Books by Austin Stevenson
London, T&T Clark, 2024
In this book, Austin Stevenson argues that it is not the 'divinity' of Jesus that causes problems... more In this book, Austin Stevenson argues that it is not the 'divinity' of Jesus that causes problems for historians, but his humanity. To insist that Jesus was fully human, as both theologians and historians do, still leaves us with the question of what it means to be human. It turns out that theologians and historians often have different answers to this question on both a philosophical and a theological register.
Furthermore, historians frequently misunderstand the historiographical implications of classical Christology, and thus the compatibility between traditional beliefs about Jesus and critical historical inquiry. Through close engagement with the thought of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–74), this book offers a new path toward the reconciliation of these disciplines by focusing on human knowledge and subjectivity, which are central issues in both historical method and Christology. By interrogating and challenging the normative metaphysical assumptions operative in Jesus scholarship, a range of possibility is opened up for approaches to Jesus that are genuinely historical, but not naturalistic.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/consciousness-of-the-historical-jesus-9780567714398/
“This work argues that Thomas Aquinas's participatory metaphysics and epistemology -- including his understanding of prophecy and of Jesus's beatific vision -- can assist powerfully in the resolution of certain potent puzzles about the apocalyptic Jesus, as well as in the development of a historical biblical scholarship that is appropriately critical in facing its own philosophical premises. Persuasive in its applications to Jesus scholarship and sure-handed in its interpretations of Aquinas, the book represents a major advance. It will be of significant help to theologians and biblical scholars seeking ways to enable the erudition of each discipline to instruct the other.” (Matthew Levering, University of St Mary of the Lake, USA)
“This remarkable book constitutes a significant contribution to contemporary Christology. The author offers a deeply insightful analysis of the relationships that obtain between conciliar Christology and modern historical-critical scholarship. He does so while advancing scholarly understanding of Aquinas' philosophy and theology in reference to Christology, in ways that have real significance for Christian ecumenism. The treatment of the knowledge of Christ in historical context is seminal and provides a reference work for future reference and debate. A first-rate theological work.” (Thomas Joseph White, The Angelicum, Italy)
“This book compellingly argues that research into the identity of Jesus is tied up with metaphysical commitments of some sort, though the nature and function of these commitments is often hidden from view. Austin Stevenson brings them clearly into the light of day. Only an author who understands the issues deeply could have written so lucidly about them. This book is anything but a facile rejection of historical research. Rather, it challenges its readers to think about what history means and to bring history and theology into dialogue with one another.” (Darren Sarisky, Australian Catholic University, Australia)
Papers by Austin Stevenson
Frontiers in Public Health, 2024
Whilst many lessons were learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing
reflection is needed to deve... more Whilst many lessons were learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing
reflection is needed to develop and maintain preparedness for future outbreaks. Within the field of infectious disease and public health there remain silos and hierarchies in interdisciplinary work, with the risk that humanities and social sciences remain on the epistemological peripheries. However, these disciplines offer insights, expertise and tools that contribute to understanding responses to disease and uptake of interventions for prevention and treatment. In this Perspective, using examples from our own cross-disciplinary research and engagement programme on vaccine hesitancy in South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK), we propose closer integration of expertise, research and methods from humanities and social sciences into pandemic preparedness.
Journal of Theological Interpretation, 2022
Since the fourth century, Mark 13:32/Matt 24:36 have regularly been taken in hand as evidence of ... more Since the fourth century, Mark 13:32/Matt 24:36 have regularly been taken in hand as evidence of Jesus’s ignorance and used to advance subordinationist, kenotic, or Ebionite christological agendas. Meanwhile, modern biblical scholars regularly use patristic commentary on this passage as evidence that the classical Christian tradition advanced ahistorical, docetic eisegesis. In this essay, I consider patristic commentary on this pericope to show that these criticisms are unwarranted. The church fathers did not consider Jesus’s humanity to be an abstract, philosophical conundrum. Rather, their approach was driven by intertextual concerns set within a theistic metaphysical framework. They did not resolve a competition between Jesus’s humanity and divinity in favor of his divinity but upheld the confession that he was fully God and fully man in the face of a variety of approaches that threatened to corrupt or relinquish his humanity. I suggest that certain philosophical developments in ...
