James Beaven

author

James Beaven

1801–1875

A 19th-century Anglican clergyman and scholar, he wrote on church history, theology, and religious practice, bringing an Oxford-trained mind to both England and early academic life in Toronto.

1 Audiobook

An Account of the Life and Writings of S. Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons and Martyr Intended to Illustrate the Doctrine, Discipline, Practices, and History of the Church, and the Tenets and Practices of the Gnostic Heretics During the Second Century

An Account of the Life and Writings of S. Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons and Martyr Intended to Illustrate the Doctrine, Discipline, Practices, and History of the Church, and the Tenets and Practices of the Gnostic Heretics During the Second Century

by James Beaven

About the author

Born in Westbury, Wiltshire, on July 9, 1801, James Beaven was educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was ordained in the Church of England in the 1820s and spent many years in parish and scholarly work in England before moving to Canada in 1843.

Beaven became professor of divinity at King's College, Toronto, where he took part in shaping theological education in a young colonial university. He was known for learned, serious writing on Anglican doctrine, early church history, and questions of religious discipline.

His books include studies of figures such as Irenaeus as well as works on church life and missions in Upper Canada. He died in Niagara, Ontario, on November 8, 1875, remembered as a clergyman-author whose writing joined academic theology with the practical concerns of the church.