Research interests
I have three main areas of research at the moment:
Theology and Wittgenstein: I am working on a book project about how theology can enter into conversation with the later Wittgenstein, working with both Wittgenstein's philosophical commitments and his therapeutic method. My interest in this area issues from my previous book Negative Theological and Philosophical Analysis : Only the Splendour of Light (Palgrave) which locates contemporary wariness about apophaticism in certain unexamined commitments in the philosophies of language and mind. I expect my research on Wittgenstein to promote ways of dissolving these commitments and so to underwrite an apophatic theism.
Theology's Critics: I engage with thinkers critical of theology - especially Feuerbach, Marx and Freud - in order to make theological progress, in particular to motivate a renewed apophaticism through dispensing with anthropomorphic conceptions of God.
Theology and Mental Health/ Illness: I have written against the tendency to sacralise mental illness. More generally, I have worked with Tasia Scrutton on a grief in C.S. Lewis and we are now working on theological responses to crisis.
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