Fellows (2020 Cohort)
We are delighted to share details of our first class of Fellows (2020 cohort) taking part in the Fellowships in Science-Engaged Theology.
Dr. Angela Carpenter
Hope College
Assistant Professor of Religion
Puzzle Title:
‘Evolution, Natural Morality, and the Prospect for Universal Human Regard’
Current area(s) of research interest :
Grace and Christian ethics, moral motivation; moral agency in theological and scientific anthropologies.
Angela Carpenter is a teacher and scholar of theology and ethics in the Reformed tradition. Her work explores the implications of the doctrine of grace for Christian understandings of ethics, moral agency, and human society. Dr. Carpenter’s research method is rooted in Reformed theology but engages scientific understandings of the human person in psychology and anthropology. Her first book, Responsive Becoming: Moral Formation in Theological, Evolutionary, and Developmental Perspective, was published by T&T Clark in 2019 and she is currently working on a second book on grace, moral agency, and communal flourishing.
Dr. Joshua Cockayne
University of St Andrews
(joint application with Mr. Gideon Salter)
Puzzle Title:
‘The Role of the Social and the Spatial: Attention-shaping through Liturgy’
Follow-on Funding Project Title:
‘Liturgy and Shared Situations: Perspectives from Psychology-Engaged Theology’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Analytic theology of spirituality, ecclesiology and liturgy. The engagement between psychology and theology, particularly related to religious practices.
Joshua Cockayne (PhD, University of York) is Lecturer of Analytic and Exegetical Theology in the Logos Institute, School of Divinity, University of St Andrews. Previously he taught at the University of York (2016-2017) and was a research fellow in the Logos Institute (2017-2019). He has published widely on issues related to analytic theology, spirituality, liturgy, ecclesiology and the work of Søren Kierkegaard. His monograph, Contemporary with Christ: Kierkegaard and Second Personal Spirituality will be published with Baylor University Press later this year. He co-chairs the AAR unit for the Society of Christian Philosophers with Prof Michael Rea and Dr Michelle Panchuk. From October 2020, he will serve as Curate at St Andrews Episcopal Church, St Andrews.
Dr. Saša Horvat
University of Zagreb
Catholic Faculty of Theology, Theology in Rijeka
(joint application with Ms. Tanja Horvat)
Puzzle Title:
‘Children with ASD: practical theology informed by cognitive science’
Follow-on Funding Project Title:
‘The religious experience of children with autism spectrum disorder’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Religion and science, Philosophy of Religion, Cognitive Science of Religion, Neurophilosophy, Philosophy of science.
Saša Horvat has successfully defended his doctoral thesis “Heidegger’s Notion of Oblivion” in 2014, supervised by prof. Josip Oslić at The Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus, in Zagreb. He is working as a docent, at the Theology in Rijeka, Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb. He is the project leader of the institutional project “Philosophical and theological considerations of scientific understanding of the human being and religiosity (2015-2020)“. He is also the principal investigator of the project ”Evolution, religion, cognitive science: problems and perspectives“. Saša initiated and is the head of the organizing committee of the international interdisciplinary conference “Rijeka’s scientific bridges“ in Rijeka, Croatia. Saša is married with Tanja and they have two beautiful children.
Ms. Tanja Horvat
University of Zagreb
Catholic Faculty of Theology, PhD programme
(joint application with Dr. Saša Horvat)
Puzzle Title:
‘Children with ASD: practical theology informed by cognitive science’
Follow-on Funding Project Title:
‘The religious experience of children with autism spectrum disorder’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Moral theology, Practical theology, Theology of Mental Illness, Theology of Disability, Autism.
Tanja Horvat finished a five-year Master’s in theology at the Catholic Faculty of Theology at the University of Split in 2007, with master’s thesis (in philosophy) “The Other in Emmanuel Levinas”, mentor prof.dr.sc. Ante Vučković. In 2008 she enrolled in PhD programme in theology (spec. moral theology) at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, with dissertation title proposal: “The moral responsibility of the children with autism spectrum disorder”. She works as the permanent religious teacher at the Autism Centre Rijeka and at the Elementary school ”Sveti Matej“, Viškovo.
Dr. Christina Lamb
University of Alberta
[email protected] Twitter: @ChristinaMLamb
Bioethicist, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing
Puzzle Title:
‘Investigating the meaning of conscience for a communitarian ethic of healthcare practice’
Follow-on Funding Project Title:
‘Conscience in healthcare: Creating a science-engaged theological education intervention for healthcare professionals’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Conscience and Freedom of Conscience in relation to bioethics, healthcare and intersections with moral philosophy and theology; Pediatric end of life ethics; Global Health ethics for maternal, newborn and child health; qualitative research.
