Dr David Grumett (BA(Hons) MPhil PhD SFHEA)
Senior Lecturer, Theology and Ethics; Convener, Research Ethics Committee

Address
- Street
-
Room 2.21, School of Divinity, Mound Place
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
Background
David has interests in theology, ethics and philosophy. Prior to arriving at Edinburgh, he held positions at the Universities of Cambridge and Exeter.
Qualifications
BA(Hons) MPhil PhD SFHEA
Responsibilities & affiliations
Internal Appointments:
- Convener, Divinity Research Ethics Committee
- Academic cohort lead, Philosophy and Theology
External appointments:
- Assessor, Office for Students
- AHRC Peer Review College
- Research Assessor, Carnegie Trust
- Deputy Editor, Ecclesiology
- Associate Editor, Brill Research Perspectives in Theology
Undergraduate teaching
DIVI08024 Ethics and Society
This course combines philosophical and theological approaches to ethics, bringing together key texts and practical issues. It surveys different possible sources of ethics and focuses on command, virtue, conscience, utility, freedom, community and narrative.
DIVI10089 Metaphysics and Morality
This course examines the relationship between metaphysics and morality in German philosophy from Kant to Arendt, including the place of God and religion. It is for 3rd and 4th year students in the School of Divinity, inclding those also studying Philosophy. The other major figures studied are Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger.
DIVI10034 Food in Christian Religion
This course explores fascinating and sometimes bizarre Christian traditions of food and eating in order to understand consumption, addiction and abstinence today. Bringing together material from biblical studies, history, theology and social theory, it is for 3rd and 4th year students in the School of Divinity and for visiting students.
DIVI10035 Theological Ethics in Continental European Perspective
This course examines recent theories of the person and relationships between people developed or used by Christian ethicists. It is for 3rd and 4th year students in the School of Divinity, including those also studying Philosophy, and for visiting students. The major ethicists studied are Levinas, Ricoeur, Derrida, Merleau-Ponty and Bonhoeffer.
DIVI10001 Dissertation
Postgraduate teaching
THET11039 Key Thinkers in Science and Religion
DIVI11010 Dissertation
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Current PhD students supervised
Ryan Bennett
Carolina Sanz De La Fuente
Jamie Gaston
Past PhD students supervised
Nomi Pritz, Maurice Blondel, mysticism and nihilism (2023)
Beatrice Ang, John Chrysostom and ressourcement (2021)
Paul Scott, Critiques of kenotic Christology (2021)
Julian Roche, Roger Garaudy, Marxism and Christianity (2020)
B. J. Condrey, Supererogation in Christian ethics (2020)
George Walters-Sleyon, Christian ethics, mass incarceration and death (2019)
Anthony Haynes, Jacques Maritain, metaphysics and mysticism (2018)
Russell Almon, Stanley Grenz’s social trinitarianism (2017)
Research summary
David's interests span theology, ethics and philosophy. He has published extensively on aspects of modern French Catholic theology, including the work of Henri de Lubac, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Maurice Blondel and Yves de Montcheuil. He has also produced work on theology and food, in which he seeks to recover and rearticulate a distinctively Christian ethics of eating for the present day, and on animal ethics.
Current research interests
David is currently working on aspects of sacred and secular material theology, including the Eucharist. He is always pleased to receive enquiries from potential research students wishing to work in these areas or in others reflected in his interests and publications.-
Henri de Lubac, la pensée sociale du 19e siècle revisitée par la théologie catholique du 20e siècle
Research output: › Chapter (Accepted/In press) -
Henri de Lubac, humanity and the patrie
Research output: › Chapter (Accepted/In press) -
Movements of ressourcement in theology: Foundations for a council of renewal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198813903.013.3
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
[Review of] Metaphors of Eucharistic Presence: Language, Cognition, and the Body and Blood of Christ. By Stephen R. Shaver. Pp. xii + 290. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. ISBN978 0 19 758080 6. Hardback £64
(3 pages)
In:
The Journal of Theological Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flac155
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (E-pub ahead of print) -
De Lubac and Suárez: A reappraisal
(23 pages)
In:
Theological Studies, vol. 83, pp. 514-536
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00405639221132004
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Tradition and innovation
(21 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474488877-004
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Electric shock control of farmed animals: Welfare review and ethical critique
In:
Animal Welfare Journal, vol. 31, pp. 373-385
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7120/09627286.31.4.006
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
[Review of] C. Andrew Doyle, (2021) Embodied Liturgy: Virtual Reality and Liturgical Theology in Conversation
(3 pages)
In:
Ecclesiology: The Journal for Ministry, Mission and Unity, vol. 18, pp. 272-274
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/17455316-18020010
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published) -
Synods and conferences
(6 pages)
In:
Ecclesiology: The Journal for Ministry, Mission and Unity, vol. 18, pp. 153-158
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/17455316-18020002
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Editorial (Published) -
Sunday morning Eucharists: A defence
(8 pages)
In:
Theology, vol. 125, pp. 182-189
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0040571X221097546
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)