Francis Crawford Burkitt a fost educat la Harrow School si Trinity College. Studiaza mai intai matematica la Cambridge, apoi istoria religiilor. Devine unul din marii specialisti in istoria crestinismului primar. A fost profesor de religie la University of Cambridge. Ca teolog scrie un mare numar de lucrari de mare rasunet privind raporturile crestinismului cu ereziile si curentele filosofice si religioase din  primele secole ale erei noastre.

Principalele lucrari:

- Saint Ephraim's Quotations From The Gospel ;

- Early Eastern Christianity (Saint Margaret's Lectures on the Syriac Speaking Church);

- The Gospel History and its Transmission;

- Jewish and Christian Apocalypses;

- The Religion of the Manichees (Donnellan Lectures);

- Christian Worship;

- Jesus Christ: An Historical Outline;

- Church and Gnosis : a Study of Christian Thought and Speculation in the Second Century;

- Early Christianity Outside the Roman Empire;

- Egyptian Gnostic Works;