My research interests are in the interface of belief and practice, and particularly at the moment in theology, religion, and sport. In 2014, I published what has been described as the ‘must read’ book on the subject, and I have been a member of the Advisory Council for the Vatican-led project, ‘Sport at the Service of Humanity’, since 2015. I have also written on a wide range of other subjects including theology and film, and intercession. Originally from Cardiff, I am a keen rugby spectator. My interests include reading detective fiction, cinema, music, and current affairs.
I read Theology at Oxford as an undergraduate (MA, 1981) and a postgraduate (DPhil, 1985), which included spending a year in the USA on a scholarship programme. I served as a Baptist minister in Milton Keynes and Bristol, and was Tutor in Christian Doctrine at Bristol Baptist College before being appointed to the staff at Regent’s Park, initially as Fellow and Tutor in Pastoral Studies (2001-2007) and then as Principal (2007-2021).
Selected Quote
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
-
Selected Publications
Books
- The Games People Play: Theology, Religion and Sport (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014; Lutterworth: Cambridge, 2014)
- Answering God: Towards a Theology of Intercession (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2005)
Articles and Research Papers
- 'Film Noir', in R. Burnette-Bletsch, ed., The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and its Reception in Film (Boston, MS: De Gruyter, 2016)
- 'The Church as Praying Community', in International Congregational Journal 14.2 (Autumn 2015)
- 'The meanings of sport: an empirical study into the significance attached to sporting participation and spectating in the UK and US', Practical Theology 5.2 (2012)
- '"Play up! Play up! And play the game:" cricket and our place in the world', in S. Finamore and J. Weaver, eds, Wisdom, Science and the Scriptures: Essays in Honour of Ernest Lucas (Bristol: Bristol Baptist College and Centre for Baptist History & Heritage, 2012)
- 'Baptist Ministers as Leaders' in P. J. Lalleman, ed., Challenging to Change: Dialogues with a Radical Baptist Theologian: Essays presented to Dr Nigel G. Wright (London: Spurgeon’s College, 2009)
- 'Bringing out the Meaning: Deacy, Nolan, Scorcese and what films "mean"', The Journal of Religion and Film 13.2 (2009)
- '"And the life everlasting" – A Theological Reflection on Death & Dying', Transformation 24.2 (2007)
- 'Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy: The Pastor and the Suffering God', Transformation 22.3 (2005)