Dr David Jenkins known as ‘the unbelieving bishop’ dies aged 91
The former Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Dr David Jenkins, has died aged 91, his family said.
Dr Jenkins died in Barnard Castle, County Durham, on Sunday morning. He had had Alzheimer’s disease for many years.
The cleric and theologian was Bishop of Durham – one of the country’s oldest dioceses – from 1984 until 1994 when he retired and took on the post of honorary assistant bishop in Ripon and Leeds.
Before becoming a bishop, Dr Jenkins was a professor of theology at the University of Leeds, and spent 15 years prior to that as a fellow and chaplain of Queen’s College, Oxford.
He was a controversial figure in religion who had been dubbed the “unbelieving bishop” after doubting that God would have arranged a virgin birth and the resurrection.
York Minister was struck by lightning and burst into flames just days after his consecration in 1984. The events led some to believe that the fire was a sign of divine wrath in outrage at his appointment as bishop.
Dr Jenkins was satirised in television puppet show Spitting Image, and was depicted in one episode persuading God to become an atheist.
He served in Durham during the miners’ strike in the 1980s, often joining them on marches, and was an open critic of the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s policies.