Faculty Research Publications

Promise the Earth is a collaboration between Julian Allwood (Professor of Engineering and the Environment at Cambridge) and Andrew Davison (Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford). The book argues that as engineering solutions cannot be deployed quickly enough to solve the climate change challenge, there is a need to learn to live with restraint. Davison explores this theme through chapters on the seven classical Christian virtues: justice, prudence, temperance, courage, faith, hope and love.

This field-changing interdisciplinary book brings together three leading voices in political theology—a Christian theologian, a critical theorist, and an anthropologist—to offer new entry points to understand religion and politics. They explore similarities and differences in their approaches, guiding readers through scholarship in their own fields while also advancing a shared vision that speaks to crucial questions of justice in the contemporary world. Accessible to students and groundbreaking for scholars, the book provides a state-of-the-art and global understanding of political theology.

There is disciplinary flux over the concepts of 'wisdom' and 'humour' both as categories and in terms of genre representation. This research engages the question of tone in a fresh way we will open up a new dimension in the genre debates. Similarly, one of the key questions addressed throughout these essays centres on the rhetorical and pedagogical function of humour in the so- called wisdom books. Is humour a part of the sage’s rhetorical and pedagogical strategy? If so, is it possible to discern? And how do literary features of the textual material communicate in a humorous tone? 

Southwood seeks to show the ways in which humanities subjects are not just about teaching and learning to master technical content, but are also concerned with the transmission of ethical humanistic values. By embedding values from humanities subjects more deeply within universities, Southwood argues that we can bring heart and soul, and indeed humanity, to higher education settings which have a far reaching, positive impact within and beyond these settings.

Representations of the final moments and transition to the world of the dead filled many pages and paintings of the past. The world of the after-death is stained by perception of the process of dying. The present book explores the ideas regarding death, dying and the world beyond death of those who came long before us, living in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Levant, ancient Greece, Etruria Rome, and Inca culture (for comparative purposes). Though separated by centuries, the reader will be surprised that the ancient experience of ‘the unknown’ still has much to offer in terms of reflection on.

The New Cambridge Companion to Jesus serves as the most up to date guide and resource for understanding Jesus' multifaceted legacy, enduring impact over time and space, and relevance in today's world. Integrating textual, historical, theological, and cultural perspectives, the essays offer a fresh and diverse overview of Jesus' significance in contemporary global contexts. The volume also addresses contemporary issues of poverty, race, and power dynamics, making it especially relevant for today's readers. 

The book is an Oxford Guide for the philosophically interested student or scholar reading the Introduction to the Middle Way. Candrakīrti's Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra) is a central work of Buddhist philosophy. It is one of Candrakīrti's earlier works and presents a comprehensive guide to the key philosophical ideas and problems of Madhyamaka thought. Westerhoff's commentary focuses on the philosophical content of the text, using Candrakīrti's auto-commentary as the main explicatory resource.