THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Information for prospective students

• Undergraduates
• Postgraduates

Information for current students

• Undergraduates
• Postgraduates

About the Department

• General enquiries
• Staff
• THRS news

Research

• Research information
• Research centres
• Conferences and seminars

Oliver Crisp

Reader in Theology

BD (Aberdeen), MTh (Aberdeen), PhD (London)

Phone: 0117 928 8168

Fax: 0117 331 7933

E-mail: oliver.crisp@bristol.ac.uk

Biography

Oliver was born in West London. He completed a foundation diploma in fine art at Wimbledon School of Art (1990-1991) before going to the University of Aberdeen for his BD in Systematic Theology and Church History. He went on to read for an MTh at Aberdeen (1998), and a PhD at King's College, University of London, on the philosophical theology of Jonathan Edwards (2002).

Oliver taught theology at the University of St. Andrews from 2002-2004. He was the Frederick J. Crosson Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Religion, University of Notre Dame, USA (2004-2005) and the William H. Scheide Fellow in Theology and Resident Member at the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton (2008-2009). He has also been a visiting lecturer at Regent College, Vancouver, BC (2005, 2007-2009). He is the Secretary to the Society for the Study of Theology.

Research

His research covers philosophical theology, systematic theology and some historical theology and ethics. Current research interests include analytic theology; eighteenth and nineteenth century American Reformed theology, particularly Jonathan Edwards, the New Divinity, William Shedd, John Williamson Nevin; modern Anglo-American systematic theology; and the Incarnation and Atonement.

Publications

Authored books

• Jonathan Edwards and the Metaphysics of Sin (Ashgate, 2005). This monograph deals with the metaphysical issues raised in Edwards' doctrine of sin. viii +146 pp. inclusive.
• Divinity and Humanity: the Incarnation Reconsidered (Cambridge University Press, 2007). In the Current Issues in Theology Series, edited by Prof. Iain Torrance. xiv + 187 pp.
• An American Augustinian: Sin and Salvation in the Dogmatic Theology of William G. T. Shedd (Paternoster Press/ Wipf and Stock, 2007). In the Theological Monographs Series. xvi + 183 pp.
• God Incarnate: Explorations in Christology,(T & T Clark, 2009). A sequel to Divinity and Humanity that tackles eight dogmatic issues in the Incarnation not covered in the previous work. vii + 192 pp.

Edited books

• Jonathan Edwards: Philosophical Theologian (Ashgate, 2003), edited with Paul Helm, bringing together state-of-the-art essays from leading theologians and philosophers from the USA and UK on Edwards. This includes my xvi page introduction. 165 pp.
• Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology edited with Michael Rea (Oxford University Press, 2009). Bringing together essays from leading theologians and philosophers to discuss the prospect of 'Analytic Theology' as a theological method. x + 316 pp.
• A Reader in Contemporary Philosophical Theology (Continuum, 2009). The first single-volume reader that collects together essays from recent work by analytic philosophers and theologians on five central areas of Christian theology: Scripture; The Trinity; The Incarnation; Sin and Original Sin; and the Atonement. x + 379 pp.

Books forthcoming

• Retrieving Dogmatics: Essays in Reformed Theology (Paternoster, 2010).
• Helm on Philosophy of Religion: Collected Essays of Paul Helm, ed. and with Introduction by Oliver Crisp (Ashgate, 2010).
• An Essay on Original Sin (OUP, 2010).

Essays in Books (published or accepted for publication)

