Dr Daniel Pedersen

Biography

Daniel Pedersen came to the department of Divinity at Aberdeen in 2019 from a previous postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Exeter. He earned his PhD from Princeton Seminary.

Daniel’s work brings together traditional doctrinal theology – especially the doctrine of God, creation, and sin – with philosophical and natural scientific concerns.

Daniel specializes in the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher, reading him in the light of the larger Reformed tradition of which he was a part, and putting his thought to both historical and constructive purposes. Daniel’s most recent book, Schleiermacher’s Theology of Sin and Nature: Agency, Value, and Modern Theology (Routledge), interrogates Schleiermacher’s account of sin in relation to his account of nature and the natural and seeks to dispute and clarify stereotypes about Schleiermacher’s account of sin, agency, value, and freedom, and at the same time to nuance long held notions about ‘modern theology’ and its historiography more broadly.

Daniel is excited to expand upon and connect many of Divinity’s current strengths including its strengths in historical theology, Protestant theology (and the Reformed tradition in particular), theological ethics, and philosophical theology.

Research Overview

My research interests span modern theology, from the Reformers, through Early Moderns (including both Reformed scholastics and philosophical theologians like Leibniz and Spinoza), to the nineteenth century and beyond. In all of these periods, I am interested in questions of theology and science, especially evolution. I am also interested in the thinkers many modern theologians depend on or are in conversation in, such as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and more.

I specialize in the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher, and am particularly interested in applying his insights constructively. My current research project, Schleiermacher’s Theology of Sin and Nature (Routledge, 2020) focuses on Schleiermacher’s account of sin with an eye to overcoming key puzzles relating to agency, normativity, and the natural (in more than one sense) in light of evolution.