Faculty members

Dr Douglas Hedley

Reader in Hermeneutics and Metaphysics, Fellow of Clare College

Dr Douglas Hedley is co-chair of the Platonism and Neoplatonism section of the American Academy of Religion and a past Secretary of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion and past President of the European Society for the Philosophy of Religion.

In March 2002 he was Directeur d'études invité at the EPHE, Sorbonne, and from January to March 2004 he was the Alan Richardson Fellow of the Theology Department in Durham. He is, with Lieven Boeve and Wim Drees, editor of the Series 'Studies in Philosophical Theology' published by Peeters in Leuven.

In December 2006 Douglas Hedley was the Teape lecturer in India, lecturing in Bangalore, Delhi, Kalkotta and Hyderabad. He has been external examiner at the Universities of Manchester and Oxford.

Douglas Hedley studied Philosophy and Theology at Keble College, Oxford and in 1992 gained a doctorate in the Philosophy Faculty at the University of Munich under the supervision of Werner Beierwaltes. In 1993 he was awarded a post-doctoral Fellowship by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeindshaft for work on seventeenth century theology and the Cambridge Platonists.

In 1995 he taught at Nottingham University and in 1996 moved to the Divinity Faculty in Cambridge.

Books and book reviews

In 2000 Douglas Hedley published Coleridge, Philosophy and Religion: Aids to Reflection and the Mirror of the Spirit:

"Coleridge, Philosophy and Religionis a refreshing foray into speculative metaphysics going full tilt…Heartily recommended." Faith and Philosophy, 2001

"This engaging discussion of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's mature philosophical theology is driven by the author's interest in the contentious issue of Coleridge's relation to German philosophy." Religious Studies Review Oct 2001

"This work is a significant contribution to Coleridge studies, particularly in light of Hedley's ability to relate both British and German philosophical traditions to Coleridge's mature theology." The Journal of Religion. 2001

"(A) formidably learned tome." Expository Times

Since then, Douglas Hedley has published Deconstructing Radical Orthodoxy. Post Modern theology, Rhetoric and Truth (Ashgate, 2005, co-edited with Wayne Hankey):

"The collective impact of these essays…is devastating for Radical Orthodoxy as a movement. This work must thus feature as essential reading in the task of critically assessing Milbank and al.’s work." Theological Book Review, 2006

In 2006, he published The Human Person in God's World Studies to Commemorate the Austin Farrer centenary (SCM, 2006) with Brian Hebblethwaite:

"The papers concentrate on the contribution made by Farrer to philosophical and austerely theological understanding. They all repay careful reading. There is as elusive a quality about Farrer’s thought as about his personality, and readers will want to return to these essays as they puzzle at the mysteries that Farrer creatively illuminated. He stood in the tradition of natural theology, and for him 'man made in the image of God is primarily a rational creature' — hence this book’s title." Church Times, September 2007

"In the most attractively written of these papers, Douglas Hedley, concentrating for much of his essay on Mitchell’s development of Farrer’s ideas, praises them both for intelligent thought about the imaginative perception of Christian truth, which he places at a fruitful centre point between hard reasoning on the one hand and non-rational fideism on the other." TLS, August 2007

And in 2008, Platonism at the Origins of Modernity (Springer 2008) with Sarah Hutton, and his monograph Living Forms of the Imagination:

"This book is a clear and eloquent plea for a sacramental conception of our embodied life… If you want to know how the tradition of Christian Platonism might be articulated in the context of contemporary debate, then read this book!" Mark Wynn, University of Exeter, UK

"Living Forms of the Imaginationis a compelling, erudite articulation and defence of the indispensible cognitive value of the imagination in the philosophy of nature and God. Elegantly written, this book draws on Platonic and Romantic traditions to create a brilliant challenge to contemporary, reductive naturalists and those who advance a deflationary account of the imagination. This book is essential reading for those interested in the imagination, epistemology, naturalism, and the philosophy of religion." Charles Taliaferro, St Olaf College, Minnesota, USA

"In this deep, and at times densely argued, book, Hedley reminds us of important and unduly neglected resources with which we may engage the cultured despisers of religion. Even if some remain unpersuaded, what we have been given is an immensely stimulating and intellectually engaged apologetic from which we can all learn." Church Times, June, 2008

More detailed information is available by looking at Douglas Hedley's CV.

Courses taught this academic year

• First year introduction to Philosophy of Religion and Ethics, paper A8
• Second year Philosophical Theology, paper B10
• Self and Salvation, paper D1(g)
• Imagination, paper D2(g)

Areas of specialisation

• Contemporary philosophy of religion
• History of Platonism-Neoplatonism
• Early modern philosophy
• Romanticism and Idealism

Research

Douglas Hedley is working on a Trilogy on the religious imagination.

• He has recently published Living Forms of the Imagination. This book is a philosophical and theological exploration of 'imagination' in religious belief. It grew out of a lecture given in Jena, developed into seminars in Paris, and was finished in Naples, the home of Vico. It is a defence of the High Romantic view of the Imagination as a 'repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM'
• The second volume, on sacrifice entitled Sacrifice Imagined: Violence, Renunciation and Atonement, will be published by T&T Clark/Continuum in 2010. This is a theme of many religions. Many critics of Christianity view it as not merely false but wicked because of its brutal and destructive component. Vico, De Maistre and Girard are key figures in the appraisal of the link between violence, sublimation of the individual will, and the sacred.
• The final volume is entitled Images of the One: Simplicity, Idolatry and Unity. How theologically adequate are the approximations of the finite mind. How satisfactory are traditional accounts of identity and difference. How can a simple God be personal? After a discussion of diverse models of Divine unity, the book concludes with a discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity as a Christian articulation of Divine Unity.

Doctoral students

Douglas Hedley supervises the following doctoral students:

• James Bryson is writing a thesis on the seminal Oxford Platonist Thomas Jackson.
• Geoff Dumbreck's thesis is entitled "Schleiermacher on Religious Feeling". It traces the development of Schleiermacher's concept of the "feeling of absolute dependence", and reassesses the strength of Schleiermacher's conclusions in the light of more recent philosophical accounts of religious experience."
• Samir Mahmoud: "The Art of Rememberance and the Aesthetics of Unity."The dissertation is a phenomenological exploration of the symbolic meaning and experience of Islamic art and architecture in the context of sacred space in light of the Islamic doctrine Unity/Oneness Tawhid or "metaphysics of unity" and its own 'aesthetic' consciousness.
• Jacob Sherman is a doctoral candidate in philosophical theology. He is interested in both analytic and continental philosophy of religion and is researching the reciprocal relationship between philosophical practice, the metaphysics of participation, and the Christian contemplative tradition (especially in Anselm of Canterbury and Nicholas of Cusa).

Contact details

Faculty of Divinity
West Road
Cambridge CB3 9BS

Tel.: +44 1223 333255
Fax: +44 1223 763003
Email: rdh26@cam.ac.uk