Nicholas Adams MA PhD
Senior Lecturer; Theology and Philosophy
| Roles: | Director of Undergraduate Studies |
Affiliated research centres
Centre for Theology and Public IssuesBiography
Nicholas Adams moved to Edinburgh in 1998, after holding a research fellowship in theology at the University of Cambridge.
His research is in German Philosophy and philosophical aspects of inter-faith engagement.
He describes his work as 'reparative reasoning': identifying and remedying problems in philosophical method by drawing on deeper patterns of reasoning in the Christian tradition. These include patterns discernable in scripture (e.g. the relation between suffering and healing) and in doctrine (e.g. the relation between the divine and human natures in the Chalcedonian formula).
More broadly, Dr Adams has two ambitious hopes in the academy. The first is to work with colleagues in his discipline around the world to rebuild the philosophical training of theologians (and not only those who specialise in philosophical theology or philosophy of religion). The second is to grow a network of the world's top scholars of Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies (especially Jewish philosophy) and Christian Theology, mitigating the tendency of the modern university to treat these disciplines as utterly separate from one another.