LONDON -- Dr. John Robinson, a theologian and bishop who shocked fellow Anglicans with his theory that there was no supreme being, has died of cancer. his family said Tuesday. He was 64.
Robinson touched off international controversy with his 1963 book 'Honest to God' in which he questioned the existence of God 'as a separate being.' Instead he saw God as the 'ultimate reality.'
Robinson was Anglican bishop of the London diocese of Woolwich at the time and his book was attacked for rocking the faith of many traditional Christians.
He also wrote that he was agnostic about the Virgin birth and that the Bible did not intend Christians to take the Second Coming literally.
His views on human sexuality also caused controversy. He testified in a 1960 obscenity trial that D.H. Lawrence's sexually explicit 'Lady Chatterly's Lover' was a book that Christians should read.
As chairman of the Sexual Law Reform Society, Robinson defended homosexuality and in 1972 drew more fire for saying that Britain's age of sexual consent should be lowered from 16 to 14.
'Honest to God' was translated into 12 languages and sold 1 million copies. It also brought denunciation and calls for his trial for heresy but he remained bishop of Woolwich until 1969 when he moved to Cambridge University as Dean of Chapel and lecturer in theology at Trinity college.
Robinson married Ruth Grace in 1947 and is survived by her, along with a son and three daughters.
