Dr Brian BROCK

Dr Brian BROCK The University of Aberdeen School of Divinity, History & Philosophy Reader work +44 (0)1224 272391 pref b.brock@abdn.ac.uk pref School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen. AB24 3UB

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Research Interests

The Aberdeen School of Practical Theology

Practical Theology in Aberdeen has developed a unique prespective which brings together practical theology and combines it creatively with moral theology in a way that is academically rigorous and practically transformative. Our discipline begins and ends with inquiries focused on practices. Our task is to think through faith not as “belief” but as lived. Thus the primary reference of our theologizing is the lived life in all its contemporary forms.

My main interests lie in moral and practical theology, which means I find theology most interesting when it is done in relation to the concrete questions of daily life. Why moral and practical theology? Because these disciplines are rarely understood the same way by two practitioners, let me explain my approach. (Aberdeen is a rare exception to the problem of practitioners having incommensurate approaches!) The "and" is important as I understand the terms to modify and situate one another. In an English-speaking context practical theology has acquired an orientation toward the hermeneutics of contemporary culture. This orientation rightly warns moral theology against drifting to a level of abstraction that makes it appear irrelevant for the moral decisions of daily life. At the same time, moral theology serves practical theology by insisting that interpretation is not endless, but is properly circumscribed by doctrinal and confessional frameworks. My engagements with Christian doctrine and cultural hermeneutics are tied together by a third interest in the role scripture plays in God's work of generating a people with a distinctive ethos. Here my question is how the reading of scripture is influenced by, and influences, our reading of culture.

My continuing interests are in clarifying how the tradition of Christian faith and moral thinking reshapes and clarifies our understanding of practical and moral questions of public relevance. This inquiry proceeds at three levels.

1) Fundamental questions in moral and practical theology.

• the sources of the Christian ethos; how it is generated and develops
• the doctrinal location of practical theology and Christian ethics
• architectonic issues in Christian ethics

These questions might be summed up as facets of an inquiry into how the work of the Spirit renews human society and all of creation.

2) Questions about the relation of the Bible and Christian ethics

• how the hermeneutics of the Bible, culture and the self are intertwined
• how the Bible might function as a context of discovering the self-in-Christ, creation, and in Christian community
• the resources available in the exegetical tradition for meeting these sorts of inquiries
• the interrelation of theological exegesis and moral/practical theology

3) Concrete studies which seek to discover the meaning of faith in practical life.

• I am convinced that Christian ethics and practical theology too rarely venture beyond methodological considerations. If the meaning of the Christian confession is discovered in the course of trying to live it in practical contexts, then the study of practical questions is not an ancillary project of applying Christian knowledge, but the critical furnace in which it is continually reborn. Christians need to learn to theologically name cultural events we commonly think of in secular terms. For these reasons I am interested in further study on a wide range of issues, the following being a few examples. Students interested in other practical issues should not hesitate to contact me.
• interactions between cultures and traditions: emigration and population displacement, globalisation, outsourcing, imperialism/crusade
• environmental questions: energy policy, waste management policies and practices, agricultural practices
• violence at the margins: proliferation of weapons, terrorism, insurgency, prison policy
• medicine, humanity and inhumanity: mental and physical disability, practices in which the "human" is established and denied, National Health policy
• mass communication: media, publicity, advertisement, propaganda, entertainment culture

What some of my recent doctoral students are up to: Andy Odle, Andy Draycott, Ronald Boyd-MacMillan

Books

Christian Ethics in a Technological Age (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010)

Singing the Ethos of God: On the Place of Christian Ethics in Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007)(For reviews click the following links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. See especially the special issue of the European Journal of Theology devoted to the book, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

Ed. with J. Swinton, Theology, Disability and the New Genetics: Why Science Needs the Church (London: T&T Clark, 2007). (For reviews click the following links: 1)

Ed. with E. Harasta, Evoking Lament: A Theological Discussion (London: T&T Clark, 2009)

Essays and Articles

"Bonhoeffer and the Bible in Christian Ethics: Psalm 119, the Mandates, and Ethics as a 'Way'" Studies in Christian Ethics, vol. 18:3 December, 2005, pp. 7-29.

"Late Abortion and the Poverty of Liberal Discourse: A Christian Defense of 'Customary Morality'", Studies in Christian Ethics, 19:2 January 2006, pp. 153-168.

"The Form of the Matter: Heidegger, Ontology, and Christian Ethics," in The International Journal of Systematic Theology 3:3 (2001) 257-279.

"Justice as technological and economic advance in late capitalism: The case of genetically modified crops." Societas Ethica, Jahresbericht/Annual 2003: Economics, Justice and Welfare, Wirtschaft, Gerechtigkeit and Gemeinwohl. (Societas Ethica: Basel, 2004), pp. 163-171.

"'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' and the Resuscitation of Christian Medical Ethics," Ethics and Medicine 16:2 (2000) 40-47.

"The Coherent Institutional Philosophy, Myth, or Mandate? An Ethnography of Faculty Worldviews at a Christian University," with Johnny Ramirez, EdD, The Journal of Research in Christian Education 5(1) (Spring 1996) 3-32.

"Made Strange by the Word in a Technological Age," The Bible in Transmission, Bible Society UK (Summer 2003) 7-9.
 

Book Reviews

Brave New World: Theology, Ethics and the Human Genome, Celia Deane-Drummond ed., and Re-Ordering Nature: Theology, Society and the New Genetics, Celia Deane-Drummond and Bronislaw Szerszynski, with Robin Grove-White, eds., Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol. 19:1, Apr. 2006, pp. 110-116.

Karl Barth: Theologian of Christian Witness, Joseph L. Mangina, "Letters in Canada 2004" The University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol. 75:1 Jan. 2006, pp. 330-332.

Theological Ethics and Global Dynamics: In the Time of Many Worlds, William Schweiker, The International Journal of Systematic Theology, Vol. 7:3, Jul. 2005, pp. 316-319.

Danny's Challenge: The True Story of a Father Learning to Love His Son, by Danny Mardell, The Tablet, 30 April 2005, p. 28.

Holiness, by John Webster, and Holiness Past and Present, by Stephen C. Barton (ed.). Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol. 17:3, Dec. 2004, pp. 56-61.

The Ecclesiology of Stanley Hauerwas: A Christian Theology of Liberation, John B. Thomson, The International Journal of Systematic Theology, Vol. 6:2 April 2004, pp. 204-211.

American Protestant Ethics: and the Legacy of H. Richard Niebuhr, William Werpehowski, Theology 107 (March/April 2004) 836.

The Revelation of Nature, Paul Matthews, The International Journal of Systematic Theology 5:2 (2003) 237-241.

Living the Christian Story, John E. Colwell, Themelios 28:3 (2003) 127-128.

The Ethics of Community , Frank G. Kirkpatrick, The International Journal of Systematic Theology 4:1 (2002) 122-127.

Genetic Turning Points: The Ethics of Human Intervention, James C. Peterson, Themelios 27:2 (2002) 101-102.

Translations

Hans G. Ulrich, "Fides Quarens Intellectum: Reflections Toward an Explorative Theology," trans. from German, The International Journal of Systematic Theology, Vol. 8: 1 Jan. 2006 : pp.42-54.

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