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Full-time and Part-time Staff » Professor Nigel Biggar

Professor Nigel Biggar

Professor of Theology and Ethics, Head of School

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Academic Degrees:

  • 1986 Ph.D. in Christian Theology (University of Chicago)
  • 1981 M.A. in Religious Studies (University of Chicago)
  • 1981 M. Christian Studies (Regent College, Vancouver, Canada)
  • 1976 B.A. in Modern History (Oxford University)

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Posts:

  • 1999-2004 Professor of Theology and Ethics, School of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds, England
  • 1993-99 Fellow, Oriel College Oxford
  • 1990-99 Chaplain, Oriel College, Oxford
  • 1989-99 Tutor, Faculty of Theology, University of Oxford
  • 1987-93 Lecturer in Christian Ethics, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford
  • 1985-91 Research Fellow and Librarian, Latimer House, Oxford

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Positions:

  • 2005- Trinity College Dublin: governing board
  • 2005- Fellow of Trinity College Dublin
  • 2003-6: Society for the Study of Christian Ethics (UK): president
  • 2003-7: Society of Christian Ethics (USA): board
  • 2003- Journal of Religious Ethics: editorial board
  • 2002- Georgetown University Press: advisory board, "Advancing Human Rights" series
  • 2002-10: Societas Ethica (Europe): board
  • 2001- Royal College of Physicians (London): Committee for Ethical Issues in Medicine
  • 2001- British-Irish Association
  • 2000- Institute for Advanced Research in Religion, Ethics, and Public Life, University of Leeds: director (2000-2004); associate director (2004- )
  • 2000- Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame: advisory board
  • 2000-3 General Synod of the Church of England: Northern Universities representative
  • 2001-2 General Synod of the Church of England: Board for Social Responsibility
  • 1995-98 Centre for Medical Law and Ethics, King's College, London: Working party on Physician Assisted Suicide

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Teaching and Departmental Responsibilities:

  • Head of School
  • Doctoral research supervision
  • Undergraduate courses: Introduction to Christian Theology (JF); Theological Cosmology and Anthropology (SF); Punishment, Forgiveness, and Atonement (SS)

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Research Interests:

These include: the formative bearing of theological concepts on moral life; the contribution of religion to the health of liberal societies; the development of a concept of 'public reason' that permits the engagement of metaphysically contradictory positions; theories of natural law; the theology and ethics of national identity and loyalty, of forgiveness, of killing (especially in relation to suicide, euthanasia, and war), of military intervention, and of burying the past after civil conflict.

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Research Projects:

  • "Religion and Liberal Society III: Islam in Europe", an international conference held either in London or Copenhagen (June 2008)
  • “Political Ethics and International Order”, an international conference sponsored by the Societas Ethica and the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics, and held at Wadham College, Oxford (August 2006)
  • "Religion and Liberal Society II: The Christian Foundations of Liberal Society", an international colloquium supported by the Institute for International Integration Studies, Trinity College, Dublin, and held at TCD (June 2006)
  • "Telling the Truth in Northern Ireland", a day-colloquium held at Trinity College, Dublin (10 June 2005)
  • "Religion and Liberal Society I: Religious Voices in Public Places", an international colloquium supported by the British Academy, and held at the University of Leeds (2-4 June 2003)
  • "Ethical Issues in Foreign Policy", a colloquium supported by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence, and held at the University of Leeds (31 August- 2 September 2000)
  • "Burying the Past: Justice, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation in the Politics of South Africa, Guatemala, East Germany and Northern Ireland", a conference supported by the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford, the Catholic Institute for International Relations (London), and the Life & Peace Institute (Uppsala); funded by the British Academy, the British Council (Lima), the British Embassy (Cape Town), the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (Human Rights Department), the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (London Office), the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Northern Ireland Office (Central Community Relations Unit), the Life & Peace Institute, and the World Council of Churches (Geneva); and held at St Antony's College, Oxford (September1998): director
  • "The Oxford Conference in Commemoration of the Centenary of the Birth of Karl Barth", supported by the British Academy and the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford (September 1986): director
  • "Religious Conviction & Public Action: The Life of Faith in a Pluralistic World", a conference held at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago (April 1982): co-director

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Publications - Books:

  • Aiming to Kill: The Ethics of Suicide and Euthanasia (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2004)
  • Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice after Civil Conflict . Editor and contributor. Second, revised edition. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003.
  • Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice after Civil Conflict . Editor and contributor. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001.
  • The Revival of Natural Law: Philosophical, Theological,and Ethical Responses to the Finnis-Grisez School . Editor with Rufus Black, and contributor. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.
  • Good Life: Reflections on What We Value Today . London: SPCK, 1997.
  • The Hastening that Waits: Karl Barth's Ethics . Paperback edition with new conclusion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
  • The Hastening that Waits: Karl Barth's Ethics . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  • Theological Politics. A Critique of 'Faith in the City,' the Report of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Urban Priority Areas (1985) Latimer Study 29-30. Oxford: Latimer House, 1988.
  • Reckoning with Barth Essays in Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Karl Barth. Editor & Contributor. Oxford: Mowbray, 1988.
  • Cities of Gods: Faith, Politics & Pluralism in Judaism, Christianity & Islam . Editor with Jamie Scott & William Schweiker. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1986.

