Fr Ian Turnbull Ker, the leading scholar on the life and work of St John Henry Newman, died on 5 November. A brilliant writer and biographer, as well as a parish priest, he published over 20 books on Newman and his theology. His John Henry Newman has long been regarded as the definitive account of the most recent saint of the Anglosphere; his scholarly biography of GK Chesterton is also widely admired. Like both men, Ker was a convert from Anglicanism.
Ker was born in Naini Tal, India on 30 August 1942. He was the son of Charles Murray Ker of the Indian Civil Service and his wife Joan May Knox, a relative of Ronald Knox. In 1947 the family left India after independence was declared; moving to England, they settled in Wimbledon. Ker remembered entering the Sacred Heart Church in Edge Hill and being impressed by how different Mass (in the then-normative Tridentine Rite) was from the Church of England services his family attended.
Ker went to Shrewsbury School, and from there to Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Classics under three of the leading scholars of the time: Gordon Williams in literature, Russell Meiggs in ancient history, and RM Hare in moral philosophy. After Balliol he won a scholarship to study English at Corpus Christi College, where he was taught by FW Bateson, founder of Essays in Criticism and a disciple of FR Leavis.
Defying his father’s dogmatic dismissal of Christianity, Ker had read CS Lewis’s Mere Christianity in his teens, and while at Oxford decided to become a Catholic. The reaction of his parents was mixed: his father was indifferent, but his mother was upset – although she eventually became a Catholic herself. Four decades later Ker wrote a work of apologetics of his own, Mere Catholicism (2007), which argued that mere Christianity could not be other than mere Catholicism.
From Oxford, Ker moved to Cambridge to study for a doctorate on George Eliot; although the university did not accept his PhD, it later awarded him a doctorate for his published work. After a few years at the University of York, where he taught Latin as well as English Literature, he left to train for the priesthood. He stayed briefly at the Birmingham Oratory, where he got to know the distinguished Newman scholar Fr Charles Dessain, and then completed his training at the Venerable English College in Rome.
Once ordained, Ker took up a chair in Theology and Philosophy at the University of St Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota, later returning to England to care for his parents. After a spell in university chaplaincy, he became parish priest of Burford, in the Cotswolds. During these years he taught in the theology faculty at Oxford; latterly he was a research fellow at Blackfriars Hall.
Over several decades Ker managed to combine his priestly ministry with an extraordinary scholarly output. Besides critical editions of three of Newman’s most influential works – the Apologia pro Vita Sua, the Grammar of Assent and the Idea of a University – he co-edited four volumes of Newman’s letter and diaries and worked in all the fields covered by Newman’s own “imperial intellect”.
Like his subject, however, he was able to see souls behind his writing. This ensured that his own prodigious output was grounded in pastoral work. It extended beyond parochial (and indeed diocesan) boundaries and included helping some of the new movements, which he thought would play a vital role in the Church – especially Youth 2000 and the Neocatechumenal Way.
Not over-concerned with the externals and rubrics of the liturgy, Ker wrote a moving and insightful description of the pre-Vatican II priesthood in his chapter on the priest as craftsman in The Catholic Revival in English Literature (2003). He lamented the decline of popular attendance at Confession, often quoting St John Vianney, and contrasted the humility of Irish working-class penitents he had encountered in his ministry with the comfortable middle classes.
Ker’s tireless energy saw him accepting invitations to speak about Newman all over the world, as well as organising – usually single-handedly – symposia and international conferences. Not a few who met or listened to him were delighted by his bonhomie and wit, and found his company highly stimulating. His vivacity was much in evidence at the dinner to mark his 80th birthday in London at the end of August; at the gathering he was presented with a festschrift, Lead Kindly Light: Essays in Honour of Ian Ker, which included pieces by three cardinals, former students, and other distinguished friends and admirers.
After over two decades at Burford, Ker retired to Cheltenham, where his devoted housekeeper, Julia Kadziela, ensured that he was able to live an independent priestly life to the end. His death has deprived the Catholic Church in England of one of its finest minds, and certainly the greatest interpreter of another. May St John Henry Newman now intercede for him before the Throne of Grace.
Now let the golden prison ope its gates,
Making sweet music, as each fold revolves
Upon its ready hinge.
The Revd Dr Ian Ker, 30 August 1942 – 5 November 2022
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.