
I studied Modern Languages at Merton College Oxford, followed by a DPhil on the work of Paul Celan, a German Jewish poet who wrote remarkable poems about the Holocaust, at Wolfson College Oxford. Life has taken me to many different places, and I have had the opportunity to teach at universities in Germany, Russia, Italy, USA and now China. I held the chair of Christian Doctrine at King's College London from 2004-2017, where I am still an Emeritus Professor. I currently hold a Senior International Research Chair in Science, Ethics, and Philosophy in the School of Philosophy at Renmin University of China, Beijing. At RUC, I am a Professorial Fellow of the newly founded Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, and have taught Masters level courses on 'Ethics and Globalization' and ‘China and Globalization’. In Europe I sit as ethical advisor on the advisory board of ‘Virtual Times’, which investigates and explores different uses of AI in contemporary neuroscience from the perspective of the construction and use of time. VT is supported by the EU Horizon 2020 programme.
My current focus lies in the area of developing new forms of interdisciplinary human self-understanding as social in the light of current findings in neuroscience and evolutionary science, as these interact with philosophy and the arts, and the study of religion. I am excited by the possibilities of a new encounter between science and religion around the theme of the building of community, on both the small and large scale. Such an encounter could create the conditions of a ‘second Enlightenment’ which may, in turn, lead to the critical engagement of both science and religion in ways that might subtly change both.
My current focus lies in the area of developing new forms of interdisciplinary human self-understanding as social in the light of current findings in neuroscience and evolutionary science, as these interact with philosophy and the arts, and the study of religion. I am excited by the possibilities of a new encounter between science and religion around the theme of the building of community, on both the small and large scale. Such an encounter could create the conditions of a ‘second Enlightenment’ which may, in turn, lead to the critical engagement of both science and religion in ways that might subtly change both.
NEW ARTICLES
2021: 'Science, Philosophy and the Authority of the Early Franciscan Summa Halensis: Learning from the Past for the sake of the Future', in Lydia Schumacher, ed., The Legacy of Early Franciscan Thought, De Gruyter, 373-97.
2020: 'Grace in Evolution', in Celia Deane-Drummond and Agustín Fuentes, eds., Theology and Evolutionary Anthropology. Dialogues in Humility, Wisdom and Grace, Routledge, Taylor and Francis: London and New York, 228-42.
2018: Confucianism in the Perspective of Global Science—A Review of 'Reconceptualizing Confucian Philosophy in the 21st Century'
Front. Philos. China 2018, 13(1): 150–163
DOI 10.3868/s030-007-018-0010-2
2021: 'Science, Philosophy and the Authority of the Early Franciscan Summa Halensis: Learning from the Past for the sake of the Future', in Lydia Schumacher, ed., The Legacy of Early Franciscan Thought, De Gruyter, 373-97.
2020: 'Grace in Evolution', in Celia Deane-Drummond and Agustín Fuentes, eds., Theology and Evolutionary Anthropology. Dialogues in Humility, Wisdom and Grace, Routledge, Taylor and Francis: London and New York, 228-42.
2018: Confucianism in the Perspective of Global Science—A Review of 'Reconceptualizing Confucian Philosophy in the 21st Century'
Front. Philos. China 2018, 13(1): 150–163
DOI 10.3868/s030-007-018-0010-2