Dr Chris Baker

Senior Lecturer in Public and Urban Theology
Telephone 01244 511074
Email chris.baker@chester.ac.uk

Qualifications

BA, BTh , MTh , PhD, FRGS

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 Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology programme, and as Director of the Centre for Faiths and Public Policy, which seeks to develop further research and education into religion and public life in the UK and beyond. Both these initiatives are part of a partnership agreement between the William Temple Foundation and the University of Chester.

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

NEW PUBLICATION

 2011 Christianity and the New Social Order, (SPCK) - monograph with John Atherton and John Reader
  Click here for more information

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)
  • 2011 Postsecular Cities - space, theory and practice, (Continuum) - co-edited with Justin Beaumont

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 ‘The ‘one in the morning’ knock: exploring the connections between faith, participation and wellbeing’ in The Practices of Happiness – political economy, religion and wellbeing, eds. J.Atherton, E.Graham and I.Steedman (London, Routledge)
  • 2011 ‘Postcolonialism and Religion: New Spaces of Belonging and Becoming in the Postsecular City’  in Postsecular Cities – space, theory and practice, ed. J.Beaumont and C.Baker (London:Continuum)

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) pps 17 - 69 - co-authored with Jonathan Miles-Watson
  • 2011 ‘Response to Montemaggi’s Dream of Spiritual Capital’, Implicit Religion, 14, (1): 85-90 (co-authored with Jonathan Miles-Watson)
  • 2012 ‘Speculative Philosophies and Religious Practices – New Directions in the Philosophy of Religion and Post-secular Practical Theology’, Political Theology 13 (1) Guest Editor with Daniel Whistler and John Reader
  • 2012 ‘Social Policy and Religion in Contemporary Britain – taking stock and looking forward’ -Themed edition for Social Policy and Society, Vol 11 (3) – Guest editor with Rana Jawad

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