Portal University of Oxford

The position of Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture was established at Oxford in 1847. The professorship was instituted by John Ireland (pictured), Dean of Westminster from 1816 until his death in 1842, who acquired considerable riches during his ecclesiastical career. He left £10,000 to the university in his will, with the interest arising to be applied to the professorship. The first professor, Edward Hawkins, was appointed in 1847. In all, 12 men have held the position of Dean Ireland's Professor, with differing interests in scriptural exegesis (critical interpretation or explanation of biblical texts). Hawkins was elected on the strength of his reputation gained opposing the Oxford Movement (a group within the Church of England who aimed to reform the church by reasserting its links with the early Catholic church). In contrast, the third professor Henry Liddon was a prominent member of the Oxford Movement. Since 1932, the holder of the chair has been appointed to a fellowship at The Queen's College. Christopher Rowland became the latest Dean Ireland's Professor in 1991. (Full article...)

Hensley Henson (1863–1947) was a controversial Anglican priest and scholar, who was Bishop of Hereford (1918–20) and of Durham (1920–39). The son of a zealous member of the Plymouth Brethren, Henson was not allowed to go to school until he was fourteen, and was largely self-educated. He gained a first-class degree from the University of Oxford and was elected as a Fellow of All Souls. After his ordination, he served in the East End of London and in the high-profile post of vicar of St Margaret's, Westminster. While there, and as Dean of Durham (1913–18), he wrote prolifically and sometimes controversially. Anglo-Catholics took exception to his liberal theological views and tried to block his appointment as Bishop of Hereford. In 1920, Henson returned to Durham as its bishop, an area badly affected by an economic depression. Henson was opposed to strikes, trade unions and socialism, and for a time his views made him unpopular in the diocese. He campaigned against efforts to introduce prohibition, exploitation of foreign workers by British companies, and fascist and Nazi aggression, and supported divorce law reform, a controversial revision of the Book of Common Prayer and ecumenism. (Full article...)

Brasenose College was established in 1509 and is located in the centre of the city on Radcliffe Square, near the Bodleian Library, the University Church of St Mary the Virgin and the Radcliffe Camera. It was founded by a lawyer, Sir Richard Sutton, and the Bishop of Lincoln, William Smyth, on the site of Brasenose Hall, one of the university's academic halls. The name is thought to derive from a "brazen" (i.e. bronze) door knocker in the shape of a nose. One such door knocker hangs above the high table in the college hall, and a replica is on display at Stamford School in Lincolnshire, where it is thought that the original was taken during the 1330s; the college repurchased it in 1890. There are three quadrangles in the main college site: the original Old Quad, a smaller second quad known as the Deer Park, and a larger New Quad designed by Thomas Graham Jackson and completed in 1911. Further buildings were added in the 1960s. Brasenose College Boat Club is one of the oldest boat clubs in the world, and participated in the first recorded inter-college race at Oxford, beating Jesus College Boat Club. There are approximately 550 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and notable former students include David Cameron (elected Prime Minister in 2010), the comedian Michael Palin, the supposed inventor of rugby football William Webb Ellis and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie. (Full article...)