Dr David Grumett (BA(Hons) MPhil PhD SFHEA)

Senior Lecturer, Theology and Ethics; Convener, Research Ethics Committee

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

Carolina Sanz De La Fuente, Theological critique of transhumanism

Ryan Bennett, Social theology of William Temple and Dorothy Day

Stephen Noon, Theology and politics in Scotland

Jamie Gaston, Theological aesthetics

Past PhD students supervised

Nomi Pritz, Maurice Blondel, mysticism and nihilism (2023)

Jeremy-Joe Tan, William Temple’s christology and ecclesiology (2022)

Beatrice Ang, John Chrysostom, ressourcement and church leadership (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.