Keith Ward

Keith Ward (2016).

John Stephen Keith Ward (born August 22, 1938 in Hexham , Northumberland ) is a British philosopher , theologian , Anglican priest and author who has done a lot of research on religion and Christianity, published and critically dealt with the representatives of the new materialism .

Life

Ward studied at the University of Wales at Cardiff , where he did his Baccalauréat ; and at Oxford University he studied literature. He received his masters from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford , and he also obtained his doctorate from these two universities.

From 1964 to 1969 he was a teacher of logic at the University of Glasgow , followed by a teaching position in philosophy at the Scottish University of St. Andrews until 1971. 1971 to 1976 he taught philosophy of religion at King's College at the University of London . From 1976 to 1983 he was a Fellow , Dean and Director of Philosophical and Theological Studies at Trinity Hall , Cambridge . 1983 to 1986 he was FD Maurice Professor of Moral and Social Theology at the University of London . From 1986 to 1991 he was Professor and Head of the History and Philosophy of Religion at the University of London. From 1991 to 2003 he was Regius professor of theology at Oxford University, where he was also retired . From 2004 to 2008 he accepted the Gresham theology professorship at Gresham College in London. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2000 and a Research Fellow at Heythrop College in London since 2009 .

Ward has held many visiting professorships, including Drake University in Des Moines , Iowa , Claremont Graduate School in Claremont , California , University of Tulsa in Oklahoma , Cornell College in Iowa, Hartford Seminary, and Virginia Theological Seminary.

For certain lectures and limited teaching assignments, Ward was at the University of Birmingham in 1980 , in Delhi , Bangalore and Calcutta in 1989 , in Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand in 1993 . In 1998 he was a research fellow at the South African Center for Science Development. In 2000 he was Witherspoon Lecturer at Princeton , and in 2003 he was a Frank Woods Fellow at the University of Melbourne . This was followed in 2006 lectures at the John Albert Hall at the University of Victoria in western Canada Victoria and 2008 Hensley Henson lectures at the University of Oxford. From 2007 to 2008 he was also a Senior Research Fellow at the Metanexus Institute in Philadelphia . In 2008 he read at Sarum in Salisbury , England , in 2009 with Robert Boyle in London and James Gregory in St. Andrews. In 2009 he was a Residential Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio . In 2010 he was a Fellow at the Research, Literature and Art Institute in Venice .

In 1972 Ward was ordained a priest in the Church of England. From 1991 to 2003 he was part of the Christ Church chapter in Oxford .

Private

Ward is married with two children.

Teaching

One focus of Ward is the ideological confrontation with the representatives of a new materialism, including Stephen Hawking , Carl Sagan , Jacques Monod and Richard Dawkins . In 2011, Is Religion dangerous? (German: Religion - dangerous or useful? ) wrote a book that received greater attention and widespread circulation. In it he justifies and represents the opinion that religion - and especially Christianity - has done more good than bad and can make a significant contribution to a successful and fulfilling life even today. Ward is considered the founder of the newer comparative theology.

Quote

“If Democritus was the laughing philosopher, Keith Ward ought to be known as the laughing theologian.” (Frank Wilson, The Philadelphia Inquirer) "If Democritus was the laughing philosopher, then Ward should only be known as the laughing theologian."

Honors

• 1993–1994: Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow
• 2000: Honorary doctorate from the Free University of Amsterdam
• 2007: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Glasgow
• Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
• Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Cardiff
• Member of the Executive Committee of the Royal Institute of Philosophy (English: Royal Institute of Philosophy )
• Co-editor of Religious Studies (English: Religious Studies )
• Member of the editorial board of religious studies, newspaper of contemporary religion; Studies of interreligious dialogue and World Faiths meeting (English: World Faiths Encounter )
• President of the World Faiths Congress (English: World Congress of Faiths )

Fonts (selection)

• Religion and Creation , Oxford, 1964
• Ethics and Christianity , Humanities Press, 1970, ISBN 978-0-39100-047-6
• The Concept of God , Basil Blackwell, 1974, ISBN 978-0-63115-540-9
• The Living God , 1984, ISBN 978-0-28104-126-8
• Images of Eternity: Concepts of God in Five Religious Traditions , Oneworld 1993
• Religion and Revelation: A Theology of Revelation in the World's Religions , Oxford 1995
• Religion and Creation , Oxford 1996
• God, Chance and Necessicty , Oneworld, 1997, ISBN 978-1-85168-116-7
• In Defense of the Soul , Oneworld, 1998
• God, Faith and the New Millennium: Christian Belief in an Age of Science , Oneworld, 1998
• Religion and Human Nature , Oxford 1999
• Divine Action: Examining God's Role in an Open and Emergent Universe , Templeton Press, 2007
• The Big Questions in Science and Religion , Templeton Foundation, 2008
• Why There Almost Certainly Is a God: Doubting Dawkins , Lion Hudson, ISBN 978-0-82547-843-7
• The Word of God? - The Bible after modern scholarship , The Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2010
• Is religion dangerous? Lion, 2011, ISBN 978-0-74595-530-8
• God: A Guide For The Perplexed , Oneworld Publications, 2013, ISBN 978-1-85168-973-6
• Christ and the Cosmos - A Reformulation of Trinitarian Doctrine , Heythrop College, University of London 2015, ISBN 978-1-10753-181-9
• Love is his meaning - Understanding the teaching of Jesus , SPCK Publishing, 2017, ISBN 978-0-28107-763-2

German translations

• God - the course book for doubters. Translated from the English by Nikolaus de Palézieux. Primus, Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 978-3-89678-625-8 .
• Religion - Dangerous or Useful? Translated from the English by Bernardin Schellenberger. Kreuz, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-7831-3006-5 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Keith Ward in the catalog of the German National Library
• Keith Ward website
• Keith Ward at giffordlectures.org
• Keith Ward on Christianity, Philosophy, Questions and Truth on Youtube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Keith Ward, at Gresham
2. ↑ CV on Keith Ward's website
3. ↑ CV on Keith Ward's website
4. ↑ Felix Ruther: Book summary on Keith Ward: Religion - dangerous or useful? Magazine insist
5. ↑ CV on Keith Ward's website