Current students

Prof Carol Harrison

Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion

Member of the Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Tutor of St Chad's College

Biography

I have been in Durham since 1989, when I was appointed to a lectureship in the History and Theology of the Latin West following Professor Gerald Bonner's retirement. Patristics has always been a strong element in the department of Theology and Religion at Durham, with two full time members of staff: at present Professor Andrew Louth, in Greek Patristics and Byzantine Theology, and myself. We also have a Leverhulme Early Career Development fellow, Augustine Casiday, working in this area.

There is a very large community of postgraduate students in the department. A good number of them are working in Patristics at either M.A. or Ph.D. and take part in the weekly Patristics Research Seminar. There are also opportunities for them to participate in undergraduate teaching, such as marking essays and chairing seminars etc..
Patristics modules are taught at every level:modules at levels 1 and 2 introduce the main periods of Historical Theology, the major figures and writings, and the importance of context in the formation of Christian thought; modules at level three give the opportunity to concentrate on specific figures (such as Augustine) periods (such as Late Antiquity, Byzantium or the Reformation) or concepts (such as the sacraments, icons) and for close study of texts through seminars in small groups. Fourth level, or taught MA modules, are offered in various aspects of Patristic thought (most recently, The Early Works of Augustine (which I teach) and Icons and Iconoclasm.

As well as undergraduate and MA level teaching I currently supervise around 6-7 research MA/doctoral students who are working on subjects such as Augustine's pastoral theology in the Enarrationes in Psalmos; Augustine on interiority; Irenaeus' Scriptural Exegesis; Augustine on memory; unity in Augustine's ecclesiology and Trinitarian theology; a Patristic theology of the body in relation to John Paul II's Theology of the Body; the significance of the body in female martyr accounts. Over the past few years a number of my research students have been successful in obtaining AHRC awards. I'm happy to discuss research possibilities in Durham with prospective postgraduate students by email.

My research has focused on Augustine of Hippo for a long while now and I have published three studies of his thought: the first, Beauty and Revelation in the thought of Saint Augustine (Oxford 1992) was on his theological aesthetics; the second, Augustine: Christian Truth and Fractured Humanity (Oxford 2000) was an attempt to set his thought in context; the third Rethinking Augustine's Early Theology: an argument for continuity (Oxford 2006) was an argument for the importance of his early works and for a fundamental continuity in his thought, against the general scholarly trend (following Peter Brown) to begin to read him with the Confessions and to identify a dramatic revolution following his reading of Paul in the 390's.

My next major project is a book which focuses on listening, and in particular, on the Fathers' attitude to music, as a way of discussing the importance of, and yet widespread ambiguity towards, created, temporal, mutable reality and to artistic creation and expression, in Christian theology.

I am editor of the now well established Routledge series, The Early Church Fathers, English correspondent and treasurer of the Association Internationale des Etudes Patristiques, and regularly act as reader for the main theological publishing houses.

Research Interests

Art in the Christian tradition
Christian spirituality
St Augustine; Patristics

Publications

Books: authored

Harrison, Carol (2013). The Art of Listening in the Early Church. Oxford University Press.
Harrison, C. (2006). Rethinking Augustine's early theology: an argument for continuity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Books: sections

Hastings, Adrian, Mason, Alistair & Pyper, Hugh (2006). Augustine (353-430). In Key Thinkers in Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 24-33.

Edited works: contributions

Harrison, C. (2003). ‘Finding a via media the moderation of holiness in fourth century Western asceticism’. In Holiness Past and Present. Barton, S. C. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. 239-259.
Harrison, C (2002). ‘Augustine on the art of gardening’. In The Use and Abuse of Time in Christian History. R.N. Swanson Bury St. Edmunds: Boydell and Brewer. 37: 13-33.

Essays in edited volumes

Harrison, C. (2012). 'The Typology of Listening: The Transformation of Scripture in Early Christian Preaching'. In Delivering the Word: Preaching and Exegesis in the Western Christian Tradition. Lyons, J & Sandwell, Bella Equinox.
Harrison, Carol (2011). 'Augustine and the Art of Music'. In Resonant Witness: Conversations Between Music and Theology. Begbie, Jeremy & Guthrie, S Eerdmans. 27-45.
Andreopoulos,A, Casiday, A & Harrison, C (2011). 'Enchanting the soul: the music of the psalms'. In Meditations of the Heart: The Psalms in Early Christian Thought and Practice. Brepols. 205-224.
(2008). 'De profundis: Augustine's reading of Orthodoxy'. In Orthodox Readings of Augustine. SVS Press. 253-261.
(2007). 'The Early Works of Saint Augustine'. In Augustine. Mercator, Leuven. 165-179.
Harrison, Carol. (2007). Taking Creation for the Creator Use and Enjoyment in Augustine's Theological Aesthetics. In Idolatry False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism and Christianity. Barton, Stephen C. London: T & T Clark. 179-197.

Journal papers: academic

(2010). 'Transformative Listening: Constructing the Hearer in Early Christianity'. Studia Patristica XLIV: 427-432.
(2006). 'The Assault of Grace in Augustine's early works'. Studia Patristica XLIII: 113-117.
Harrison, Carol. (2006). De Doctrina Christiana. New Blackfriars 87(1008): 121-131.
Harrison, C. (2005). ‘The most intimate feeling of my mind’ the permanence of grace in Augustine’s early theological practice. Augustinian studies 36(1): 51-58.
Harrison, C. (2003). ‘The Role of Creatio ex Nihilo in Augustine’s Confessiones’. Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum 85: 415-419.
Harrison, C. (2002). ‘Augustine and Religious Experience’. Louvain Studies 27(2): 99-118.

Other publications: research

Carlton-Paget, James (2012). 'Augustine'. Cambridge University Press.