Biography:
Paul S. Fiddes took first class degrees in English Language and Literature (1968) and in Theology (1970) at the University of Oxford (St. Peter’s College), followed by a D.Phil from Oxford (1975), and was awarded the D.D. of the University of Oxford for published work in 2004. At Regent’s Park College, Oxford, he was successively Research Fellow in Old Testament and Hebrew (1972–75), Fellow in Christian Doctrine (1975–89), Principal (1989–2007), Professorial Research Fellow and Director of Research (2007–2018) and Senior Research Fellow (2018 to the present). He was also Lecturer in Theology at St. Peter’s College, Oxford (1979-85). He was Chairman of the Board of Faculty of Theology of the University of Oxford from 1996–98, and received the title of Professor of Systematic Theology from the University of Oxford in 2002. He is Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Bucharest, and Honorary Fellow of St. Peter’s College, Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2020. He was ordained as a minister in the Baptist Union of Great Britain in 1972, and has extensive ecumenical concerns, including being a Canon Emeritus of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and Prebendary of St Endellion in North Cornwall.
Research Area(s):
Historical and Systematic Theology
Research Interests:
Christian Doctrine in the 19th & 20th Centuries; relations between Theology and (English) Literature; Process Theology; Theology of Karl Barth; Doctrine of the Trinity; Postmodernism and knowledge of God, ecumenical Ecclesiology.
Research Centres & Projects:
Director of the project for the Study of Love in Religion (www.loveinreligion.org); founder (and continuing participant) in the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture and the Centre for Baptist Studies, both in Regent’s Park College, Oxford; advisory panel for Ecclesiology and Ethnography network; advisory panel for The Power of the Word project.
External Engagement:
Reviewer for Queen’s Anniversary Awards (2000-2010), Ecumenical Representative on the General Synod of the Church of England (2007–2019); Honorary Fellow of Georgetown College, Kentucky, USA.
Editorships:
- Co-editor of Ecclesiology. Journal for Ministry, Mission and Unity
- Co-editor, Ecclesial Practices
- Member of Editorial Board, Journal for the Study of Christian Culture (Beijing, Renmin University)
- Member of Editorial Board: Pacific Journal of Theological Research
- General Editor, series Centre for Baptist Studies Publications
Links:
http://www.rpc.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-paul-fiddes/
Publications & Research Outputs:
1. The Creative Suffering of God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
2. Past Event and Present Salvation: the Christian Idea of Atonement (London: Darton, Longman and Todd/ Westminster Press 1989).
3. Freedom and Limit: A Dialogue between Literature and Christian Doctrine (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1991; repr. Macon GA: Mercer University Press, 1999).
4. The Promised End. Eschatology in Theology and Literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000).
5. Participating in God. A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2000).
6. Tracks and Traces. Baptist Identity in Church and Theology (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2003).
7. Seeing the World and Knowing God. Hebrew Wisdom and Christian Doctrine in a Late-Modern Context (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
8.More things in Heaven and Earth: Shakespeare, Theology and the Interplay of Texts (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, forthcoming 2021).
9. Iris Murdoch and the Others: A Writer in Dialogue with Theology (London: T. & T. Clark/Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2021).
10. Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis: Friends in Co-Inherence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2022).
See a full list of publications here.
