Short Biography

I am Professor of Continental Philosophy of Religion, having worked in an academic role at Hope since 2008. 

I was born in Walsall, in the West Midlands, and was the first of my family to go to university. I studied Theology at Cambridge, before spending a year In Liverpool working as an assistant at St Columba’s church in Anfield. I returned to Cambridge for my PhD, a study of the Danish religious philosopher Kierkegaard. I trained for ordination as a priest in the Church of England, working I parishes in Cambridge and Sheffield before returning to Liverpool.

My books include Kierkegaard, Language and the Reality of God (Ashgate, 2001); Radical Orthodoxy: A Critical Introduction (SPCK, 2007); Derrida and Theology (T & T Clark, 2009) and Kierkegaard and the Refusal of Transcendence (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) as well as four edited collections.  I’m increasingly drawn to Romantic philosophy and what we can learn from it about reimagining our relationship with nature and the more-than-human world. In recognition of my contribution to the field, I am a Fellow of the prestigious Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and Patron of the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals. 

As well as working at Hope, I am Assistant Priest at Liverpool parish church (Our Lady and St Nicholas) and a member of the Sodality of Mary, a dispersed community of priests in the Anglo-catholic tradition. My non-academic work includes writing works of inclusive liturgy and poetry. I am completing a Masters in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. 

Teaching Specialisms:

Philosophy of religion

Metaphysics

20th century and contemporary European philosophy

Romanticism and idealism

Philosophy of nature

Personhood

I welcome PhD proposals in philosophy of religion, continental philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of nature and animality.

School/Faculty Roles:

Research Excellence Framework Unit Co-ordinator for Theology and Religious Studies. 

Co-facilitator of The Association for Continental Philosophy of Religion research group

Facilitator of the Critical Environmental Humanities group.

Levels I and H course leader for Philosophy and Ethics.

Recent Projects:

Co-organiser for the international conference ‘Nature, Thinking: From Romanticism and Idealism to Ecological Philosophy’, Liverpool Hope University, 2024.

Keynote speaker, ‘Don Cupitt and the Sea of Faith’ 40th anniversary conference, University of Cambridge 2024. 

Recent Publications:

'The Logic of Expression in Philosophy of Religion: Deleuze and Merleau-Ponty' in Melita Theologica (forthcoming 2025)

'Don Cupitt and the State of Radical Theology' in Modern Believing 65.3 (Summer 2024, forthcoming)

‘Pretty in Black: The Temptation to Melody and Ambience in Black Metal’ in Daniel Lukes and Stanimir Panayatov, Black Metal Rainbows, (Oakland: PM Press, 2023), pp. 283-301.

(co-edited with Clare Carlisle): Kierkegaardian Essays: A Festschift in Honour of George Pattison (De Gruyter, 2022)

 ‘From the Lily and the Bird, Let us Learn: Nothing’ in Clare Carlisle and Steven Shakespeare (eds), Kierkegaardian Essays, (de Gruyter, 2022), pp. 147-164.

‘Once More, From Below: The Concept of Reduplication and the Immanence of Political Theology’ in Kirill Chepurin and Alex Dubilet (eds), Nothing Absolute: German Idealism and the Question of Political Theology (New York: Fordham University Press, 2021), pp. 223-239.

‘Returning to the Animal: The Christian Discourses and the Refusal of the Future’ in International Journal on Humanistic Ideology 11.1 (2021), pp. 34-49.

‘The Generative Tone: Musical Disruptions of Philosophy’s Tissue’ in Gary Anderson, Niamh Malone and Steven Shakespeare (eds), Art Disarming Philosophy: Non-Philosophy and Aesthetics (London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2021), pp. 235-261.