Wilfred Lawrence Knox was an English Anglican priest and theologian, one of four brothers who distinguished themselves. After leaving Oxford with a first-class honours degree in classics, Knox soon began working with the poor of London's East End, and then studied for the priesthood. After brief parish work, he was warden of the Oratory of the Good Shepherd from 1924 to 1940, and chaplain and fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. He approached his New Testament studies as a Hellenist, and wrote several books on Paul the Apostle and other aspects of ecclesiastical history from that angle. He also wrote books explaining Anglo-Catholicism and the Christian way of life.

The Oratory of the Good Shepherd (OGS) is a dispersed international religious community, within the Anglican Communion. Members of the oratory are bound together by a common rule and discipline, which requires consecrated celibacy, and are strengthened by prayer and fellowship; they do not normally live together in community but meet regularly in chapter and retreat and report to one another on their keeping of the rule.