Douglas Davies | |
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Born | 11 February 1947 |
Nationality | Welsh |
Citizenship | United Kingdom |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Anthropology, Religious studies, Theology |
Sub-discipline | |
Institutions |
Douglas James Davies, FBA , FAcSS , FLSW (born 11 February 1947) is a Welsh Anglican theologian, anthropologist, religious leader and academic, specialising in the history, theology, and sociology of death. He is Professor in the Study of Religion at the University of Durham. His fields of expertise also include anthropology, the study of religion, the rituals and beliefs surrounding funerary rites and cremation around the globe, Mormonism and Mormon studies. His research interests cover identity and belief, and Anglican leadership.
Davies was born on 11 February 1947 in Llwynypia, the Rhondda Valley, but was brought up in Bedlinog, Wales. [1] He was educated at Lewis School, Pengam, an old Grammar school in South Wales. [1] He studied anthropology at St John's College, Durham, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1969. [1] [2] He studied for a Master of Letters (MLitt) research degree in Mormonism at St Peter's College, Oxford and the Oxford Institute of Social Anthropology under the supervision of Bryan R. Wilson; he completed the degree in 1972. [2] [3] In 1971, he joined Cranmer Hall, an Anglican theological college attached to St John's College, Durham, to train for ordained ministry. [2] During this time he also studied theology, graduating from Durham with a further BA degree in 1973. [1]
Davies continued his studies post-ordination. He undertook research in meaning and salvation at the University of Nottingham, [3] completing his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1980. [2] His doctoral thesis was titled "The notion of meaning and salvation in religious studies". [4] In 2004, he was awarded a Doctor of Letters (DLitt) degree by the University of Oxford; this is a higher doctorate awarded for research. [1]
In 1974, Davies joined the University of Nottingham as a lecturer in theology. [1] He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1990, [2] and appointed Professor of Religious Studies in 1993. [1] [3] In 1997, he moved to Durham University, where he had been appointed Principal of the College of St Hild and St Bede and Professor of Theology. [1] [2] In 2000, he stepped down as Principal and was appointed Professor in the Study of Religion. [1] He was Head of the Department of Theology from 2002 to 2005, and has served as Director of the Centre for Death and Life Studies since 2007. [1]
His current projects include writings on 'The Encyclopedia of Cremation', 'The Clergy and British Society: 1940–2000', 'A Brief History of Death', 'Inner-speech and prayer' and 'Ritual purity'.
He has also published a large number of articles on death, and contemporary Christianity.
Davies has been involved with various editorial boards and conferences, including the 'Editorial Board of Mortality' and the 'British Sociological; Association Religion Group' (Chairman: 2000–2003). He was also guest speaker at both the Scandinavian Sociological Society Conference in 2004 and the International Cremation Federation Conference in Barcelona, 2003.
Within the University of Durham he teaches the undergraduate modules: 'Study of Religion', 'Death, Ritual and Belief', 'Sects, Prophets and Gurus' and 'Theology and Anthropology'. He also teaches 'Ritual, Symbolism and Belief' to those studying a taught master's degree in theology.
He is a member of the Senior Common Room of St Chad's College Durham.
Davies was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1975 and as a priest in 1976. [1] [2] From 1975 to 1997, he served a number of honorary curacies in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham: St Mary's Church, Attenborough (1975 to 1983); St Mary's Church, East Leake (1983 to 1985); and St Paul's Church, Daybrook (1991 to 1997). [2] Since 2013, he has held permission to officiate in the Diocese of Durham. [2]
In 2009, Davies was elected an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences (ACSS): the academicians were renamed as Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) in 2014. [1] In 2012, he was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW), the national academy of Wales. [5] In July 2017, Davies was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences. [6]
In 1998, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Theology (DTheol) degree by the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University, Sweden. [1] [7]
His book, Reusing Old Graves: A Report on Popular British Attitudes , co-written with Alastair Shaw, won the 1995 Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year. [8]
This section lacks ISBNs for the books listed.(January 2015) |
His list of books include:
Mormonism is the theology and religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to various aspects of the Latter Day Saint movement, although since 2018 there has been a push from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to distance itself from this label. One historian, Sydney E. Ahlstrom, wrote in 1982 that, depending on the context, the term Mormonism could refer to "a sect, a mystery cult, a new religion, a church, a people, a nation, or an American subculture; indeed, at different times and places it is all of these."
Anthropology of religion is the study of religion in relation to other social institutions, and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across cultures. The anthropology of religion, as a field, overlaps with but is distinct from the field of Religious Studies. The history of anthropology of religion is a history of striving to understand how other people view and navigate the world. This history involves deciding what religion is, what it does, and how it functions. Today, one of the main concerns of anthropologists of religion is defining religion, which is a theoretical undertaking in and of itself. Scholars such as Edward Tylor, Emile Durkheim, E.E. Evans Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz, and Talal Asad have all grappled with defining and characterizing religion anthropologically.
