Biography

I am a Lecturer in the Philosophy, Religion and Theology Discipline Area at the UoN. My research in theology and continental philosophy of religion has led to projects on the theological meaning of "being" after Karl Barth and Martin Heidegger as well as the aporias of transcendence in Jürgen Habermas’ theory of secular reason. Examples of my work can be found in journals such as Modern Theology, New Blackfriars and Political Theology, as well as the recent book, Protestant Metaphysics after Karl Barth and Martin Heidegger. I am Program Leader for the funded Religion in Political Life (RIPL) Research at the Humanities Research Institute. In terms of teaching, I am the Program Convenor for Theology (DipTh, BTh, GradCert, MTh), and teach courses in World Religions (RELI1010), Children of Abraham (RELI2050) and the New Visibility of Religion (RELI3060). I welcome Honours and PhD research applications on a range of topics related to the above. Further details on my work are available at http://timothywstanley.com

My office hours for semester 1, 2013 are wednesdays 1-2pm, or by appointment.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Manchester - England, 2008
• Master of Arts, University of Manchester - England, 2004

Research

Research keywords

• Karl Barth
• Martin Heidegger
• Metaphysics
• Philosophical Theology
• Political Religion

Research expertise

Religion in Political Thought

My research on religion in political thought was inspired by my association with the Centre for Religion and Political Culture at the University of Manchester. It now continues at the University of Newcastle, Australia, as Program Leader for the Faculty of Education and Arts Research funding on Religion in Political Life for 2012-13. Currently, religion and globalization seem to be working towards opposite ends. As Mark Juergensmeyer has noted in Religion and Global Civil Society, while religiously invoked terrorism fragments society, the Internet, cell phones and the media industry foster the formation of an increasingly global social fabric. However, religion is not a single faceted phenomenon. As much as there have been prophets of violence such as Osama bin Laden, there have been prophets of peace and reconciliation such as Bishop Desmond Tutu. My research addresses this ambivalence both through a more rigorous account of the political nature of religion itself, as well as the key religious ideas which inform western notions of secularism and the public sphere of civil society.

Theology of Codex Books

Recent transformations in information technology have increased interest in the long history of the bound codex book. At the same time, debates in philosophical theology continue about the nature of writing, most notably in the aftermath of Jacques Derrida’s thought. This project brings these two concerns together in order to develop new understanding of the relationship between religion and media and the impact of the codex book upon Christian thought. Firstly, it introduces the question concerning written technology with reference to Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida's various appropriations of Plato's Phaedrus. Secondly, it comprehensively summarizes the theological influences upon early Christian codex book production of the second to fourth centuries of the common era. Thirdly, it advances a new theological account of writing informed by this long history of the Christian codex. Repeating Faith: A Theology of the Early Christian Codex Book, has been accepted for publication by Fortress Press and should be available in 2014

Protestant Metaphysics after Karl Barth and Martin Heidegger

What is the legacy of the Greek metaphysical tradition for Protestant Christianity? Two of the most influential twentieth century thinkers to answer this question are Karl Barth and Martin Heidegger. However, the relationship between their work remains ambiguous within contemporary scholarship. My research challenges both an oversimplified conflation of Barth and Heidegger’s thought as well as the pretense that an (a)theist philosopher and dogmatic theologian have little to say to each other. The result of this juxtaposition is a clear articulation of two different ways of refiguring the historically problematic relationship between metaphysics and theology after the Protestant Reformation. Whereas Heidegger interpreted Luther in a way which ultimately led to a divorce between metaphysics and theology, Barth saw Luther as the progenitor of a non-foundationalist affirmation of the being of God. In either case the boundaries between theology and philosophy were radically reconfigured in ways which continue to dominate both disciplines to this day. This research was funded by the British Government's Universities UK Overseas Research Scholarship as well as the University of Manchester's internal funding. Protestant Metaphysics after Karl Barth and Martin Heidegger

Collaboration

I currently collaborate as Program Leader of the Religion in Political Life Research in the Humanities Research Institute: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/institute/humanities-research/programmes-of-research/ripl/

Fields of Research

Centres and Groups

Centre

• Humanities Research Institute

Group

• Group for Religious and Intellectual Traditions

Memberships

Learned Academy.

• Member (American Academy of Religion)
• Member (Society of Biblical Literature)

Invitations

Administrative

Administrative expertise

Program Convenor for Theology (DipTh, BTh, GradCert, MTh).

Program Leader for the Religion in Political Life Research at the Humanities Research Institute: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/institute/humanities-research/programmes-of-research/ripl/

Convenor for the Group for Religious and Intellectual Traditions: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/hss/research/groups/grit/

Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Comparative Theology
• Political Theology
• Religious Ethics
• World Religions

Teaching expertise

I teach courses which investigate the nature and function of religious thought and how it impacts secular societies. My aim is to introduce key themes for each course, but also to foster habits of the mind such as curiosity, open-mindedness, empathy, and intellectual passion. It seems to me that these habits are imperative for life in our increasingly multi-religious societies.

All of my courses are available for students to take face to face in class, completely online, or a mix of both to suit their schedules. This is possible because course materials are available in the online Blackboard (readings beyond textbooks, bibliographies, assessment submission), and each week’s face to face lecture is recorded as a Quicktime .MOV file which is then available for download from the UoN’s lecture recording system Echo360.

Please click the links below for more detail on course content and objectives. I'm also available via the contact details above.

Semester 1, 2013

RELI1010 World Religions (Callaghan/Online) http://www.newcastle.edu.au/course/RELI1010.html

RELI4001 Religious Studies: Methodologies (Callaghan/Online) http://www.newcastle.edu.au/course/RELI4001.html

Semester 2, 2013

RELI2050 Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Callaghan/Online) http://www.newcastle.edu.au/course/RELI2050.html

RELI3060 The New Visibility of Religion (Callaghan/Online) http://www.newcastle.edu.au/course/RELI3060.html