Dr. Christina Lamb is the Principal Investigator of the Aletheia Conscience Project (ACP) which she initiated to foster an appreciation for, and investigations in, conscience for healthcare professionals. Her ACP work focuses on generating conceptual awareness on conscience in relation to her research findings, initiated by her empirical study on nurses’ lived experience of conscientious objection. This landmark investigation explicates what it is like to be a conscientious objector in healthcare.
Dr. Lamb’s current research involves examining new directions in conscience in relation to Newman, Stein, Maritain and Wojtyla’s metaphysical, personalist and phenomenological approaches. She will draw on these approaches, showing their relevance for the cultivation of moral healthcare communities and ethical healthcare practice. To this end, her project will place particular emphasis on Stein and Maritain.
In addition, Dr. Lamb is currently exploring the meaning of death and dying for children and the ethical significance that these life events hold for young people. She teaches bioethics across health science and philosophy programs, including a new elective, ‘Ethics and Conscience’ for summer, 2020. Dr. Lamb has clinical expertise in pediatric oncology, bioethics, and Global Health ethics experience related to maternal, newborn and child health in Rwanda.
Dr. Natalia Marandiuc
Southern Methodist University
Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology
Perkins School of Theology
Puzzle Title:
‘Love and Human Thriving: A Feminist Soteriology’
Follow-on Funding Project Title:
‘Love and Human Thriving: A Feminist Soteriology’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Feminist theology and theory, systematic and constructive theology, theology and neuroscience, theological anthropology, Christology, soteriology, theologies of reconciliation.
Natalia Marandiuc’s work focuses on feminist constructive and systematic theology and draws from interdisciplinary sources in theology, humanities, social sciences, and neuroscience. She earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies, with a specialization in systematic theology, from Yale University (2013). Her first book, The Goodness of Home: Human and Divine Love and the Making of the Self (Oxford University Press, 2018) won the Aldersgate Prize. She is currently writing her second monograph, provisionally titled Love and Human Thriving: A Feminist Soteriology. She teaches at Perkins School of Theology, SMU, where she also serves as affiliate faculty in the Religious Studies graduate program. She co-chairs the Christian Systematic Theology Unit at the AAR, is a member of the steering committee of AAR’s Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture section, and participates on the board of Logia.
Professor Myron A. Penner
Trinity Western University
Professor of Philosophy
Puzzle Title:
‘Biological Sex and the Human Person’
Follow-on Funding Project Title:
‘The Science of Sex Development and its Theological Applications’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Cognitive science of religion, philosophy of science; scientific realism; philosophy of chemistry, philosophical theology; Anabaptist theology
Myron A. Penner is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Humanitas Anabaptist-Mennonite Centre at Trinity Western University where he has been on faculty since 2005. His publications include work in philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and cognitive science of religion, and has appeared in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Faith and Philosophy, and Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review.
Professor Stephen J. Pope
Boston College
Puzzle Title:
‘What might be the significance of recent psychological research into forgiveness for a constructive theological and ethical theory of forgiveness?’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Professor of theological ethics.
Stephen J. Pope is a professor of theological ethics and social ethics in the theology department at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, MA in the United States. He received his PhD in theological ethics from the University of Chicago. He writes in the areas of reconciliation and restorative justice, forgiveness, virtue ethics, Catholic social teaching and on the relevance of science for theology and ethics. He has published on a variety of topics at the intersection of science and theology, particularly regarding the relevance of biological evolution to human altruism and the natural roots of morality. His latest book is A Step Along the Way: Models of Christian Service (Orbis, 2015). His work for the New Visions in Theological Anthropology focuses on the theological and ethical significance of recent psychological research on forgiveness. He teaches courses on peace, justice, and reconciliation. He has been involved in ad hoc projects for Jesuit Refugee Service and for the past ten years he has volunteered with the Catholic chaplain’s office of Norfolk prison in MA. He and his wife Patti have three adult children.
Mr. Gideon Salter
University of St Andrews
(joint application with Dr. Joshua Cockayne)
Puzzle Title:
‘The Role of the Social and the Spatial: Attention-shaping through Liturgy’
Follow-on Funding Project Title:
‘Liturgy and Shared Situations: Perspectives from Psychology-Engaged Theology’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Infant and child social development, with a focus on joint attention and communication. The role of shared experience in religious practices.
Gideon Salter is a PhD candidate in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews. He completed his Bachelors (Linguistics) and Master’s (Language Sciences) degrees at University College London, before coming to the University of St Andrews to start a PhD in Developmental Psychology. His PhD research is on the developmental origins of joint attention and communication, using a variety of methods to longitudinally investigate infant social development from 6 to 12 months. He has published research on children’s theory of mind, and, with Joshua Cockayne, published research on the psychology and theology of religious practices.