Modern Theology, 2020
Albert Schweitzer wrote that, at Chalcedon, the "doctrine of the two natures dissolved the unity ... more Albert Schweitzer wrote that, at Chalcedon, the "doctrine of the two natures dissolved the unity of the Person, and thereby cut off the last possibility of a return to the historical Jesus." In this article, I argue that a likely cause of this pervasive perception of Chalcedon is the reflexive deployment by modern thinkers of a Lockean concept of personhood grounded in consciousness. I suggest, by way of contrast, that Thomas Aquinas's substantial account of personhood provides greater space for historical approaches to Jesus by protecting the finite integrity of Christ's human nature and the unity of his personhood. I conclude by highlighting an implication of this discussion for the role of metaphysics in theological reflection.
dx.doi.org/10.1111/moth.12663
Scottish Journal of Theology, 2019
The doctrine of the eternal generation, first developed by Origen of Alexandria, was highly conte... more The doctrine of the eternal generation, first developed by Origen of Alexandria, was highly contentious throughout the third and fourth centuries and has proven similarly contentious in our own time, having been abandoned by a significant number of evangelical theologians. In this article, I outline the development of the doctrine in Origen and the resulting corollary of the eternal existence of creation. After considering the Alexandrian tradition after Origen and especially the thought of Athanasius, I unpack the resulting impact of the doctrine on the Christology of Nicaea. I argue that, although Origen's treatment exhibited significant shortcomings, the doctrine of the eternal generation served for both earlier (Origen) and later (Nicaea) Christology as the biblically ordained language through which the church was enabled to speak truly about the unity and distinction of the Father and Son, securing the status of the Son as equal in divinity with the Father while differentiating the two in ways that uphold biblical revelation.
Book Reviews by Austin Stevenson
The Heythrop Journal, 2023
International Journal of Systematic Theology, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1111/ijst.12436
Reviews in Religion and Theology, 2018
https://doi.org/10.1111/rirt.13321
Reviews in Religion and Theology, 2019
https://doi.org/10.1111/rirt.13465
Media by Austin Stevenson
ABC Religion and Ethics, 2021
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/vaccines-religious-exemptions-and-christian-witness/13580026
A c... more https://www.abc.net.au/religion/vaccines-religious-exemptions-and-christian-witness/13580026
A common refrain among those seeking exemption from vaccination is the assertion, “My body is a temple”. And yet, there is no Christian belief that the body must be kept free from physical contamination in order to be a fitting vessel of the Holy Spirit. In reality, what those seeking exemptions are arguing is that they believe the vaccine will harm them, and therefore they shouldn’t be forced to take it. There is nothing distinctly religious about the fear of bodily harm involved in vaccine hesitancy. In general, non-religious people fear bodily harm just as much. This should lead us to question why *religious* exemption is being sought.
ABC Religion & Ethics, 2020
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/how-conspiracy-theories-undermine-the-common-good/12373294
My ar... more https://www.abc.net.au/religion/how-conspiracy-theories-undermine-the-common-good/12373294
My argument is twofold: conspiracy theories undermine our ability to pursue the common good; and they depend on and propagate intellectual vices. Alasdair MacIntyre’s taxonomy of individual, public, and common goods is a helpful tool for addressing these issues and for reflecting on the kinds of cooperative enquiry necessary for our communities to flourish.
Edited Works by Austin Stevenson
Modern Theology, 2023
This special issue of Modern Theology gathers together full research essays that were first prese... more This special issue of Modern Theology gathers together full research essays that were first presented, in summary form, at the 2021 online conference Theological Genealogies of Modernity. For both the original event and now this collection, theological genealogies of modernity serves as a term of art referring to any complex, broad-sweep narrative account of the rise of a modern Western cultural order that highlights theology's role within that process. The conference organizers deliberately employed the term in a capacious sense out of a desire to find a rubric under which to include a range of narratives and disciplinary perspectives on them. Defined broadly, the terminology extends both to stories celebrating the Enlightenment for bringing about progress and also to narratives stressing the need constantly to recur to a pre-modern cultural synthesis from which people today should continue to receive instruction. Of course, this simplistic distinction deserves to be challenged, and several of the essays here contest this stark division of options. The overall aim of the inquiry into genealogies is to help theologians understand how these narratives work, regardless of which account is attractive to them, so that they may develop a well-informed position on how (and even whether) to employ them.
