I am a practical theologian and ethicist. I study the relationship between beliefs and values and practices, both within and outside formal ‘religions’. One of my principal roles in Birmingham is to direct the Doctor of Practical Theology programme, a new part-time degree for researching professionals from a variety of practice backgrounds, religious and other.
Stephen Pattison is an interdisciplinary scholar trained in practical theology, ethics, and public service management. He first worked at Birmingham University as temporary lecturer in pastoral studies from 1983-88. Subsequently, he was a health services manager, a senior lecturer in health and social welfare at the Open University, and then head of the School of Religious and Theological Studies at Cardiff University where he helped to establish the Centre for Law, Ethics and Society and the Centre for Chaplaincy Studies.
One of the original members of the International Academy of Practical Theology and former chair of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology, Pattison is currently director of the Doctor of Practical Theology programme at Birmingham (a programme run in collaboration with four other universities); he also sits on the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of General Practitioners. He is engaged with two long-term interdisciplinary research projects on values in health care practice, and vision and religion, as well as being researcher on an AHRC-funded project on chaplaincy and Islam in the UK. His teaching interests lie principally in practical and pastoral theology, and in ethics.