Biography
Dr Davison is the Starbridge Senior Lecturer in Theology and Natural Sciences. Before he moved into theology he was a scientist, and he holds undergraduate degrees and doctorates in both natural science (Merton College, Oxford) and theology (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge). Andrew taught Christian doctrine at Oxford and Cambridge before his current appointment. In 2015 he was made a canon of St Albans Cathedral in the UK: the first 'canon philosopher' in the Church of England. He has been a fellow of Corpus Christi College since 2014, and Dean of Chapel since 2019.
Research Interests
Dr Davison works at the intersection of theology, science and philosophy. His recent work has addressed astrobiology, inter-species cooperation (or mutualism) in biology, and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.
In the 2016-17 academic year, he was a fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey, on a NASA-sponsored programme to consider the implications for human society and self-understanding of life elsewhere in the universe. His monograph on the significance of 'exobiology' for the main aspects of the Christian faith will be published in 2021.
2019 saw the publication of a book with Cambridge University Press entitled Participation in God: A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics exploring the idea of participation – sharing in, or sharing from – as a structuring principle in Christian thought.
Dr Davison is open to supervising doctoral research in Christian theology, as it bears upon the natural sciences, or other areas of interest.
Key Publications
Journal Articles
‘Christian Doctrine and Biological Mutualism: Some Explorations in Systematic and Philosophical Theology’, Theology and Science, 17.3. June 2020.
‘Biological Mutualism: A Scientific Survey’, Theology and Science, 17.3. June 2020.
'Christian Systematic Theology and Life Elsewhere in the Universe: A Study in Suitability'. Theology and Science, 16.4. https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2018.1525224.
‘"He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change", but "who knows how?": Evolution and Divine Exemplarity.' Nova et Vetera, 16.4. 2018.
‘"Not to escape the world but to join it": responding to climate change with imagination not fantasy'. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 375. 2017. (20160365) https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2016.0365.
Chapters
'Scientific Cosmology as Creation ex Nihilo Considered "from the Inside"'. In Bockmuehl, Markus and Anderson, Gary (eds), Creatio ex nihilo: Origins and Contemporary Significance. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017.
Books
Participation in God: A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Blessing London: Canterbury Press, 2014.
Care for the Dying: A Practical and Pastoral Guide, with the physician Sioned Evans. London: Canterbury Press, 2014.
The Love of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy for Theologians. London: SCM Press, 2013
Why Sacraments? London: SPCK, 2013
For the Parish: A Critique of Fresh Expressions, with Alison Milbank. London: SCM Press, 2010.
Edited Volumes
Amazing Love. London: DLT, 2016.
Imaginative Apologetics: Theology, Philosophy and the Catholic Tradition. London: SCM Press, 2011.
Andrew is also a regular contributor to Church Times and the Times Literary Supplement.
