I am involved in various areas of research
- The theology of Higher Education
- Scriptural reasoning
- Modern theology
- Public theology in cultural engagament
- Jesus in history
The theology of Higher Education
If asked what my next book ist, this is the main answer I give. I am still close to the beginning of a series of linked projects designed to investigate the theology of University education - an attempt to think through Higher Education policy and practice from a theological point of view (in part as a way to think through more grandiose questions of reason and tradition, and hence religion and secularity). Eventually, this will lead to a book; so far, it has led to
- Vulnerable Learning: Towards a theology of Higher Education, Grove Ethics Series 140 (Cambridge: Grove Books, 2006) - based on the 2004 Boundy Lecture.
- 'Can the University and the Church save each other?', Crosscurrents 55.2 (2005), pp.172-183
- 'The Research Assessment Exercise as sin', Critical Quarterly, 44.4 (Winter 2002), pp.40-45
- 'Towards a theology of Higher Education' presented at the second PTCE seminar in Heidelberg, Feb 2004
- The Boundy Lectures 2004, a series of public lectures delivered in Exeter in March
Return to top of page
Scriptural reasoning
If I focus not on solo reading and writing, but on the communal contexts which I find most exciting and thought-provoking at the moment, this is the crucial one. I am a member of the Scriptural Reasoning University Group which meets in Cambridge every summer, and at AAR each Autumn. The group includes Jewish, Christian and Muslim Scholars and centres on the communal reading of scriptural texts. I also attend the National Society for Scriptural Reasoning at AAR. To find out more about Scriptural Reasoning, you can also see the Journal of Scriptural Reasoning.
See my 'Read Mark and Learn' in the Journal of Scriptural Reasoning 5.3 (October 2005), and 'The Irrepressibility of Scripture: Psalm 1 between Jews and Christians' in the Journal of Scriptural Reasoning 7.1 (January 2008); cf. also 'Boldness and reserve: A lesson from St. Augustine', Anglican Theological Review 85.3 (Summer 2003), pp.447-56.
Modern theology
My training is, more than anything else, in modern theology, and various of the projects in which I am involved, or which I have recently completed, focus on the interpretation of recent and contemporary Christian theologians.
- Difficult Gospel: The theology of Rowan Williams, London: SCM, 2004
- Conversing with Barth (ed. with John C. McDowell), Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004
- Christ, Providence and History: Hans W Frei's public theology, London: T&T Clark, 2004
- Hans Frei, Unpublished Pieces (ed.), New Haven: Yale Divinity School Library, 2004
- Rowan Williams, Serious Negotiations (ed.), London: SCM, 2006 (forthcoming)
- The Modern Theologians Reader (ed. with David Ford), Oxford: Blackwell, 2010 (forthcoming)
- The Routledge Critical Introduction to Modern Theology (with Rachel Muers), London: Routledge (forthcoming)
NB: See also my Hans Frei page
Return to top of page
Jesus in history and culture
I worked with David F. Ford on Jesus: An Oxford Reader, a collection of texts illustrative of responses to and interpretations of Jesus over the last two thousand years, published by OUP in 2002. I have also written an article on 'Jesus in Modern English Popular Culture' for the Jesus: An Encyclopaedia, London: ABC Clio, 2003, pp.240-44. This is an area I will be coming back to soon.
Return to top of page