Professor David Cheetham

• BA, MA, PhD 

Following doctoral studies on the work of John Hick, I was a Research Assistant in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow. I have held a number of academic positions, including posts in theology and the philosophy of religion at the University of Worcester (1995) and Newman University College (1996-99). In 1999, I was appointed as Lecturer in Theology and Inter-religious Relations at Birmingham University, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2007, and Reader in Philosophical Theology in 2014. I was Head of Department of Theology and Religion 2012-15 and then Head of the School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion 2016-2020.  I was promoted to Professor in 2020.

• Problems of religious diversity
• Paradigms of belief
• Contemporary theology
• Philosophy of religion

I am happy to supervise on the following topics:

Theology of religions
Philosophy of religion
Christianity and Asian religions
Theology and the arts
Theology and ministry studies

Find out more - our PhD Theology and Religion  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

I am a philosophical theologian who is currently researching a range of topics including the relations between religions, contemporary philosophical theology, and theology and the arts.

My most recent monograph was entitled Ways of Meeting and the Theology of Religions (Ashgate, 2013), where I attempted to articulate some different theological (and non-theological) spaces for the meeting of religions.  Since completing this work, I have been researching more deeply into various aspects that stem from this work: including the theology of ‘representation’, the theologies of ‘work’ in comparison to the theology of religions,  theology and the arts (with a special emphasis on music), and theologies of creation.  I also have broader research interests in contemporary theology, particularly areas such as public theology and the theology of the secular. 

Research groups

• Philosophy of Religion

I am an ordained minister in the Church of England. I am an active musician.  I play piano and keyboards.