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Publications - Chapters in Books

  • “Theology and Atrocity: Just War Doctrine and the Righting of Atrocious Wrongs”, in The Religious in Responses to Mass Atrocity, ed. Thomas Brudholm and Thomas Cushman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
  • “Between Development and Doubt: the Recent Career of Just War Doctrine in British Churches”, in The Price of Peace, ed. Charles Reed and David Ryall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  • “Specifying the Meaning: Jesus, the New Testament, and Violence", in Recognising the Margins: Essays in Honour of Seán Freyne, ed. Werner Jeanrond and Andrew Mayes. Dublin: Columba Press, 2006.
  • “The ‘Use’ of Scripture”, in The Authority of Scripture, ed. Richard Clarke. Dublin: Church of Ireland, 2006.
  • "Natural Law", in the Encyclopedia of Protestantism , ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand, 4 vols. London: Routledge, 2004.
  • "Christianity and Weapons of Mass Destruction", in Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction, ed. Sohail Hashmi and Henry Shue. Ethikon Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • "Forgiveness in the Twentieth Century: a Review of the Literature, 1901-2001", in Forgiveness and Truth , ed. Alistair McFadyen and Marcel Sarot. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 2001.
  • "The Value of Limited Loyalty: Christianity and Nationality", in Boundaries , ed. David Miller. Ethikon Series. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
  • "Making Peace and Doing Justice: Must We Choose?", in Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice after Civil Conflict , ed. Nigel Biggar. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001.
  • "Karl Barth & Germain Grisez on the Human Good: an Ecumenical Rapprochement ," in The Revival of Natural Law , ed. Nigel Biggar and Rufus Black. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.
  • "Is Hauerwas Sectarian?", in Faithfulness and Fortitude: in Conversation with the Theological Ethics of Stanley Hauerwas , ed. Mark Thiessen Nation and Samuel Wells. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 2000.
  • "On Giving the Devil Benefit of Law in Kosovo", in Kosovo: Contending Voice on Balkan Conflicts , ed. William Buckley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
  • "Barth's Trinitarian Ethics", in The Cambridge Companion to Karl Barth , ed. J.B. Webster. Cambridge: CUP, 2000.
  • "Respect for Autonomy: Careful or Indifferent?", in Euthanasia and the Churches , ed. Robin Gill. London: Cassell, 1998.
  • "Is God Redundant?" in Putting Theology to Work: a Theological Symposium on "Unemployment and the Future of Work" , ed. Malcolm Brown & Peter Sedgwick. London: CCBI, 1998.
  • "Casuistique" in Dictionnaire de Theologie ed. Jean-Yves Lacoste. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1998.
  • "Commandement" in Dictionnaire de Theologie.
  • "The Church's Witness in Evangelism and Social Praxis" in Constructive Theology in the Worldwide Church , ed. William R. Barr. Grand Rapids, Michigan & Cambridge: Eerdmans, 1997.
  • "Atonement", in the Dictionary of Ethics, Theology & Society , ed. Paul A.B.Clarke & Andrew Linzey. London: Routledge, 1996.
  • "Anglican Moral Theology", in The New Dictionary of Ethics and Pastoral Theology , ed. D. Atkinson & D. Field. Leicester: IVP, 1995.
  • "Church", in The New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology .
  • "Power and Powerlessness", in An Introduction to Pastoral Ethics , by David Atkinson. Oxford: Lion Publishing, 1994.
  • "Christian Ethics, 1700 to the Present Day", in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought , ed. Alister McGrath. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
  • "Faith & Doubt", in Sermons for Students , ed. D.A.Brodie. New York & Toronto: Edwin Mellen Press, 1993.
  • "Evangelical Social Ethics", in Evangelical Anglicanism , ed. R.T.France & A. McGrath. London: SPCK, 1993.
  • "Moral Reason in History. An Essay in Defense of Dialectical Casuistry", in Issues in Faith and History , ed. N.M.de S. Cameron. Edinburgh: Rutherford House, 1989.
  • "Hearing God's Command and Thinking about What to Do: with and beyond Barth", in Reckoning with Barth, ed. N.J.Biggar. Oxford: Mowbray, 1988.

