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Dr Andrew Hayes

Job Title | Director of the Centre for Discipleship and Theology |
| a.hayes@queens.ac.uk |
Telephone | 0121 452 2623 |
Room no. | Room 33, New Building |
I have been a tutor at Queen’s since 2014, originally as a member of the Ministerial Formation team. In early 2021 I took on the role of director of the Centre for Discipleship and Theology. This centre previously existed but has rapidly changed shape and aims as a result of the growth of online distance learning at Queen’s. I am originally from Edinburgh and married to Serena, who is a vicar in the diocese of Oxford. We have a young son and a dog.
- Qualifications
2007
MA Divinity
University of Edinburgh
2008
MSc Theology in History
University of Edinburgh
2015
PhD (Historical Theology)
King’s College London
2020 AFHEA Advance HE - Roles and responsibilities
Since 2021 I am the director of the Centre for Discipleship and Theology, which incorporates independent students, distance learners and candidates for Reader ministry. As CDT director the core aim of my work is to make theological study engaging and accessible to a wide audience. I am also tutor in Historical theology and teach across a range of modules in doctrine, ethics and church history. Being dyslexic myself, I also convene the Participation and Access Group which consults on issues of inclusion at Queen’s.
- External Roles and Responsibilities
Reviews editors for Crucible: The Journal of Christian Social Ethics
Executive committee member of the Society for the Study of Theology
- Research interests and supervision
Much of my research interests concern the shape and meaning of identity in late antiquity and the early church, heresy and orthodoxy, and the doctrine of providence. In the former I focus on the early patristic period with regard to matters of practice and definition of faith and the understanding of Christian discipline. In the later area I have broad interests but most recently have been working on what it means for God to have a will.
I am a member a member of the Society for the Study of Theology.
I currently advise and supervise students at both masters and doctoral levels, on a variety of matters relating to historical theology and ethics. I would welcome enquiries from those interested in:
- Early Patristics
- The ethics of identity in historical theology
- The doctrine of Providence
- Publications
Books:
- Defining Christianity: Justin against Marcion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017).
- The Meanings of Discipleship: Being Disciples Then and Now ed. Andrew Hayes & Stephen Cherry (London: SCM, 2021)
Articles:
- ‘Jesus as a Superhero?’, Theology Vol 117 No.2 (2014), 100 -106.
- ‘Justin’s Christian Philosophy: New Possibilities for Relations Between Jew, Graeco-Romans and Christians, Studies in Church History series, volume 51 (2015), 14-32.
- ‘Does God have a plan?’ New Blackfriars, Vol 98, No 1073 Jan 2017, 63-72.
- ‘The implications of Samaritanism on shape of Justin’s faith and life’, Studia Patristica XCIII (2017), 141-54.
- Embodying the Good: Introducing James KA Smith’s Cultural Liturgies project (ethics E189. Cambridge, Grove Books, 2018).
- ‘Who are the ‘Christians’?’, Studia Patristica VOL. XCIX (2018), 87-97.
- ‘The Cultural-rootedness of Christian Distinctiveness: James K.A. Smith and Schleiermacher on Theologies of Culture’, Ecclesiology 16 (2020), pp. 99-119
Popular:
- ‘A bold but difficult step closer to the Kirk’ Church Times, 20th May 2016
- 'Jesus is not the ultimate Superhero’ Church Times, 16th June 2017