- Frank Leslie Cross
Frank Leslie Cross (1900-1968),
Lady Margaret Professor ofDivinity in theUniversity of Oxford , was a British,Anglican patristics scholar and founder of theOxford Patristics Conference , and editor of "The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church" (First Edition 1957).Born in
Honiton , the family moved toBournemouth whilst he was a child, where he won theDomus scholarship forNatural Science atBalliol College Oxford, takingHonours inChemistry andCrystallography and then, in 1922, following tuition atKeble College , First Class Honours inTheology . He studied inMarburg andFreiburg , taking aDoctor of Philosophy in Oxford in 1922 with a dissertation onHusserl . He became anordinand ofRipon Hall in 1923 and was ordained in 1925 asTutor andChaplain of that college. In 1927 he became one of the priest-librarians ofPusey House , of which he became Custodian in 1934. He was appointedLady Margaret Professor and Canon of Christ Church in 1944, by which time his interest in patristics was developing, alongside the beginnings of the Dictionary, which was published in 1957. At the time of his death he was working on the Second Edition.Post-war he organised international conferences- initially to re-establish relations with Christians in
Germany . He organised the First International Conference on Patristic Studies in 1951, the second in 1955; he also organizedNew Testament congresses. As well as theiracademic importance, the conferences were an early expression ofecumenism .Cross was awarded an Oxford
Doctor of Divinity in 1950; he receivedhonorary degree s fromAberdeen University andBonn University and was elected aFellow of the British Academy in 1967.ource
* Cross, F.L. and Livingstone, E.A. (eds), "Frank Leslie Cross" in "The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church", pp.xxxiv-xxxvii. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997. ISBN 0-19-211655-X
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.