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Publications - Articles in Journals:

  • “Review Article: the Just War Revisited by Oliver O’Donovan”, Studies in Christian Ethics, 19.2 (2006)
  • “‘God’ in Public Reason”, Studies in Christian Ethics, 19.2 (2006)
  • “Suicide is Not the Remedy for Pain”, Crucible (January-March 2006)
  • "Does the Faith Stand or Fall Here? Anglicanism and the Issue of Homosexual Practice", Search (October 2004)
  • "Can Europe Recognise Nails?", Societas Ethica Jahrbuch 2004. Republished in Stefan Heuser and Hans Ulrich, eds. Pluralism in Europe: One Law, One Market, One Culture? Berlin: Lit-Verlag, 2006.
  • "The Church of England on War and Peace", in Gerechter Krieg - Ja oder Nein? , Evangelischer Pressdienst Dokumentation, 41 (6 October 2003); and in How the Churches in Germany and England Contribute to Ethical Decision Making (Hannover: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, 2003); republished in Crucible (October-December 2004)
  • "Peace and Justice: a Limited Reconciliation", Ethical Theory and Moral Practice , 5 (2002)
  • "Justice & the Priority of Vindicating the Victim", The World of Forgiveness , 3/1 (Madison, Wisconsin: the International Forgiveness Institute, Spring 1999)
  • "Should Pastoral Theology become Postmodernist?", Contact 126 (1998)
  • "God, the Responsible Individual, and the Value of Human Life and Suffering", in Studies in Christian Ethics , 11/1 (1998)
  • "Benefit and Doubt: Blair's Welfare Reform", Third Way , (February 1998)
  • "Where There's a Will: the CCBI's report on 'Unemployment and the Future of Work'", Third Way (May 1997)
  • "Unionists Should Get Real", Fortnight (April 1995)
  • "Living a Christian Life" , review article of volume 2 of The Way of the Lord Jesus , by Germain Grisez, Studies in Christian Ethics , 8/1 (1995)
  • " Veritatis Splendor : Some Comments", Studies in Christian Ethics , 7/2 (1994)
  • "The Bible, Christian Ethics, & the Provision of Social Security", with Donald Hay, in The Bulletin of the Association of Christian Economists , 1993. Republished in Studies in Christian Ethics , 7/2 (1994)
  • "Showing the Gospel in Social Praxis", Anvil , 8/1 (1991). Republished in: TheEvangelical Review of Theology , 16 (1992)
  • "Between the Promise and the Promised Land", The Expository Times , (October 1990)
  • "Werner Jeanrond, Text and Interpretation as Categories of Theological Thinking ", review article, Hermathena , CXLVI (Summer 1989).
  • "A Case for Casuistry in the Church", Modern Theology , 6/1 (October 1989).
  • "Attesting the Evangel Evangelically: Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism", Spectrum , 21/1 (Spring 1989). Republished in The EvangelicalReview of Theology , 13/4 (October 1989).
  • "From Sacred Space to Social Service." The Expository Times , 100/5 (February 1989).
  • "A Discriminating Compassion?" A Review of the Oxford Diocesan BSR's Report on AIDS, Oxford Diocesan Magazine (December 1987). Republished as Latimer Comment No. 25. Oxford: Latimer House, 1990.
  • "Review Article: Any News of the Social Good?", Theology XCI/744. Republished as Latimer Comment No. 24. Oxford: Latimer House, 1987.
  • "Abortion & Canadian Churches", Catalyst . Toronto: Citizens for Public Justice, May 1984.
  • "The Possibility of Just War", Catalyst (March 1984).
  • "The U.S. Bishops' 'Challenge of Peace'", Catalyst (July-August, 1983).

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Publications - Newspaper Articles and Letters, Bulletins, Pamphlets, Published interviews:

  • "Suicide is not the Answer to Pain", Irish Times , 2 April 2005
  • "Jury Still out on Truth Commission for North", Irish Times, 15 October 2004.
  • "Think Small: Nigel Biggar talks to John Gray", Third Way , 27/5 (June 2004)
  • "We Cannot Hide Behind the UN", Church Times , 8 November 2002
  • "Kosovo: Taking Stock", Church Times , 18 June 1999
  • "Collateral Damage", The Independent , 3 June 1999
  • Euthanasia , Ethical Issues Series. Oxford: Farmington Institute, 1995.
  • "Doing Right to Avoid Hell", letter, The Times , 13 March 1995.
  • "Time to Take Risks for the Union", The Belfast Telegraph , 7 February 1995
  • "Labour's Irish Card", leading letter, The Guardian , 2 September 1994; republished in New Consensus News , 19 (October 1994)
  • "Holding Gun of Unity to Unionists' Heads", The Irish News , 20 August, 1994
  • "The Worst Medicine for Ulster", leading letter, The Sunday Telegraph , 25 July 1994
  • "Overcoming 'Obstacles' to Anglo-Irish Negotiations", leading letter, The Independent , 18 July 1994
  • "Building Community", letter, Irish Times , 16 July 1994
  • "What Kind of a United Ireland?", leading letter, The Times , 30 December 1993.
  • "The Lightness of a Half-Real Liberty", The Independent , 17 April 1993.
  • "Scientific versus Theological Knowledge", letter, The Independent , 20 March 1993.
  • "Mrs Thatcher's Moral Reformation: an Assessment", Latimer Comment 30 (Oxford: Latimer House, 1990).
  • "Not Just for the Poor: a Response to the Report of the BSR of the General Synod of the Church of England". Latimer Comment No. 21. Oxford: Latimer House, 1987.

Contact: jwelch@tcd.ie| Last updated: Sep 14 2006 | Back to top
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