GORE, CHARLES

Anglican bishop, theologian; b. Wimbledon, Surrey, England, Jan. 23, 1853; d. London, Jan. 17, 1932. Of aristocratic descent, Gore was educated at Harrow and at Balliol College, Oxford (1870–75). After ordination (1878) he served as a curate in various parishes until he became vice principal of Cuddesdon Theological College (1880). As warden of Pusey House at Oxford (1884–93), he made a notable impact on the undergraduates, took an interest in social questions, and was active in the Christian Social Union. His visit to the Oxford Mission in Calcutta and his resultant experience of India profoundly influenced his life and spirituality. He founded at Oxford in 1892 an Anglican religious order, the Community of the Resurrection (which moved later to Mirfield, Yorkshire), and acted as its superior until 1901. In 1894 he became a canon of Westminster, where his preaching drew large crowds. Despite protests of conservative churchmen, he was named bishop of Worcester (1902). After a division of his diocese, he became the first bishop of Birmingham (1905). He was bishop of Oxford from 1911 until 1919, when he resigned to become dean of theology at Kings College, London. Gore's Anglo-Catholicsm was tinged with a degree of Modernism that distressed conservatives such as Henry Parry Liddon. They were disturbed especially by Gore's views on the limitation and growth of Our Lord's human knowledge (kenotism). Gore was strongly anti-Roman; indeed his rigidity as episcopal visitor of the Anglican Benedictine community at Caldey contributed to their submission to the Holy See in 1913. Abp. Randall davidson sent him to the malines conversations to exert a moderating influence on the more extreme anglo-catholics there. Gore also opposed the Lambeth Conference of bishops in their plans for reunion with the church of South India and on contraception. Gore edited lux mundi (1889) and A New Commentary on Holy Scripture (1928), both expressive of a somewhat Modernist viewpoint. Among his own writings, the most notable are Roman Catholic Claims (1888), The Ministry of the Christian Church (1888, new ed. 1919), The Incarnation of the Son of God (1891), The Body of Christ (1901), and The Reconstruction of Belief (1926).

Bibliography: g. l. prestige, Life of Charles Gore (London 1935). a. dunelm and a. t. p. williams, Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1931–40) 349–353. f. l. cross, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (London 1957) 571–572.

[w. hannah]

Gore, Charles (1853–1932). Bishop of Worcester, Birmingham, and Oxford. Born at Wimbledon, educated at Balliol College, Oxford, Gore was an Anglo-catholic of liberal views and strong social conscience. As fellow of Trinity College (1875) and first principal of Pusey House (1884–93) he probably had more effect on Oxford University religious life than anyone save Newman. He founded the Community of the Resurrection (1892) for celibate priests, established at Mirfield 1898, of which he was superior until 1901. His controversial essay in Lux mundi on ‘The Holy Spirit and Inspiration’ (1889) and The Incarnation of the Son of God (1891) displayed his liberal theology. As bishop of Worcester (1902), he promoted the carving of a new Birmingham diocese out of Worcester. He made a powerful impact as Birmingham's first bishop (1905), and moved with reluctance to Oxford (1911), where he was involved in incessant controversy. He travelled widely, to India, America, the Near East, and the front during the war. Resigning his see to write, preach, and travel, he lived ascetically in London.

Revd Dr William M. Marshall

Gore, Charles (1853–1932). Anglican theologian and bishop of Oxford. As first principal of Pusey House, Oxford, later, as canon of Westminster and as bishop (of Worcester, and then of Birmingham), his writings, especially on Christian apologetic (Belief in God, 1921; Belief in Christ, 1922; The Holy Spirit and the Church, 1924), were widely read. Of particular and far-reaching importance was his contribution to the establishment of the Community of the Resurrection, founded in 1892.