Oliver Davies (theologian)

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Anthony Oliver Davies (born 10 January 1956) is a British systematic theologian. He has made contributions to the study of medieval mysticism (especially Meister Eckhart), early medieval Welsh and Irish spirituality, and contemporary Systematic Theology. He presently works in the fields of neuroscience, theology (including Sino-theology) and social transformation. Davies is the originator together with Paul Janz and Clemens Sedmak of 'Transformation Theology'. [1] Since 2004 he has held the chair of Christian Doctrine at King's College London, as a Roman Catholic layman. He is founding director of the Centre for Social Transformation at King's College London, [2] which specializes in the development of 'global' or 'ecumenical' understandings of the self in the light of comparative philosophy, traditional philosophies and new advances in the neurology of social cognition.

Contents

Biography

Oliver Davies was born in Bradford, United Kingdom, in 1956 but grew up in South Wales (his father was Eryl Davies). He attended Cardiff High School and then Merton College, Oxford (1975–9), where he studied German and Russian. He completed his doctoral work in the area of Religion and Literature, with a study of the German Jewish poet Paul Celan, at Wolfson College, Oxford (1979–86). He met his wife Fiona Bowie at Wolfson and they married in 1981. From 1982 to 1984 Davies lectured in English at the University of Cologne. His first publications were in the area of the medieval German mystical tradition, especially Meister Eckhart. From 1989 he taught theology at University of Wales, Bangor until his appointment as lecturer in theology at University of Wales, Lampeter in 1993 (Senior Lecturer from 1995 and Reader from 1997). Following the untimely death of Colin Gunton, Davies was appointed in 2004 to the Chair of Christian Doctrine at King's College London. From 2006 to 2009, he served as Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's.

Davies was visiting professor in the Department of Religion, University of Virginia, in 2002–3, and held the McCarthy Visiting Professorship, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome in 2006–7. Since 2011 he has been a regular visitor to Renmin University of China, where he works with Chinese colleagues, including the leading Chinese scholars Yang Huilin and Geng Youzhuang, on the development of a new 'ecumenical' theology reflecting Chinese culture and experience.

Writings

Davies' work combines an interest in language and communication, whether textual or oral, with questions of metaphysics, ethics and doctrine. His chief works to date are A Theology of Compassion, 2000, The Creativity of God, 2004, Transformation Theology, 2007 (with Paul Janz and Clemens Sedmak) and Theology of Transformation: Faith, Freedom and the Christian Act, 2013. His work can be characterized as a progression from metaphysics, to hermeneutics and finally to philosophies and theologies of the act. His work has furthered an emphasis on the centrality of ethics and the structure of the ethical self for Christian theology. [3] In recent work Davies has also taken up the theme of the possibility of grounding global or 'ecumenical' accounts of the self in the proto-ethical structure of the self as identified in the contemporary neurobiology of human social cognition. He is currently writing a series of articles, published in English and Chinese, on the possibilities of new contemporary 'global' accounts of the self and on 'ecumenical' theologies, working together with colleagues from China, Europe and the UK. [4] Davies has recently published an article with the scientist and author Adam Zeman on neurology, self and culture. [5]

Monographs

Edited works

Select translations

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References

  1. ↑ Transformation Theology. Church in the World, London, 2007
  2. ↑ "King's College London – Centre for Social Transformation". King's College London. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "I Feel Your Pain | Books and Culture". Christianitytoday.com. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  4. ↑ Oliver Davies, 'Religion, Politics and Ethics: Towards a Global Theory of Social Transformation', Frontiers of Philosophy in China, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 572-594, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Is the Brain the Key to Understanding Religion? | Standpoint". Standpointmag.co.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  6. ↑ "Faith and Theology: Transformation theology: Oliver Davies responds". Faith-theology.com. 25 May 2008. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  7. ↑ Reviewed by James W. Farwell, Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 87, No. 4, p. 686.
  8. ↑ Reviewed by Andrew Shanks, Times Literary Supplement, 6 September 2002.
  9. ↑ Celtic Christianity in Early Medieval Wales: The Origins of the Welsh Spiritual Tradition: Amazon.co.uk: Oliver Davies: Books. ASIN   070831287X.
  10. ↑ Reviewed by John Margetts, * The Modern Language Review, Vol. 90, No.1 (January 1995), pp. 230-231
  11. ↑ Reviewed by Cyril O'Regan, Religion and Literature, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Autumn 2005), pp. 103-108.
  12. ↑ Review by Marcus Losack, The Furrow, Vol. 52, No 2 (February 2001), pp. 123-124.
  13. ↑ Selected Writings (Penguin Classics): Amazon: Meister Eckhart, Oliver Davies: Books. ASIN   0140433430.
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