Christopher Benson
| Christopher Benson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 16, 1788 Cockermouth, Cumberland, England |
| Died | 25 March 1868 Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, England |
| Occupation | Theologian Church of England Minister Preacher Writer |
| Spouse(s) | Bertha Maria Mitford (1804 - 1873) |
| Parent(s) | Thomas Benson |
Christopher Benson (16 January 1788 - 25 March 1868) was a Cambridge educated theologian who achieved prominence on account of his abilities as a preacher and lecturer. In 1820 he was chosen as the first Hulsean Lecturer. Later he was one of the first to apply the term "Tractarians" to John Keble, Edward Pusey and other pioneers of what came to be known as the Oxford Movement within the Church of England. Christopher Benson was not a supporter, and engaged in high-profile theological controversies on matters such as the "apostolical authority of the Fathers".
Benson was born at Cockermouth, a country town in the far north-west of England. His father, Thomas Benson, was a solicitor. He attended Eton College before winning a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1804. Five years later he emerged with a BA degree. He received his MA degree six years after that, in 1815. Meanwhile, he was ordained, and was appointed in 1812 as a curate at St. John's parish in Newcastle upon Tyne. A few years later he was appointed to a curacy at St Giles in the Fields in London where he would preach his farewell sermon only in September 1826. By that time, however, much of his focus had been back in Cambridge for some years.
In 1817 Christopher Benson was selected to give a series of sermons at Cambridge University, which were subsequently printed. Two years later he published "The Chronology of our Saviour's Life". The book opens with a dedication to John Kaye, at that time the Master of Christ's College. His reputation rising, in 1820 he was selected to give the Hulsean Lectures in what was the inaugural year for an annual lecture series that continues to feature at Cambridge. The lectures were duly published, and were reprinted several times. This time the dedication was jointly to William Frere and James Wood, the masters respectively of Downing College and St. John's College. In the early nineteenth century it was still possible for a lecturer to be invited to present a second series of Hulsean Lectures, and for 1922 Benson was again the Hulsean lecturer and again the lectures were published, this time as twenty discourses "on Scripture Difficulties".
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