author
John Keble
1792–1866
A priest, poet, and scholar at the heart of the Oxford Movement, he is best remembered for devotional writing that shaped 19th-century Anglican life. His best-known book, The Christian Year, brought reflective, church-season poetry to a wide readership.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Gloucestershire in 1792, John Keble became one of the most influential Anglican churchmen of the 19th century. He studied at Oxford, earned a brilliant academic reputation, and went on to serve there as a tutor and later as Professor of Poetry.
Keble is closely linked with the Oxford Movement, the renewal movement within the Church of England that began in the 1830s. His sermon on "National Apostasy," preached at Oxford in 1833, is widely treated as one of the movement's starting points. Alongside his church work, he wrote poetry and devotional prose that made him famous well beyond academic circles.
His most celebrated book is The Christian Year (1827), a collection of poems arranged around the church calendar that remained deeply loved for generations. He later served for many years as vicar of Hursley in Hampshire, where he was known for steady parish ministry as well as writing. Keble died in 1866, and Keble College, Oxford, was founded in his memory a few years later.