Biography:
Matthew Kirkpatrick is lecturer in Christian ethics and doctrine at Wycliffe Hall. Before joining Wycliffe, Matthew studied theology and then ethics at the University of Oxford, before completing a D.Phil. analysing the thought of Søren Kierkegaard and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He teaches a wide range of subjects at both undergraduate and graduate level. His wide interests include particular attention to theological existentialism, the theology of death and dying, the interplay between theology and psychology, and the wider thought of Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer and their respective contexts.
Research Area:
Christian and Religious Ethics, Historical and Systematic Theology
Research Interests:
Christian ethics, modern doctrine, existentialism, the theology of death and dying, the theology of children, Søren Kierkegaard, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the interplay of theology and psychology.
Research Centres & Projects:
Centre for Theology and Modern European Thought
Publications & Research Outputs:
Books
2016. How to Live a Good Death. Cambridge: Grove Books.
2016. Engaging Bonhoeffer: The Impact and Influence of Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
2013. Søren Kierkegaard. Cambridge: Grove Books.
2011. Attacks on Christendom in a World Come of Age: Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and the question of “Religionless Christianity”. Princeton Theological Monographs. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications.
2011. Bonhoeffer’s Ethics: Between Pacifism and Assassination. Cambridge: Grove Books.
Articles and Chapters
2020. ‘Creating Children: Parenthood and the Challenge of Kierkegaard’s Understanding of Community.’ In Taking Kierkegaard Personally: First Person Responses. Edited by Jamie Lorentzen and Gordon Marino. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
2020. ‘Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In Defence of Christian Witness.’ In The History of Apologetics: A Biographical and Methodological Introduction. Edited by Benjamin K. Forrest, Joshua D. Chatraw, and Alister McGrath. Zondervan Academic.
2019. ‘Kierkegaard on the Church.’ In The T&T Clark Companion to the Theology of Kierkegaard. Edited by David Gouwens and Aaron Edwards. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
2019. ‘Sources and Texts.’ In The Oxford Handbook to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Edited by Michael Mawson and Philip Ziegler. Oxford: OUP.
2019. ‘Bonhoeffer’s Failures: The Transformation of Power and Success through the Failure of Christ on the Cross.’ In Theologies of Failure. Edited by Roberto Sirvent and Duncan Reyburn. Macmillan Palgrave.
2018. ‘Sociological Categories and the Journey to Selfhood: From the Crowd to Community.’ In Kierkegaard and Political Thought. Edited by Roberto Sirvent and Silas Morgan. Eugene, OR: Pickwick.
2016. ‘Situations, Context, and Responsibility: Bonhoeffer’s Ethics in the Thought of Joseph Fletcher, Paul Lehamnm, and H. Richard Niebuhr,’ in Engaging Bonhoeffer: The Impact and Influence of Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought. Edited by Matthew D. Kirkpatrick. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
2016. ‘Bonhoeffer and Liberation Theology,’ with Geffrey B. Kelly, in Engaging Bonhoeffer: The Impact and Influence of Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought. Edited by Matthew D. Kirkpatrick. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
2013. ‘Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, and the Teleological Suspension of the Ethical: The Beginning or End of Ethics?’ in Ontology and Ethics: Bonhoeffer and Contemporary Scholarship. Edited by Adam Clark and Michael Mawson. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications.
