Dr Giles Waller

Christian Theology

Philosophical Theology

Literature and Literary Theory

Inter-religious relations

Biography

Giles read Theology and Religious Studies at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he also completed an MPhil. His doctoral research, also at Peterhouse, focused on the borderlands of Christian doctrine, literature, and philosophy, looking at the theological reception of Greek tragedy, with a particular comparative interest in Martin Luther’s theology of the cross.

In 2011, along with Kevin Taylor, Giles edited a collection that brought together theologians and literary scholars, Christian Theology and Tragedy: Theologians, Tragic Literature and Tragic Theory (Ashgate), to which he contributed an essay on the role of tragedy in the work of Donald MacKinnon.

Alongside his teaching for doctrine papers in the Divinity Faculty, Giles has taught widely for papers in the English faculty, supervising students for the third year Tragedy paper, and for the first year Practical Criticism and Critical Practice paper. He runs an MPhil module on 'Theology and Literature: Tragedy'.

Research

Reformation Theology

Modern Christian Theology

Theology and the Arts

Theology and Literature

Tragic Drama and Theory

The theological interpretation of the music of J.S. Bach

Early Modern Epistemology and Literature

Donald MacKinnon

Publications

Key publications:

Monograph in preparation: Tragic Theology: Drama, the Cross, and the Literary Luther

Edited Books: Christian Theology and Tragedy: Theologians, Tragic Literature and Tragic Theory, co-edited with Kevin Taylor (Ashgate, 2011)

Journal Articles:

'Complicity, recognition and conversion in the Christus Patiens drama', Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, “Tragedy: Forms of a Genre, Medieval and Early Modern” (vol. 49, no. 1, Jan. 2019) https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-7279624

‘Felix culpa? On Rowan Williams’ The Tragic Imagination’, Modern Theology 34:2, April 2018, 10.1111/moth.12401: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/moth.12401/full

Book Chapters:

(Forthcoming):

‘Evil and Suffering’, The T&T Clark Companion to the Doctrine of Creation, ed. J. Goroncy, (Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming 2024)

(Published):

‘Reformation theology and the Christianization of tragedy: neoclassicism, epistemology and tragic spectacle in the Christus Patiens drama’, in J. Mitchell, F. O’Neill Tonning & E. Tonning (eds.) The Transformations of Tragedy: Christian Influences from Early Modern to Modern (Brill, 2019)

https://brill.com/view/title/55047

‘Qui enim securus est, minime securus est: the paradox of securitas in Luther and beyond’, in S. Mukherji & T. Stuart-Buttle (eds.) Knowing Faith: Literature, Knowledge and Belief in Early Modern England (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)

'Fate, freedom, and sin in Donald MacKinnon's use of tragedy', in Christian Theology and Tragedy: Theologians, Tragic Literature, and Tragic Theory, T.K. Taylor and G. Waller (eds.) (Ashgate, 2011)