Noesis, 2019
I co-edited the 2019 volume of the Cambridge Divinity Faculty Journal alongside Alexander D. Gart... more I co-edited the 2019 volume of the Cambridge Divinity Faculty Journal alongside Alexander D. Garton, Jessica Scott, and Elijah Teitelbaum. Volume 6 includes essays by Eleonore Stump, Jeffrey P. Bishop, Catherine Pickstock, Simone Kotva, Silvianne Aspray, and many others.
Available at noesis.divinity.cam.ac.uk
Uploads
Books by Austin Stevenson
Furthermore, historians frequently misunderstand the historiographical implications of classical Christology, and thus the compatibility between traditional beliefs about Jesus and critical historical inquiry. Through close engagement with the thought of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–74), this book offers a new path toward the reconciliation of these disciplines by focusing on human knowledge and subjectivity, which are central issues in both historical method and Christology. By interrogating and challenging the normative metaphysical assumptions operative in Jesus scholarship, a range of possibility is opened up for approaches to Jesus that are genuinely historical, but not naturalistic.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/consciousness-of-the-historical-jesus-9780567714398/
“This work argues that Thomas Aquinas's participatory metaphysics and epistemology -- including his understanding of prophecy and of Jesus's beatific vision -- can assist powerfully in the resolution of certain potent puzzles about the apocalyptic Jesus, as well as in the development of a historical biblical scholarship that is appropriately critical in facing its own philosophical premises. Persuasive in its applications to Jesus scholarship and sure-handed in its interpretations of Aquinas, the book represents a major advance. It will be of significant help to theologians and biblical scholars seeking ways to enable the erudition of each discipline to instruct the other.” (Matthew Levering, University of St Mary of the Lake, USA)
“This remarkable book constitutes a significant contribution to contemporary Christology. The author offers a deeply insightful analysis of the relationships that obtain between conciliar Christology and modern historical-critical scholarship. He does so while advancing scholarly understanding of Aquinas' philosophy and theology in reference to Christology, in ways that have real significance for Christian ecumenism. The treatment of the knowledge of Christ in historical context is seminal and provides a reference work for future reference and debate. A first-rate theological work.” (Thomas Joseph White, The Angelicum, Italy)
“This book compellingly argues that research into the identity of Jesus is tied up with metaphysical commitments of some sort, though the nature and function of these commitments is often hidden from view. Austin Stevenson brings them clearly into the light of day. Only an author who understands the issues deeply could have written so lucidly about them. This book is anything but a facile rejection of historical research. Rather, it challenges its readers to think about what history means and to bring history and theology into dialogue with one another.” (Darren Sarisky, Australian Catholic University, Australia)
Papers by Austin Stevenson
reflection is needed to develop and maintain preparedness for future outbreaks. Within the field of infectious disease and public health there remain silos and hierarchies in interdisciplinary work, with the risk that humanities and social sciences remain on the epistemological peripheries. However, these disciplines offer insights, expertise and tools that contribute to understanding responses to disease and uptake of interventions for prevention and treatment. In this Perspective, using examples from our own cross-disciplinary research and engagement programme on vaccine hesitancy in South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK), we propose closer integration of expertise, research and methods from humanities and social sciences into pandemic preparedness.
dx.doi.org/10.1111/moth.12663
Read here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/scottish-journal-of-theology/article/selfunderstanding-of-jesus-a-metaphysical-reading-of-historical-jesus-studies/39A47B922E1621B2A730713F4776766D/share/e738aba4cac4615f44cdc102657acb040ebb1db7
Book Reviews by Austin Stevenson
Media by Austin Stevenson
A common refrain among those seeking exemption from vaccination is the assertion, “My body is a temple”. And yet, there is no Christian belief that the body must be kept free from physical contamination in order to be a fitting vessel of the Holy Spirit. In reality, what those seeking exemptions are arguing is that they believe the vaccine will harm them, and therefore they shouldn’t be forced to take it. There is nothing distinctly religious about the fear of bodily harm involved in vaccine hesitancy. In general, non-religious people fear bodily harm just as much. This should lead us to question why *religious* exemption is being sought.
