected Christ lacked a physical body, but the paraphrase of his quote as "just a conjuring trick with bones", while common, is inaccurate.

Three days after his consecration as bishop on 6 July 1984, York Minster was struck by lightning, resulting in a disastrous fire which some interpreted as a sign of divine wrath at Jenkins's appointment.^[12]

As a bishop, Jenkins was known for his willingness to speak his mind. After leaving office in 1994 he continued to voice his opinions, such as in a BBC interview in 2003.^[13]

Jenkins also became identified with opposition to the policies of the Thatcher and Major governments and subsequently was a critic of New Labour. He argued that what these governments shared was a dogmatic faith on the market which had many pseudo-religious elements to it. This led him to write at length about what he saw as the intellectual deficiencies of economic theory and market theorising and its pseudo-theological character. His Market whys and human wherefores : thinking again about markets, politics and people London : Cassell, c2000 was an extended layman’s critique of economic theory and its application to policy. Jenkins described himself as an ‘anxious idiot’ using the latter term in its original meaning of an ordinary person with no professional expertise. His book nevertheless diagnosed many of the problems with economic theory and its application to a deregulated economy that would later be seen as prescient in the light of the global economic crisis of 2007 onwards. He also challenged the idea that markets created freedom in Dilemmas of freedom, University of Southampton, 1989 and that they were compatible with the idea of a university Price, cost, excellence and worth : can the idea of a university survive the force of the market? (foreword by Elinor Scarbrough) Colchester : Centre for the Study of Theology in the University of Essex, c1991; or health care for all in a contribution to The Market and health care, University of Edinburgh, Centre for Theology and Public Issues, 1990.

In 2005, he became one of the first clerics in the Church of England to participate to the public blessing of a civil partnership between two homosexual men, one of whom was a Church of England priest.

In 2006, Jenkins was banned from preaching in some of his local churches after reportedly "swearing" in a sermon.^[12] (The words used were "bloody" and "damn".) In 2002 he published The calling of a cuckoo : not quite an autobiography London : Continuum, 2002. His daughter Rebecca is an author of crime novels set in 19th-century Durham^[14]

See also

• Bishop of Durham
• Anglican views of homosexuality

References