Recent Research Projects

Faith and Spirituality in the City

Faith and Spirituality in the City is an interdisciplinary venture undertaken in collaboration with with the Geography Department, the Centre for the Study of Cities and Regions and the Institute for Advanced Study. A key component will be a 24 hour residential colloquium - "Faith and Spirituality in the City: Towards a Post-Secular Urbanism" - which took place in March 2007. More information

The Legacy of Darwinism

In 2006, Durham University launched a high-level interdisciplinary research project on ‘The Legacy of Darwinism’, under the aegis of its newly established Institute of Advanced Study. Departments across the University were invited to contribute.

Given the central place of the Genesis creation narrative in the history of ideas about the origin and meaning of life, a project on the Legacy of Darwinism would be incomplete without serious reflection on how to read Genesis and do natural theology in a post-Darwinian era. A series of public lectures is therefore being planned. More information

Vertical Time and Space in Literature

Papers were invited for a summer conference sponsored by the University of Durham, focusing on current work exploring the relationship between literature and theology. The primary focus of the conference was to examine how literary text can engage with and deepen an understanding of religion and spirituality. We also invited papers reflecting research on film, music and fine art in relation to Biblical themes or the concerns of the Western and Eastern Orthodox traditions. More information

Spirituality and Palliative Medicine

The Spirituality and Palliative Medicine Project is an interdisciplinary enterprise comprising several members of the Department of Theology and Religion and a group of palliative care consultants based in the region, together with colleagues from the School of Health, the Department of Anthropology, and the Centre for the Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine. Proposed areas of research include the impact of a physician’s own spirituality and values on the doctor-patient relationship, the relation between psychological profile and ability to ‘cope’ at the end of life, the idea of ‘unbearable suffering’, and the meaning of spirituality for the non-religious. A programme of regional, national and international seminars and conferences is envisaged which would contribute to and disseminate the research. More information

Welfare and Values in Europe

WaVE is a three-year research project funded by the European Commission Sixth Framework (FP6), running from February 2006 to February 2009. Through in-depth qualitative research conducted in medium-sized towns of twelve European countries, the WaVE researchers will try to illuminate trends in social cohesion and/or conflict between diverse communities as perceptible in the domain of welfare provision. WaVE will examine the values expressed by majority religions in their interaction with minority communities in the domain of social welfare needs and provision; the values expressed by minority groups (especially religious minorities), in their use of welfare services and in their search for alternatives; and the gender-related values underpinning conceptions of welfare and practices in welfare provision in the localities under examination, both in majority and minority communities. Professor Douglas Davies, of Durham's Department of Theology and Religion, is one of the UK participants in the WaVE project. More information