Dr Chris Baker

Senior Lecturer in Public and Urban Theology

Qualifications

BA, BTh , MTh , PhD

Overview

Although born in the South, I read English at Manchester and immediately felt at home with the city and the Northwest region as a whole. Twenty years later, following several years in community work and theological education (some of it has an ordained Anglican priest) I was fortunate enough to return to Manchester as Director of the William Temple Foundation. I also taught Urban Theology at the University of Manchester and am now delighted to be starting my post at Chester.

My doctoral research was on the engagement of churches in English New Towns (I lived in Milton Keynes for seven years) and this experience cemented for me the importance of urban space, theology, public religion and spirituality. My work for the Foundation has therefore been primarily concerned with mapping and analysing the role and identity of faith in urban life, an interest that has now broadened to include civil society and social policy. I am also beginning to work with European colleagues on ideas of the postsecular city.

My current role at Chester is as Associate Programme Leader for the new Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology, and to develop further research into religion and public life. It is hoped that further partnerships between William Temple Foundation and the University of Chester might need lead to a series of joint ventures, including a Centre for Faiths and Public Policy.

Research

Religions and civil society, religions and social policy, religions and urban life, religions and wellbeing and happiness; religions and political economy. 

Leverhulme Trust research project (2007 - 2010 - £144,000), Faith and Traditional Capitals: defining the public scope of religious capital.

Ph.D students

  • John Fielding - URC ecclesiology for 21st century inner-urban areas
  • Andy Wier - Community work and church mission - new paradigms in urban regeneration areas
  • Robert Bull - Role of stipendiary clergy (30 years on from Tiller Report) in postsecular, postmodern environments
  • Richard Impey - Studying and deploying the wisdom (phronesis) of local congregations - overlapping into organisational theory
  • Phil Rawlings - Muslim perceptions of Christians in multi-ethnic urban environments
  • Derrick Watson - Common Spaces - Graffiti church and Deleuzian streetspace
  • Tony Whelan - Pastoral Care of Premier league Academy Schoolboy Footballers (with particular reference to Manchester United)

Published work

Books

  • 2007 The Hybrid Church in the City - Third Space thinking (Ashgate).
  • 2008 Building Utopia?: Seeking the Authentic Church for New Communities (SPCK) co-edited with Laurie Green.
  • 2009 Entering the new theological space - blurred encounters in faith, politics and community (Ashgate) co-edited with John Reader.
  • 2009 Remoralizing Britain?: Social, Ethical and Theological Perspectives on New Labour, (Continuum) - co-edited with Peter Scott and Elaine Graham
  • 2009 The Hybrid Church in the City - Third Space Thinking 2nd edition (SCM/Canterbury Press)
  • 2010 Postsecular Cities - space, theory and practice, (Continuum - in preparation) - co-edited with Justin Beaumont
  • 2011 Christianity and the New Social Order, (SPCK - forthcoming) - monograph with John Atherton and John Reader

Chapter Contributions

  • 2003 ‘From the Land of the Concrete Cow' in Faithfulness in the City, ed. J.Vincent, (Chester, Monad Press).
  • 2005 ‘The global and local context of the local church' in Studying Local Churches: A Handbook, ed. H.Cameron et al (London, SCM Press).
  • 2005 ‘A "Genius of Place"? Manchester as a Case Study in Public Theology' (with John Atherton and Elaine Graham) in Pathways to the Public, ed. E.Graham and A.Rowlands (Munster, Lit Verlag).
  • 2007 ‘Entry to Enterprise: Constructing Local Political Economies in Manchester' in Through the Eye of a Needle - theological conversations over political economy ed. J. Atherton and H. Skinner (Peterborough, Epworth)
  • 2008 ‘Contemporary renewal in the centre of the city' in The Church at the Centre of the City ed. P. Ballard (Peterborough, Epworth).
  • 2009 ‘Faith, language and faith literacy' in Faith in the Public Realm: Controversies, Polices and Practices, ed. A. Dinham, R. Furbey and V. Lowndes (Bristol, Policy Press).
  • 2009 ‘Social, Religious and Spiritual capitals: A Psychological Perspective?' in International handbook of Education for Spirituality, Care and Wellbeing ed. de Souza, M., Francis, L.J., O'Higgins-Norman, J., Scott, D. (London, Springer)
  • 2010 ‘Faiths and Participation: the contribution of religious and spiritual capital to healthy civil society and local democracy' in Political Economy, Religion and Wellbeing - The Practices of Happiness ed. I.Steedman, J.Atherton, and E. Graham, (London, Routledge).

Articles

  • 2004 ‘Towards Heteropolis - a theological dialogue with urban aesthetics', Modern Believing 45, (1): 4-19.
  • 2005 ‘Going with the Flow - can faith communities flourish in non-institutional society?' Political Theology 6, (1): 113-126
  • 2005 ‘Religious faith in the ex-urban community - a case study of Christian faith-communities in Milton Keynes', City 9, (1): 109-124
  • 2005, Editorial for Crucible Journal (as Guest Editor) Constructing Local Theologies for the 21st Century (October 2005).
  • 2006, 'Hybridity and Practical Theology: In Praise of Blurred Encounters', Contact Journal, 149: 5-11.
  • 2008 ‘Exploring Secular Spiritual Capital; An Engagement in Religious and Secular Dialogue for a Common Future', International Journal of Public Theology, 2, (4): 442-464
  • 2010 ‘Faith and Traditional capitals: defining the public scope of spiritual and religious capital - a literature review undertaken for the Leverhulme Trust', Implicit Religion, 13, (2) (forthcoming) - co-authored with Jonathan Miles-Watson

Also book reviews in:

  • Crucible, Modern Believing, City, Political Theology, Journal of Practical Theology, Ecclesiology, Implicit Religion.
  • Article Reviewer for Urban Studies; International Journal of Public Theology

Who to contact