KINGSLEY, CHARLES. - Anglican writer and ecclesiastic, b. at Holne (Devonshire) on 12 June 1819, d. at Eversley (Hampshire) on 23 Jan. 1875. He advocated a form of Christian socialism through his articles in The christian socialist.
He wrote novels on social and religious subjects, of which the best may be considered Hypatia, set in Egypt at the beginnings of Christianity (1851), and Westward ho! (1855), which exalts the seafaring spirit of the Elizabethan age, also with the aim of stimulating English patriotism during the Crimean War. Among his books for boys, the most popular is The water babies (1863). His name is remembered chiefly in connection with the famous anti-Catholic controversy he had with Newman, whose words he misunderstood, using them to assert that Catholics did not regard truth as necessary. Newman easily prevailed over his opponent by refuting him in the Apologia pro vita sua (1864), still regarded as one of the masterpieces of English apologetic prose.