Theo Hobson | |
---|---|
Born | 1972 (age 50–51) |
Occupation | Theologian |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | |
Period | 2002–present |
Subject | Theology |
Website | |
www |
Theo Hobson (born 1972) is a British theologian and author.
He was educated at St Paul's School in London; he read English literature at the University of York, then theology at the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of Hughes Hall. He focused on the strongest voices of the Protestant tradition: Martin Luther, Søren Kierkegaard, and Karl Barth. His PhD thesis became the basis of his first book, The Rhetorical Word: Protestant Theology and the Rhetoric of Authority (2002), a study of the role of authoritative rhetoric in Protestantism.
He gradually turned his attention to ecclesiology. His next book was Against Establishment: An Anglican Polemic (2003). In this book he announced that the Church of England was doomed, and that he considered himself a "post-Anglican". His third book is Anarchy, Church and Utopia: Rowan Williams on the Church (2005), a critique of the archbishop's ecclesiology and perhaps of all ecclesiology. He has written for various journals and newspapers including The Guardian , The Times , The Spectator , and The Tablet .
His principal interests are the relationship between Protestantism and secularism, which he believes is more positive than is generally understood; the relationship between theology and literature; and the post-ecclesial renewal of worship. He thinks that large-scale carnival-style celebration must replace church worship. He lives in Harlesden, London, and is married with two children. [1]
Hobson has argued that although there is an instinctive mistrust of spectacle in the Protestant church, Catholic-style theatricality is an essential part of religion. [2]
In his 2013 book Reinventing Liberal Christianity it is proposed that it is possible to be a political and secular liberal that avoids the truth claims of Christianity while retaining the cultus . [3]
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Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales, Williams was the first Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times not to be appointed from within the Church of England.
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Alasdair John Milbank is an English Anglo-Catholic theologian and is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Nottingham, where he is President of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy. Milbank previously taught at the University of Virginia and before that at the University of Cambridge and the University of Lancaster. He is also chairman of the trustees of the think tank ResPublica.
Ecclesiastical polity is the operational and governance structure of a church or of a Christian denomination. It also denotes the ministerial structure of a church and the authority relationships between churches. Polity relates closely to ecclesiology, the study of doctrine and theology relating to church organization.
Mark David Oakley is a British Church of England priest. He is Dean of St John's College, Cambridge, and a former residentiary canon of St Paul's Cathedral (London).
Timothy Jervis Gorringe is an English Anglican priest and theologian who is St Luke's Professor of Theological Studies at the University of Exeter, Devon, England.
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John Macquarrie (1919–2007) was a Scottish-born theologian, philosopher and Anglican priest. He was the author of Principles of Christian Theology (1966) and Jesus Christ in Modern Thought (1991). Timothy Bradshaw, writing in the Handbook of Anglican Theologians, described Macquarrie as "unquestionably Anglicanism's most distinguished systematic theologian in the second half of the 20th century."
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Paul David Loup Avis is an English Anglican priest, theologian, and ecumenist. He was General Secretary of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity from 1998 to 2011, theological consultant to the Anglican Communion Office, London, from 2011 to 2012, and Canon Theologian of Exeter Cathedral from 2008 to 2013. He was honorary professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University 2017-2021 and Honorary Professor in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh 2022-. At the University of Exeter he was visiting professor of theology from 2009 to 2017 and is currently honorary research fellow. He is Director of the Centre for the Study of the Christian Church which organises occasional conferences and is linked to the journal Ecclesiology, published by Brill, of which he is Editor-in-Chief. He is the editor of the series Anglican-Episcopal Theology and History, also published by Brill. Avis was also a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II, 2008–2017.
The terms liberal Anglo-Catholicism, liberal Anglo-Catholic or simply Liberal Catholic, refer to people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm liberal Christian perspectives while maintaining the traditions culturally associated with Anglo-Catholicism.
Secular liberalism is a form of liberalism in which secularist principles and values, and sometimes non-religious ethics, are especially emphasised. It supports the separation of religion and state. Moreover, secular liberals are usually advocates of liberal democracy and the open society as models for organising stable and peaceful societies.
David Alfred Martin, FBA was a British sociologist and Anglican priest who studied and wrote extensively about the sociology of religion.