Dr. Tasia Scrutton
University of Leeds
Puzzle Title:
‘Psychopathology or religious experience?’
Follow-on Funding Project Title:
‘Psychopathology and Religious Experience: could someone be experiencing a mental illness and a genuine religious experience at one and the same time?’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Philosophy of religion; religion and mental health; philosophical theology.
Tasia (Anastasia) Scrutton’s background is in philosophy of religion and philosophical theology, and she has worked on divine passibility, soteriology, and the problem of evil. More recently, she has approached, from a philosophical and theological perspective, contemporary debates relating to religion and mental health. Her recent book, Christianity and Depression (2020, SCM Press), considers different Christian interpretations of depression and how they affect people’s experience. Her new project relates to debates about how psychiatrists might distinguish between psychopathology and religious experience – she is exploring the possibility that an experience or state might be both of these things.
Dr. Jason S. Sexton
University of California
Visiting Research Scholar at UCLA’s California Center for Sustainable Communities; and Editor-At-Large, Boom California (UC Press)
Puzzle Title:
‘Theological and scientific roots of the rise of mass incarceration’
Follow-on Funding Project Title:
‘The theological and scientific roots of mass incarceration’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Ecclesiology, Theological Anthropology, Carceral governance, California
Jason S. Sexton studies internal structural commitments of communities and their members and how these relate to assumed cultural and theological norms that show up in social and ethical action. His research focuses closely on California and its culture, the prison and its governance structures, contemporary religion/theology, and on convergent points where these subjects intersect.
His scholarly work has been published in academic journals like Theology, International Journal of Public Theology, Religions, Ecclesial Practices, Journal of Theological Studies, and in journals of missiology and criminology. Contributions in religious studies led to his elected role as President of the largest, most diverse regional body of the American Academy of Religion, the Western Region. And his contributions to California studies led to his appointment as Editor of the UC Press-published journal, Boom California. His academic writing has been published by presses like Routledge and Bloomsbury, while his popular writing has appeared in the LA Times, Zocalo Public Square, Los Angeles Review of Books, HarperCollins, among others.
Prior to joining the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA, he was the Interim State University Associate Dean of Academic Programs and a Visiting Fellow at the UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion.
Dr. Tobias Tanton
University of Oxford
Ripon College Cuddesdon & Faculty of Theology and Religion
Puzzle Title:
‘Christ’s Bride and Prejudice: The psychology of intergroup bias and an ecclesiology of outwardness’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Theology and Embodied Cognition; Principle of Divine Accommodation; Theological Epistemology; Theological Concepts; Liturgy and Ritual;
Tobias Tanton is currently a lecturer in theology at Ripon College Cuddesdon, a college which trains clergy for the Church of England, and an associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. He had a long and indecisive undergraduate academic career in Canberra, Australia, which wound its way through commerce, information technology, theology and classics. Settling on theology, he pursued graduate study at the University of Oxford. Here his research focused on bringing theology into dialogue with ‘embodied cognition’, a new paradigm in cognitive science which considers the way in which the body and its interaction with its environment influence human cognition. Through this dialogue he explores the way in which theological concepts are grounded in embodied experience and the cognitive effects of embodied religious practices such as rituals. As part of the New Visions in Theological Anthropology project, he aims to investigate psychological mechanisms (including the effects of embodied religious practices) which influence how we relate to in-groups and out-groups, and apply these to questions of prejudice in ecclesiology.
Dr. Martin Westerholm
University of Gothenburg
Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology
Puzzle Title:
‘Spiritual formation and the conditions of reliable discernment’
Current area(s) of research interest:
Systematic theology, theologies of formation, questions of justice and love, the metaphysics of morals, Augustine’s work
Martin Westerholm hails from Canada, where he did undergraduate work in philosophy and a master’s degree in theology that included a research stay in Heidelberg, Germany. He did his doctoral work at the University of Aberdeen under the supervision of John Webster, and taught at the universities of St Andrews and Durham before moving to the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Migration to Sweden has been something of a return to the motherland, as his mother and wider maternal family are Swedish. He and his family have, for several years, been enjoying the benefits of Sweden’s generous social policies; it has required careful planning to figure out how he and his wife can use up their parental leave in the thirty or so years that remain before they retire.
Martin’s research has touched on a range of themes and figures in theology, theological ethics, and the intersection of philosophy and theology. His wider interests include sports, gardening, recalling his glory days as an internationally renowned ventriloquist, and inserting complete fabrications into biographies on the chance that someone someday will come up to him at a conference and say, ’Hey, I once heard that you were an internationally renowned ventriloquist’.