Profiles

Dr Robert Song, M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon)
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religion
Telephone: 0191 33 43959
(email at robert.song@durham.ac.uk)
Current postgraduates
I am currently supervising postgraduates researching in the following areas:
- the virtue of generosity
- theology and dementia
- a theological ethnography of the Durham miners
- the church under Blair
- the ethics of surrogate motherhood
- evidence-based hospital chaplaincy
- genetic manipulation and sports enhancements
- theology and appetite/desire
- pastoral responses to eating disorders
- homosexuality, apologetics and ecclesiology
Past postgraduates
Postgraduate research I have supervised includes the following:
- Jennifer Moberly, 'The Virtue of Bonhoeffer's Ethics: A Study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics in Relation to Virtue Ethics' (PhD)
- Sarah Charlton, 'The Creation of Families: Christianity and Contemporary Adoption' (PhD)
- Peter Manning, 'Cohabitation in Britain: A Theological and Pastoral Response' (PhD)
- Ashley Wilson, 'Hermeneutics and Moral Imagination: The Implications of Gadamer's Truth and Method for Christian Ethics' (PhD)
- Paul Markham, 'Conversion Converted: A New Model of Christian Conversion in Light of Wesleyan Theology and Nonreductive Physicalism' (PhD)
- Mary Rowell, ‘Towards a New Paradigm for Bioethics: Ecological and Theological Contributions’ (PhD)
- Dennis Cheek, 'Theology and Technology: A Framework for Analysis and Decision Making with Special Reference to Intelligent Transportation Systems' (PhD)
- Edmund Wee, ‘A Christian Theological Response to Human Gene Patenting’ (MA)
- Helen Savage, ‘Changing Sex? Transsexuality and Christian Theology’ (PhD)
- Maria Lastochkina, ‘Christian Views of Euthanasia: A Comparison of Russian and Western Perspectives’ (MA)
- Nigel Oakley, ‘Educating Christians for Political Involvement: An Examination of Augustinian, Liberation and Confessing Church Approaches’ (PhD)
- Audrey Elkington, 'A Theological Consideration of Issues Raised by Human Genetic Manipulation with Particular Reference to Gene Therapy' (MA)
Publications
Books: authored
- Robert Song (2002). Human Genetics Fabricating the Future. Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press.
- Robert Song (1997). Christianity and Liberal Society. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Books: edited
- Waters, Brent & Song, Robert (2013). The Authority of the Gospel: Explorations in Moral and Political Theology in Honour of Oliver O'Donovan. Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans.
- Craig Bartholomew., Jonathan Chaplin., Robert Song. & Al Wolters (eds.). (2002). A Royal Priesthood? The Use of the Bible Ethically and Politically: A Dialogue with Oliver O'Donovan. Scripture and Hermeneutics Series, vol. 3. Carlisle: Paternoster Press.
Edited works: contributions
- Robert Song (1998). 'Democratie'. In Dictionnaire Critique de Theologie. Jean-Yves Lacoste (ed.) Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. 308-9.
- Robert Song (1997). ‘Moral Theology’ (revision). In The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. E. A. Livingstone (ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1110-12.
Essays in edited volumes
- Song, Robert (2013). Body Integrity Identity Disorder and the Ethics of Mutilation. In The Authority of the Gospel: Explorations in Moral and Political Theology in Honour of Oliver O'Donovan. Waters, Brent & Song, Robert Grand Rapids, Mi: Eerdmans.
- Song, Robert (2013). Transgenic Animals and Human Dignity: Some Ethical Considerations. In Animals as Religious Subjects: Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Deane-Drummond, Celia, Clough, David & Artinian-Kaiser, Rebecca T & T Clark.
- Robert Song (2010). Bonhoeffer and the Biotechnological Imagination. In Bonhoeffer and the Biosciences: An Initial Exploration. Ralf K. Wüstenberg, Stefan Heuser & Esther Hornung Frankfurt: Peter Lang. 75-87.
- Robert Song (2009). Humanity, Divinity and Interspecies Embryos. In The Legal, Medical and Cultural Regulation of the Body: Transformation and Transgression. Stephen W. Smith & Ronan Deazley Farnham: Ashgate. 127-141.
- Mark Bratton (2009). The Bible and Human Genetics. In God, Ethics and the Human Genome. London: Church House Publishing. 33-45.
- Robert Song (2007). Conclusion: Fragility and Grace, Theology and Disability’. In Theology, Disability and the New Genetics: Why Science Needs the Church. John Swinton & Brian Brock London: T & T Clark. 234-44.
- Robert Song (2004). 'Sharing Communion: Hunger, Food, GM Foods and Population Growth'. In The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. Stanley Hauerwas & Samuel Wells (eds.) Oxford: Blackwell. 388-400.
- Robert Song (2003). 'The Human Genome Project as Soteriological Project'. In Brave New World? Theology, Ethics and the Human Genome. Celia Deane-Drummond London: T. & T. Clark. 164-184.
- Robert Song (2003). To Be Willing to Kill What for All One Knows Is A Person Is to Be Willing to Kill a Person. In God and the Embryo Religious Voices on Stem Cells and Cloning. Brent Waters & Ronald Cole-Turner Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 98-107.
- Song, Robert. (2002). 'Whose Sanctity of Life? Ricoeur, Dworkin and the Human Embryo'. In Holiness Past and Present. Barton, Stephen. London: T. & T. Clark. 460-476.
- Robert Song (1999). 'Wisdom as the End of Morality'. In Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?. Stephen C. Barton (ed.) Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 295-306.
- Robert Song (1994). 'Political Life'. In Veritatis Splendor: An Anglican Response. Charles Yeats (ed.) Norwich: The Canterbury Press. 57-68.
Journal papers: academic
- Pugh, E. J., Song, R., Whittaker, V. & Blenkinsopp, J. (2009). A Profile of the Belief System and Attitudes to End-of-Life Decisions of Senior Clinicians Working in a National Health Service Hospital in the United Kingdom. Palliative Medicine 23(2): 158-164.
- Robert Song (2007). 'Genetic Manipulation and the Body of Christ'. Studies in Christian Ethics 20(3): 399-420.
- Robert Song (2006). Knowing There Is No God, Still We Should Not Play God? Habermas on the Future of Human Nature. Ecotheology 11(2): 191-211.
- Robert Song (2005). Christian Bioethics and the Church's Political Worship. Christian Bioethics 11: 333-348.
