Oliver O'Donovan
Oliver Michael Timothy O'Donovan is a British Anglican priest and academic, known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He has also made contributions to political theology, both contemporary and historical. He was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford from 1982 to 2006, and Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh from 2006 to 2013.
Early life and education
O'Donovan was born on 28 June 1945. He is the son of Joan Knape and Michael Francis O'Donovan, better known as Frank O'Connor, eminent Irish writer of short stories and memoirs.His doctoral thesis on the problem of self-love in Augustine of Hippo was completed under both Henry Chadwick at Oxford and Paul Ramsey at Princeton.
Career
Ordained ministry
O'Donovan was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1972 and as a priest in 1973. A scholar-priest, he has never undertaken parish ministry. He was a Canon Residentiary of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford from 1982 to 2006. He served on the General Synod of the Church of England from 2005 to 2006. Since November 2015, he has been a Canon Provincial and the Provincial Theologian at York Minster. He has also held permission to officiate in the Diocese of York since 2015.O'Donovan has been active in ecumenical dialogue. He was part of the Anglican–Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Discussions from 1982 to 1984, and a member of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission from 1985 to 1990.
Academic career
O'Donovan taught at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and at Wycliffe College, Toronto. He was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology and Canon of Christ Church at the University of Oxford. He then held the post of Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the School of Divinity, New College, Edinburgh, and was an associate director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues. He is a past President of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics.In 2001 he delivered the Stob Lectures at Calvin Theological Seminary. In 2007 he delivered the New College Lectures at New College, University of New South Wales. O'Donovan cites these New College Lectures as his first opportunity to explore the ideas that would become his "Ethics as Theology" trilogy of books. In 2008 he delivered a lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary upon receiving the Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life.
O'Donovan has held distinguished visiting lectureships in the universities of Durham and Cambridge, the Gregorian University in Rome, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, the University of Hong Kong, and Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.
Personal life
In 1978 he married Joan Lockwood O'Donovan. They have jointly authored two books on the history of Christian political thought, and have two sons, Matthew and Paul.Honours
He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2000 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh since 2009.Major works
- Resurrection and Moral Order. In this work, O'Donovan argues for the centrality of bodily resurrection of Christ in Christian Ethics. Through resurrection God vindicates the original order of creation and renews it to complete his ultimate goal for redeemed universe. He further defends the objectivity of Christian moral claims from the challenge of "anti-foundationalism" which O'Donovan tends to refer to as "historicism". O'Donovan distinguishes himself from Alasdair MacIntyre by opposing neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics and by arguing that MacIntyre's adoption of a more historical perspective cannot avoid ethical relativism. O'Donovan's alternative is to ground an ethic of obedience in a natural moral order. Importantly, however, a "true understanding" of this moral order can only be achieved "in Christ".
- The Desire of the Nations.
- The Ways of Judgment.
- Ethics as Theology trilogy. In this trilogy of books O'Donovan explores what implications the gift of the Spirit may have for the "forceful moral objectivism" of his Resurrection and Moral Order.
Publications
- Entering into Rest: Volume 3: Ethics as Theology
- Finding and Seeking: Volume 2: Ethics as Theology
- Self, World, and Time: Volume 1: Ethics as Theology: An Induction
- The Word in Small Boats: Sermons from Oxford
- A Conversation Waiting to Begin: The Churches and the Gay Controversy
- Church in crisis: The gay controversy and the Anglican Communion.
- The Ways of Judgment
- The Just War Revisited
- Common Objects of Love
- The Desire of the Nations
- New Dictionary of Christian Ethics & Pastoral Theology
- Peace and Certainty
- Resurrection and Moral Order
- On the Thirty-Nine Articles
- Begotten or Made?
- Principles in the public realm: The dilemma of Christian moral witness.
- The Problem of Self-Love in Saint Augustine
- Transsexualism and the Christian Marriage.
- Marriage and permanence.
- In pursuit of a Christian view of war.
- Measure for measure: Justice in punishment and the sentence of death.
- The Christian and the unborn child.
- From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought edited with Joan Lockwood O'Donovan
- "Prayer and Morality in the Sermon on the Mount" Studies in Christian Ethics 22.1 : 21–33.
- "Judgment, Tradition and Reason: A Response" Political Theology 9.3 : 395–414. This is from a Special Issue of Political Theology on The Ways of Judgment.
- Bonds of Imperfection: Christian politics past and present, edited collection with Joan Lockwood O'Donovan
- A Royal Priesthood? A dialogue with Oliver O'Donovan ed. Craig Batholomew et al.. O'Donovan provides a short response to every paper in this edited collection.
- "Government as Judgment", First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, April 1999, p. 36
- "How Can Theology Be Moral?" Journal of Religious Ethics 17, no. 2, 81–94.
- "The Natural Ethic" in Essays in Evangelical Social Ethics ed. David F. Wright