Overview
On returning to the UK after doctoral study at Yale I was awarded the F. D. Maurice Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Christian Ethics at St. Chad's College. I was then Tutor in Ethics and Systematic Theology and Director of Studies at Cranmer Hall, St. John's College, Durham for seven years. I joined the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Chester in September 2007.
I was the Honorary Secretary for the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics 2004-07, founded and convene the Theological Ethics seminar at the Society for the Study of Theology and am on the Steering Committee of the Animals and Religion Consultation of the American Academy of Religion.
I am member of the Methodist Faith and Order Network and the Methodist Joint Advisory Committee on the Ethics of Investment, and have served on national ecumenical working groups on the ethics of modern warfare and the theology of climate change.
Research
My research is at the interface between systematic theology and theological ethics, and includes:
- the theology and ethics of Karl Barth
- Christian thought concerning war and peace
- the place of animals in Christian theology and ethics
My current project is a two-volume work on the place of animals in Christian theology and ethics: On Animals. The first volume, Systematic Theology, was published by T&T Clark/Continuum in February 2012. The second volume will treat the theological ethics of human relationships with other animals.
View or listen to my plenary paper 'How to Value Animals', at the 'Christian Ethics Engages Peter Singer' conference, Oxford University, May 2011.
PhD students
I welcome enquiries concerning doctoral research projects in systematic theology, theological ethics and especially those at the boundary between the two. Projects relating to Karl Barth, or Christian engagement with animals, war and peace, wealth and poverty, and technology are always of interest.
I am currently supervising the following PhD students:
- Michael Leyden: ‘Responsible action before God: The development and adequacy of Karl Barth's account of human responsibility'
- John McKeown: ‘An ecologically motivated critique of modern natalist and cornucopian reception of Genesis 1:28a, "be fruitful and multiply", and other Biblical "fertility" texts, as a mandate for unlimited reproduction and population growth'
- Nathan Paylor: Reformed Theological Hermeneutics
- Jackie Turvey : ‘The Application of Natural Law Theory to Environmental Ethics'
- Becky Artinian-Kaiser, Environmental Restoration
- Chris Crosby, Evangelical Christians and the Environment
- Kris Hiuser, The Place of Animals in the Doctrine of the Incarnation
Published work
Books
Most of my book chapters and journal articles are freely available through Chester Rep, the University's open access repository.
Co-edited with Celia Deane-Drummond: Creaturely Theology: On God, Humans and Other Animals (London: SCM, 2009), 288 pp.
With Brian Stiltner: Faith and Force: A Christian Debate About War (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2007), 304 pp.
Ethics in Crisis: Interpreting Barth's Ethics (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 143 pp.
Articles
Co-authored with Michael Leyden, ‘Claiming Barth for Ethics: The Last Two Decades’, Ecclesiology, 6:2 (2010), 166–182.
Co-authored with Richard Higginson and Michael Parsons, ‘Usury, Investment and the Sub-Prime Sector’, Association of Christian Economists Discussion Papers 001–003 (2009), ISSN 0956-3067), 1–23.
'On the Relevance of Jesus Christ for Christian Judgements About the Legitimacy of Violence - a Modest Proposal', Studies in Christian Ethics 22:2 (2009), pp. 196-207.
'Playing Chicken: Theology, Economics, Politics and Ethics in the Campaign for Better Conditions for Poultry', Epworth Review 35:4 (2008), pp. 39-48.
With Brian Stiltner, 'On the Importance of a Drawn Sword: Christian Thinking About Preemptive War - And Its Modern Outworking', Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 27:2 (2007), pp. 253-71.
'Why Do Some People Eat Meat?', Epworth Review 32:2 (2005), pp. 32-40.
'The Message of the Medium: The Challenge of the Internet to the Church and Other Communities', Studies in Christian Ethics 13:2 (Autumn 2000).
'Eros and Agape in Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics', International Journal of Systematic Theology 2:2 (2000), pp. 189-203.
with Sabina Alkire, Rufus Black and Eric Gregory, 'This Unemployment: Disaster Or Opportunity?', Theology 97:780 (1994), pp. 402-13.
Book chapters
‘Interpreting human life by looking the other way: Bonhoeffer on human beings and other animals’ in Bonhoeffer and the Biosicences: An Initial Exploration, Ralf K. Wüstenberg, Stefan Heuser and Esther Hornung (eds), (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2010), 51–74.
'All God's Creatures: Reading Genesis on Human and Non-Human Animals', in Reading Genesis After Darwin, Stephen Barton, and David Wilkinson (eds.), (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
With Celia Deane-Drummond, 'Introduction' and 'Postscript' in Creaturely Theology: On God, Humans and Other Animals, Celia Deane-Drummond and David Clough (eds.), (London: SCM, 2009), pp. 1-18, 266-9.
'The Anxiety of the Human Animal: Martin Luther on Non-Human Animals and Human Animality', in Creaturely Theology: On God, Humans and Other Animals, Celia Deane-Drummond and David Clough (eds.), (London: SCM, 2009), pp. 41-60.
'Angels, Beasts, Machines and Men: Configuring the Human and Nonhuman in Judaeo-Christian Tradition' in Eating and Believing: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vegetarianism and Theology, Rachel Muers, and David Grumett (eds.), (London: T & T Clark, 2008), pp. 60-72.
'Understanding Christian Pacifisms: A Typology', in Political Practices and International Order, Societas Ethica Series, Hans G. Ulrich, and Stefan Heuser (eds.), (Munich: Lit, 2007), pp. 370-81.
'Karl Barth on Religious and Irreligious Idolatry', in Idolatry: False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism and Christianity, Stephen Barton (ed.), (London: T & T Clark, 2007), pp. 213-27.
'Vegetarianism' in New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics (Leicester: IVP, 2006)
'Fighting at the Command of God: Reassessing the Borderline Case in Karl Barth's Account of War in the Church Dogmatics' in Conversing with Barth, John McDowell and Mike Higton (eds.) (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).
'Social and Political Activism in the Methodist Church', in Unmasking Methodist Theology: A Way Forward, Clive Marsh, Helen Wareing, Angela Shier-Jones, and Brian Beck (eds.), (New York; London: Continuum, 2004), pp. 41-7.
Reports and Booklets
‘The Ethics of Executive Remuneration: A Guide for Christian Investors’ co-authored with Richard Higginson, commissioned by the Church Investors Group (2010).
‘Hope in God’s Future: Christian Discipleship and Climate Change’: drafted on behalf of the Baptist/Methodist/URC Working Group on Theology and Climate Change (2009).
‘Usury, Investment and the Sub-prime Sector’ with Richard Higginson and Michael Parsons, commissioned by the Church Investors Group (2008).
Peacemaking: A Christian Vocation (Methodist Publishing House, 2006): drafted on behalf of the Methodist/URC Working Group on the Ethics of Modern Warfare.
Unweaving the Web: Beginning to Think Theologically About the Internet (Cambridge: Grove Books, 2002). 20-page booklet outlining a theological framework for thinking about the Internet, based on the themes of creation, place, personhood, and time. Excerpt published as 'Unweaving the Web: Theological Perspectives on Internet Time and Space', Borderlands: A Journal of Theology and Education Issue 2 (Summer 2003).
