Dr Andrew Pierce
Assistant Professor in Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies
Andrew Pierce is Assistant Professor in and Course Co-Ordinator of the M.Phil. in Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies. He obtained a Scholarship, First Class Degree with Gold Medal, and Ph.D. in Trinity College Dublin, where he also held the Elrington Research Fellowship. Before his appointment to the Irish School of Ecumenics in 2001, Dr Pierce was Lecturer in Church History and Theology at the Church of Ireland Theological College. His research combines a concern with historical theology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (e.g., theological ‘modernism’, so-called ‘religious fundamentalism’ and the emergence of modern ecumenism), with an active engagement with current attempts in systematic and practical theology to articulate ecumenical ecclesiology. In 2008-09 he was awarded a Government of Ireland Senior Research Fellowship by IRCHSS in order to further his project, ‘Modernity and Modernism: Interpreting the Roots of Religious Crisis.’
His most recent publications reflect this synthesis of research interests, and include the following book chapters; ‘Crossbows, Bludgeons and Long-Range Rifles: Tyrrell, Newman and “the intimate connection between methods and their results”, in Oliver P. Rafferty SJ, Ed., George Tyrrell and Catholic Modernism: A Reassessment, forthcoming; Dublin: 2010, ‘Karl Rahner: Theologian of Dialogue and Ecumenism,’ in Pádraic Conway and Fáinche Ryan, Eds., Karl Rahner: Theologian for the 21st Century, forthcoming; Oxford: 2010; ‘Comprehensive Vision: The Ecumenical Significance of a Lost Ideal,’ in Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen, Ed., Ecumenical Ecclesiology: Unity, Diversity and Otherness in a Fragmented World, London and New York: T & T Clark/Continuum, 2009, 76-87; ‘Talking to the Hand: Towards Theological Dialogue with Religious Fundamentalism,’ in Bernd Jochen Hilberath et al Eds., Ecumenism of Life as a Challenge for Academic Theology, Frankfurt: Lembeck, 2008; (with Gabriel Daly, OSA) ‘Christian Theology, Imagination and “Religious Fundamentalism”,’ in John O’Grady and Peter Scherle, Eds., Ecumenics from the Rim: Explorations in Honour of John D’Arcy May, Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2007, 43-51; ‘Millennialism, Ecumenism and Fundamentalism,’ in Kenneth G.C. Newport and Crawford Gribben, Eds., Expecting the End: Millennialism in Social and Historical Context, Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2006, 79-95; ‘Churches and Theology in a Century of Revolution and Reaction,’ in John R. Bartlett and Stuart D. Kinsella, Eds., Two Thousand Years of Christianity and Ireland, Dublin: Columba, 2006, 155-167. With his ISE colleague Dr Geraldine Smyth, OP, he edited the festschrift for Gabriel Daly OSA, The Critical Spirit: Theology at the Crossroads of Faith and Culture, Dublin, 2003. In 2003 he was invited to co-edit a festschrift edition of the journal Milltown Studies (no. 53, 2004) in honour of the veteran ecumenist Michael Hurley SJ. He is a former Reviews Editor of the journal Search. He is currently writing a study of John Henry Newman, Auguste Sabatier and Roman Catholic Modernism.
Dr Pierce lectures on a number of modules in the Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies course, including; ‘Nature, Grace and the Triune God,’ ‘The Development of Doctrine,’ ‘Interpreting Ecumenical Ecclesiology,’ ‘Engaging Religious Fundamentalism,’ and ‘The Many Faces of Jesus: Christology and Cultures.’ He is also visiting lecturer in Anglican Studies at the Mater Dei Institute, Dublin City University. In 2008-09, he was Visiting Fellow at the J.H.Newman International Study Centre, UCD, where he delivered the 2009 Newman Lecture. In 2009, he held a visiting fellowship at Christ’s College Cambridge as a Malcolm Bowie Distinguished Visiting Scholar.
At present his PhD students are researching aspects of nineteenth century religious and philosophical thought (An interpretative biography of J.H. Todd, the theology of Alexander Knox, Revelation in the theology of Hastings Rashdall), as well as both theoretical and applied explorations of ecumenical ecclesiology (ecumenism as local theology, towards an ecumenical theology of apostolicity). Former research students have written theses on Anglican ecumenism, ecclesiology and anthropology, and the theology of Paul Tillich. He welcomes PhD applications from students interested in the areas of nineteenth century theology, theological engagement with religious fundamentalism, and contemporary ecumenical theology.
He is a member of the Irish Anglican-Methodist Covenant Council, the Church of Ireland Bishops’ Advisory Commission on Doctrine, the Glenstal Ecumenical Conference Council, and the Theological Conference of the Porvoo Communion. He has recently been appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to serve as a member of, and consultant to, the International Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO).
He was Principal Investigator of the research project ‘Engaging Religious Fundamentalism (2007-08), funded by the St Stephen’s Green Trust and the ISE Trust, and which produced a scoping study, written by Dr Yvonne Luven, in 2008. He is a member of the research team, led by Prof Linda Hogan, on the 3-year IRCHSS funded project, ‘Visioning 21st Century Ecumenism,’ and, during his visiting fellowship at UCD, he was the lead researcher of strand two (Newman and Tyrrell) of the Newman Centre’s IRCHSS-funded project on ‘Newman as Global and Local Theologian.’
He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society for the Study of Alfred Loisy, the Irish Theological Association, and the Ecclesiological Investigations Network. He is at present a member of the board of Societas Oecumenica, the European Association for Ecumenical Research.
Areas of expertise
Religious anti-Modernism & Religious Fundamentalism, Roman Catholic Modernism, Religion and the Experience of Modernity, 19th Century religious thought, ecumenical ecclesiology, Auguste Sabatier’s philosophy of religion
Modules taught
Education
Ph.D. Trinity College Dublin
M.A. Trinity College Dublin
B.A. Trinity College Dublin
Contact details
Email: piercean@tcd.ie
Direct Tel: +353 (0) 1 260 0531
General Tel: + 3553 (0) 1 260 1144, ext. 115
Fax: +353 (0) 1 260 1158
Select publications
- ‘Re-Imagining Irish Ecumenism,’ Doctrine & Life, 57 (7), p. 2-16, 2008
- ‘Millennialism, Ecumenism and Fundamentalism,’ in Kenneth G.C. Newport and Crawford Gribben, eds., Expecting the End: Millennialism in Social and Historical Context, Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2006
- ‘Churches and Theology in a Century of Revolution and Reaction,’ in John R. Bartlee and Stuart D. Kinsella, eds., Two Thousand Years of Christianity in Ireland, Dublin: Columba, 2006