Project announcement
The international initiative Widening Horizons in Philosophical Theology, funded by a £2m grant from the Templeton Religion Trust, invests in the future of philosophical theology in the broadly continental tradition. Building on the work of New Directions in Philosophical Theology, it exists to strengthen the constructive and discovery-oriented potential of that tradition by an ambitious programme of research and events anchored at the University of St Andrews (Scotland) and extended by twelve independent research projects in the UK and worldwide.
The initiative builds on a vision of philosophical theology as an open, discovery-oriented discipline which draws on questions, approaches and methods from within continental (as well as analytic) philosophy to understand human life, its place in the world, and its relation to the God in the light of the Christian tradition.
The initiative focuses on concrete areas that require strategic attention: the methods of ressourcement and apophaticism; the practices of metaphysics, spiritual practice, and constructive conflict; and the concepts of freedom, information, life, sin, and truth. It also encourages theological engagement with classic continental approaches including phenomenology, hermeneutics, genealogy, transvaluation, and engagement with the arts.
The project vision, including descriptions of these strategic areas, can be read here.
The initiative is directed by Prof. Judith Wolfe and co-directed by Dr King-Ho Leung. The twelve projects are conducted by leading and emerging researchers in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia, working in departments of theology and philosophy.
Large projects (two years):
- Prof. Clare Carlisle (KCL) and Prof. Karen Kilby (Durham), on the spiritual and creative practice of theology
- Prof. Philip Goodchild (Nottingham), on transvaluation and the practice of metaphysics
- Prof. Christina Gschwandtner (Fordham) and Prof. Thomas Schaertl-Trendl (LMU Munich), on divine revelation in analytic and continental perspective
- Prof. Chris Insole (Durham and Australian Catholic University), on freedom and the limits of reason
- Prof. Simon Oliver (Durham), on the phenomenology of life
- Prof. Stephan van Erp (KU Leuven), with Profs Darren Dias, Inigo Bocken, and William Desmond, on religious life as a form of thought
Small projects (one to two years):
- Prof. Agata Bielik-Robson (Nottingham and Polish Academy of Science), on secular religiosity
- Dr Amber Bowen (Redeemer University Canada), with Prof. Merold Westphal, on the limits of critique in the search for truth
- Dr Philip Gonzales (Maynooth), on analogical metaphysics and mimesis
- Dr Oliver Keenan and Dr Daniel De Haan (Oxford), on continental accounts of truth and Thomist metaphysics of knowledge
- Mr Adam Morton (Nottingham), on prophetic modes of philosophy
- Dr Darren Sarisky (Australian Catholic University), on hermeneutics and transcendence
For more information, visit the projects pages.