• 'Introduction' in Helm and Crisp (eds.) Jonathan Edwards: Philosophical Theologian, pp. ix-xvi.
• 'How occasional was Edwards' occasionalism? in Helm and Crisp (eds.) Jonathan Edwards: Philosophical Theologian, pp. 61-77.
• 'Creation' in Sung Wook Chung (ed.) Karl Barth and Evangelical Theology: Convergences and Divergences (Baker Academic/Paternoster Press, 2006), pp. 77-95.
• Articles 'realism' and 'phenomenalism' in W. C. Campbell-Jack, Gavin J. McGrath, and C. Stephen Evans eds., the New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics (Inter-Varsity Press, 2006).
• Introduction to reissue of Norman Fiering, Jonathan Edwards's Moral Thought in its British Context (Wipf & Stock, 2007 [1981]).
• 'Incarnation' in The Oxford Handbook to Systematic Theology, eds. Kathryn Tanner, Iain Torrance and John Webster (OUP, 2007), pp. 160-175.
• 'Barth and Jonathan Edwards on Reprobation (and Hell)' in Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques (eds.) David Gibson and Daniel Strange (Inter-Varsity Press, 2008), pp. 300-322.
• 'The logic of penal substitution revisited' in The Atonement Debate: Papers from the London Symposium on the Atonement edited by Derek Tidball, David Hilborn and Justin Thacker (Zondervan, 2008), pp. 208-227.
• 'Jonathan Edwards's God: The Trinity, Individuation and Divine Simplicity' in Engaging the Doctrine of God, edited by Bruce McCormack (Baker Academic, 2008), pp. 83-103.
• 'Multiple Incarnations' in Reason, Faith and History: Essays in Honour of Paul Helm, edited by Martin Stone (Ashgate, 2008), pp. 217-236.
• 'Original Sin and Atonement' in Thomas P. Flint and Michael C. Rea (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology (OUP, 2009), pp. 430-451.
• 'On Analytic Theology' in Crisp and Rea (eds.) Analytic Theology: New Essays in Theological Method (OUP, 2009), pp. 33-53.
• 'Introduction' and section introductions in Oliver Crisp (ed.) A Reader in Contemporary Philosophical Theology (T&T Clark, 2009).
• 'John Calvin on Creation and Providence' in Sung Wook Chung (ed.) John Calvin and Evangelical Theology: Legacy and Prospect (Paternoster and Westminster John Knox, 2009), pp. 43-65.
• 'John Calvin on Petitionary Prayer' in Mark Thompson, (ed.) Engaging Calvin (Inter-Varsity Press, 2009), pp. 136-157.
• Articles 'Being', 'Francis Turretin' and (with Matt Jenson) 'Sin' forthcoming in the revised edition of The New Dictionary of Theology, eds. Stephen Holmes, John McDowell and Steven Carter (Inter-Varsity Press, 2010).
• 'Salvation and Atonement: On The Value and Necessity of the Work of Christ' forthcoming in Ivor J. Davidson and Murray A. Rae (eds.) The God of Salvation: Essays in Systematic Theology (Ashgate, 2009).
• 'Introduction' to Reason in the Service of Faith: Collected Essays of Paul Helm (Ashgate, 2010).
• 'Faith and Experience' forthcoming in Gerald R. McDermott (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology (OUP, 2010).
• 'Compositional Christology without Nestorianism' in Anna Marmadoro and Jonathan Hill eds. The Metaphysics of the Incarnation (OUP, 2010).
• '“The Excellency of Jesus Christ”: Christology as affective doctrine in the sermons of Jonathan Edwards' in Preaching as Reception in Western Christianity, eds. W. John Lyons and Isabella Sandwell (forthcoming, Equinox 2010).
• '“Payment God Will Not Twice Demand”: Definite Atonement and Hell' in David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson, eds., From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Biblical, Historical, Theological and Pastoral Perspective (Crossway and IVP, 2011).
• 'Jonathan Edwards's Panentheism' in Don Schweitzer, ed. Feschrift for Sang Hyun Lee (2010).

Articles (published or accepted for publication)

• 'Jonathan Edwards on divine simplicity' in Religious Studies 39 (2003): 23-41.
• 'Augustinian Universalism' in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 53 (2003): 127-145.
• 'On the theological pedigree of Jonathan Edwards' doctrine of imputation' in Scottish Journal of Theology
• 56 (2003): 308-327.
• 'Divine Retribution: A Defence' in Sophia 42 (2003): 35-52.
• 'On Barth's denial of universalism' in Themelios 29 (2003): 18-29.
• 'Did Christ have a fallen human nature?' in International Journal of Systematic Theology 6 (2004): 270-288.
• 'Scholastic Theology, Augustinian Realism and Original Guilt' in the European Journal of Theology 13 (2004): 17-28.
• 'Problems with Perichoresis' in Tyndale Bulletin 56 (2005): 118-140.
• 'Federalism vs. Realism: Charles Hodge, Augustus Strong and William Shedd on The Imputation of Sin' in International Journal of Systematic Theology 8 (2006): 1-17.
• 'Shedding the Theanthropic person of Christ' in Scottish Journal of Theology 59 (2006): 327-350.
• 'Pulling traducianism out of the Shedd' in Ars Disputandi 6 (2006), located at www.arsdisputandi.org
• 'Sin, atonement and representation: Why William Shedd was not a thorough-going realist' in Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 24.2 (2006).
• 'Robert Jenson on the pre-existence of Christ' in Modern Theology 23 (2007): 27-45.
• 'On the Letter and Spirit of Karl Barth’s doctrine of Election: A Reply to O’Neil' in Evangelical Quarterly LXXIX (2007): 53-67.
• 'Non-penal Substitution' in International Journal of Systematic Theology 9.4 (2007): 415-433.
• William Shedd on Christ's Impeccability' in Philosophia Christi 9.1 (2007): 165-188.
• 'Was Christ sinless or impeccable?' in Irish Theological Quarterly 72 (2007): 169-187.
• 'On the ‘Fittingness' of the Virgin Birth' in Heythrop Journal 49. 2 (2008): 197-221.
• 'Penal non-Substitution' in Journal of Theological Studies NS 59 (2008): 140-168. 20.
• 'The Election of Jesus Christ' in the Journal of Reformed Theology 2. 2 (2008): 131-150.
• 'Divine Beauty and Excellency: Some Lessons from Jonathan Edwards' forthcoming in Crux (2008).
• 'Jonathan Edwards and the Closing of the Table: Must the Eucharist be Open to All?' forthcoming in Ecclesiology 5 (2009): 48-68.
• 'Jonathan Edwards on the Divine Nature' in Journal of Reformed Theology 2.2 (2009): 175-201.
• 'Jonathan Edwards's Ontology: A Critique of Sang Hyun Lee's Dispositional Account of Edwardsian Metaphysics’ in Religious Studies (2010): 1-20.
• 'Is universalism a problem for particularists?' in Scottish Journal of Theology 63.1 (2010): 1-23.
• 'Interview with Oliver Crisp and Michael Rea on Analytic Theology' on the Philosophia Christi website (January, 2010).
• 'Materialist Christology' in Faith and Philosophy (2010).