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OLIVER DAVIES (Anthony Oliver Davies, b. 10th January 1956) is a British Systematic Theologian. He has made contributions to the study of medieval mysticism (especially Meister Eckhart), early medieval Welsh and Irish spirituality, and contemporary Systematic Theology. Davies is the originator together with Paul Janz and Clemens Sedmak of ‘Transformation Theology’. Since 2004 he has held the chair of Christian Doctrine at King’s College London. He is a Roman Catholic layman.

BIOGRAPHY

Oliver Davies was born in Bradford, United Kingdon, in 1956 but grew up in South Wales (his father was Eryl Davies). He attended Cardiff High School and then Merton College, Oxford (1975-9), where he studied German and Russian. He completed his doctoral work in the area of Religion and Literature, with a study of the German Jewish poet Paul Celan, at Wolfson College Oxford (1979-86). He met his wife Fiona Bowie at Wolfson and they married in 1981. From 1982-4 Davies lectured in English at the University of Cologne. Following the conclusion of his doctoral studies, he began to publish on the medieval German mystical tradition. From 1989 he taught Theology at University of Wales Bangor until his appointment as Lecturer in Theology at University of Wales Lampeter in 1993 (Senior Lecturer from 1995 and Reader from 1997). Following the untimely death of Colin Gunton, Davies was appointed in 2004 to the Chair of Christian Doctrine at King’s College London. From 2006-9, he served as Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s. Davies was Visiting Professor in the Dept. of Religion, University of Virginia, in 2002-3, and held the McCarthy Visiting Professorship, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome in 2006-7.

WRITINGS

Davies’ work combines an interest in language and communication, whether textual or oral, with questions of metaphysics, ethics and doctrine. His chief works to date are A Theology of Compassion, 2000, The Creativity of God, 2004, and Transformation Theology, 2007 (with Paul Janz and Clemens Sedmak). His work can be characterized as a progression from metaphysics, to hermeneutics and finally to theology of the act. In his present work on Transformation Theology, he is known for his emphasis upon the primacy of the human act as the site of freedom and as the place of Christological encounter. Transformation Theology argues for a re-orientation of theology around the exalted Christ as its present material as well as formal object, and proposes a new theological method of academic collaboration with practitioners.

MONOGRAPHS

Transformation Theology: Church in the World, London: T&T Clark (179 pp.), 2007 (with Paul Janz and Clemens Sedmak). The Creativity of God. World, Eucharist, Reason, Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (xi + 210 pp.), 2004. A Theology of Compassion. Metaphysics of Difference and the Renewal of Tradition (London: SCM Press; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003). (xxii + 376 pp.), 2001. Celtic Christianity in Early Medieval Wales: the Origins of the Welsh Spiritual Tradition, (Cardiff: University of Wales Press; US repr. 2008 through University of Chicago Press). (xii + 193 pp.), 1996. Meister Eckhart: Mystical Theologian (London: SPCK). (xiv + 257 pp.), 1991 (2nd edition 2011). God Within: the Mystical Tradition of Northern Europe (London: Darton, Longman and Todd; New York: Paulist Press; 1988 (2nd edition 2006).

EDITED WORKS

O. Davies and D. Turner, eds., Silence and the Word: Negative Theology and Incarnation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002 (pb, 2008).

SELECT TRANSLATIONS

Celtic Spirituality, Classics of Western Spirituality, New York: Paulist Press, 2000 (with Thomas O’Loughlin) (xxii + 550 pp.). Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings, Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth. Editor and translator, with introduction. (xl + 293 pp.), 1994. The Glory of the Lord, Vol. V, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark; San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991 (English translation of the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar, John Riches, ed. 205-656). The Glory of the Lord, Vol. IV, 1989, 101-154).

ONLINE WRITINGS

‘Transformation Theology in its Historical Context’ (http://www.transformationtheology.com/tt-in-its-historical-context.html)

EXTERNAL LINKS

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/trs/people/staff/academic/davies/index.aspx http://www.oliverdavies.com/ http://www.transformationtheology.com

REFERENCES