In Mormonism, the restoration refers to a return of the authentic priesthood power, spiritual gifts, ordinances, living prophets and revelation of the primitive Church of Christ after a long period of apostasy. While in some contexts the term may also refer to the early history of Mormonism, in other contexts the term is used in a way to include the time that has elapsed from the church's earliest beginnings until the present day. Especially in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "the restoration" is often used also as a term to encompass the corpus of religious messages from its general leaders down to the present.
In Mormonism, the endowment is a two-part ordinance (ceremony) designed for participants to become kings, queens, priests, and priestesses in the afterlife. As part of the first ceremony, participants take part in a scripted reenactment of the Biblical creation and fall of Adam and Eve. The ceremony includes a symbolic washing and anointing, and receipt of a "new name" which they are not to reveal to others except at a certain part in the ceremony, and the receipt of the temple garment, which Mormons then are expected to wear under their clothing day and night throughout their life. Participants are taught symbolic gestures and passwords considered necessary to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven, and are instructed not to reveal them to others. As practiced today in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the endowment also consists of a series of covenants that participants make, such as a covenant of consecration to the LDS Church. All LDS Church members who choose to serve as missionaries or participate in a celestial marriage in a temple must first complete the first endowment ceremony.
The Latter Day Saint movement is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.
In orthodox Mormonism, the term God generally refers to the biblical God the Father, whom Latter Day Saints also refer to as Elohim or Heavenly Father, while the term Godhead refers to a council of three distinct divine persons consisting of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. However, in Latter Day Saint theology the term God may also refer to, in some contexts, the Godhead as a whole or to each member individually.
In the Book of Mormon, the Liahona is described as a brass ball with two spindles, one of which directs where Lehi and his companions should travel after they leave Jerusalem at the beginning of the narrative. Some early participants in the Latter Day Saint movement claimed to have seen the Liahona. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members have used the Liahona as a namesake, such as in the name of the magazine the Liahona and in the idea of "Liahona Mormons".
Gavin D'Costa is the Emeritus Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Bristol. His academic career at Bristol began in 1993. D'Costa was appointed a visiting professor of Inter-religious Dialogue at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Rome.
Danny Lynn Jorgensen is an American professor at the Department of Religious Studies of the University of South Florida, for which he also served as chair from 1999 to 2006.
Philip Layton Barlow is a Harvard-trained scholar who specializes in American religious history, religious geography, and Mormonism. In 2019, Barlow was appointed associate director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Barlow was the first full-time professor of Mormon studies at a secular university as the inaugural Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University (USU), from 2007 to 2018.
Terryl Lynn Givens is a senior research fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute of Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University (BYU). Until 2019, he was a professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, where he held the James A. Bostwick Chair in English.
Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese Folk Religions, is really so, or whether the apparent different objects of worship are to be thought of as manifestations of a singular divinity. Polytheistic belief is usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God who is, in most cases, transcendent.
Linda Jane Pauline Woodhead is a British sociologist of religion and scholar of religious studies at King's College London Faculty of Arts and Humanities. She is best known for her work on religious change since the 1980s, and for initiating public debates about faith. She has been described by Matthew Taylor, head of the Royal Society of Arts, as "one of the world's leading experts on religion".
Mormonism and Nicene Christianity have a complex theological, historical, and sociological relationship. Mormons express their doctrines using biblical terminology. They have similar views about the nature of Jesus Christ's atonement, bodily resurrection, and Second Coming as mainstream Christians. Nevertheless, most Mormons do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity as codified in the Nicene Creed of 325 and the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. Although Mormons consider the Protestant Bible to be holy scripture, they do not believe in biblical inerrancy. They have also adopted additional scriptures that they believe to have been divinely revealed to Joseph Smith, including the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Mormons practice baptism and celebrate the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, but they also participate in other religious rituals. Mormons self-identify as Christians.
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Pagan studies is the multidisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of modern paganism, a broad assortment of modern religious movements, which are typically influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of premodern Europe. Pagan studies embrace a variety of different scholarly approaches to studying such religions, drawing from history, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, folkloristics, theology and other religious studies.
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This is a bibliography of works on the Latter Day Saint movement.
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Mathew Guest is a British sociologist and professor of sociology of religion at Durham University. Guest is the author or editor of numerous academic books, reports, journal articles and essays. His publications cover various topics in the sociology of religion, particularly evangelical Christianity in the UK, value transmission within clergy families, and the status of Christianity and Islam within university contexts.
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