Professor Stephen Pattison MA, MSocSc, PhD, DLitt

 

Professor of Religion, Ethics and Practice
HG Wood Professor of Theology

Department of Theology and Religion

Professor Stephen Pattison

Contact details

Telephone 0121 414 3406 (Department office)

Email s.pattison.1@bham.ac.uk

ERI Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

About

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. 

Qualifications

  • Master of Arts (Cambridge)
  • Master of Social Science (Birmingham)
  • Doctor of Philosophy (Edinburgh)
  • Doctor of Letters (Edinburgh)

Biography

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. 

Teaching

  • Practical Theology
  • Christian Ethics
  • Research Skills and Method

Postgraduate supervision

  • Practical and pastoral theology
  • Religious ethics and practice
  • Ethics and values of professional and managerial practice
  • Ethics and values of health care
  • Contemporary religion and spirituality

Research


video transcript

  • Vision and religion
  • Values in professional practice
  • Sensual religion
  • Chaplaincy and Islam
  • Practical and pastoral theologyMedical humanities

Other activities

Director, Doctor of Practical Theology programme

Publications

  • (Ed. with Ben Hannigan, Roisin Pill and Huw Thomas) Emerging Values in Health Care (London: Jessica Kingsley, 2010)
  • (With Judith Thompson and Ross Thompson) The SCM Study Guide to Theological Reflection (London: SCM Press, 2008)
  • Seeing Things: Deepening Relations with Visual ArtefactsS (London: SCM Press, 2007)
  • The Challenge of Practical Theology: Selected Essays (London: Jessica Kingsley, 2007)
  • (With Margaret Cooling and Trevor Cooling) Using the Bible in Christian Ministry (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2007)

Expertise

Theology; ethics; religious ethics; religion and visuality; professional ethics and values; religion in the contemporary world; shame and guilt; health care policy and ethics; ethics of management

Expertise


Theology; ethics; religious ethics; religion and visuality; professional ethics and values; religion in the contemporary world; shame and guilt; health care policy and ethics; ethics of management

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