My argument is twofold: conspiracy theories undermine our ability to pursue the common good; and they depend on and propagate intellectual vices. Alasdair MacIntyre’s taxonomy of individual, public, and common goods is a helpful tool for addressing these issues and for reflecting on the kinds of cooperative enquiry necessary for our communities to flourish.
Edited Works by Austin Stevenson
Available at noesis.divinity.cam.ac.uk
Furthermore, historians frequently misunderstand the historiographical implications of classical Christology, and thus the compatibility between traditional beliefs about Jesus and critical historical inquiry. Through close engagement with the thought of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–74), this book offers a new path toward the reconciliation of these disciplines by focusing on human knowledge and subjectivity, which are central issues in both historical method and Christology. By interrogating and challenging the normative metaphysical assumptions operative in Jesus scholarship, a range of possibility is opened up for approaches to Jesus that are genuinely historical, but not naturalistic.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/consciousness-of-the-historical-jesus-9780567714398/
“This work argues that Thomas Aquinas's participatory metaphysics and epistemology -- including his understanding of prophecy and of Jesus's beatific vision -- can assist powerfully in the resolution of certain potent puzzles about the apocalyptic Jesus, as well as in the development of a historical biblical scholarship that is appropriately critical in facing its own philosophical premises. Persuasive in its applications to Jesus scholarship and sure-handed in its interpretations of Aquinas, the book represents a major advance. It will be of significant help to theologians and biblical scholars seeking ways to enable the erudition of each discipline to instruct the other.” (Matthew Levering, University of St Mary of the Lake, USA)
“This remarkable book constitutes a significant contribution to contemporary Christology. The author offers a deeply insightful analysis of the relationships that obtain between conciliar Christology and modern historical-critical scholarship. He does so while advancing scholarly understanding of Aquinas' philosophy and theology in reference to Christology, in ways that have real significance for Christian ecumenism. The treatment of the knowledge of Christ in historical context is seminal and provides a reference work for future reference and debate. A first-rate theological work.” (Thomas Joseph White, The Angelicum, Italy)
“This book compellingly argues that research into the identity of Jesus is tied up with metaphysical commitments of some sort, though the nature and function of these commitments is often hidden from view. Austin Stevenson brings them clearly into the light of day. Only an author who understands the issues deeply could have written so lucidly about them. This book is anything but a facile rejection of historical research. Rather, it challenges its readers to think about what history means and to bring history and theology into dialogue with one another.” (Darren Sarisky, Australian Catholic University, Australia)
reflection is needed to develop and maintain preparedness for future outbreaks. Within the field of infectious disease and public health there remain silos and hierarchies in interdisciplinary work, with the risk that humanities and social sciences remain on the epistemological peripheries. However, these disciplines offer insights, expertise and tools that contribute to understanding responses to disease and uptake of interventions for prevention and treatment. In this Perspective, using examples from our own cross-disciplinary research and engagement programme on vaccine hesitancy in South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK), we propose closer integration of expertise, research and methods from humanities and social sciences into pandemic preparedness.
dx.doi.org/10.1111/moth.12663
Read here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/scottish-journal-of-theology/article/selfunderstanding-of-jesus-a-metaphysical-reading-of-historical-jesus-studies/39A47B922E1621B2A730713F4776766D/share/e738aba4cac4615f44cdc102657acb040ebb1db7
A common refrain among those seeking exemption from vaccination is the assertion, “My body is a temple”. And yet, there is no Christian belief that the body must be kept free from physical contamination in order to be a fitting vessel of the Holy Spirit. In reality, what those seeking exemptions are arguing is that they believe the vaccine will harm them, and therefore they shouldn’t be forced to take it. There is nothing distinctly religious about the fear of bodily harm involved in vaccine hesitancy. In general, non-religious people fear bodily harm just as much. This should lead us to question why *religious* exemption is being sought.
My argument is twofold: conspiracy theories undermine our ability to pursue the common good; and they depend on and propagate intellectual vices. Alasdair MacIntyre’s taxonomy of individual, public, and common goods is a helpful tool for addressing these issues and for reflecting on the kinds of cooperative enquiry necessary for our communities to flourish.
Available at noesis.divinity.cam.ac.uk