Dafydd Daniel

Dr Dafydd Mills Daniel is Lecturer in Divinity, School of Divinity, University of St Andrews. Before joining St Andrews in September 2022, Dafydd was McDonald Lecturer in Christian Ethics at the University of Oxford, where he was also Director of Applied Theology, Wycliffe Hall and Director of Studies in Theology, Jesus College. He read for a BA in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Cambridge and completed a Masters in Philosophical Theology and Philosophy of Religion at Yale University Divinity School, where he was a Marquand Scholar. After completing his DPhil in Theology at the University of Oxford, Dafydd undertook a Certificate in the Principles and Practice of Assessment, University of Cambridge and a PGCE in Religious Education, University of Oxford.

Dafydd is currently writing his book, Philosophical Theology: The Basics (Routledge), and editing the journal special issue The Church and the British Moralists for History of European Ideas. He is also lead on the project Owning the Future of Scot-Land: Land, Ownership, and Scottish Identity in Historical and Contemporary Perspective after receiving a grant from Scotland's Future Series. Among Dafydd’s other books are Conscience and the Age of Reason (Palgrave Macmillan) and Briefly: 25 Great Philosophers, From Plato to Sartre  (SCM Press).

Dafydd is a BBC and AHRC New Generation Thinker. His BBC radio documentaries include: Bob Dylan and the Ferry; Sir Isaac Newton and the Philosophers' Stone; Why the killing of 7 protesters in 1768 was a “massacre”; and, Where do human rights come from? (which was featured in the Penguin Audio Book Instant Expert: 100 of the best ideas from New Generation Thinkers).

Dafydd has contributed regularly to BBC Radio 4’s Free Thinking, on a range of topics, including: Adam Smith; Richard Price; National Debt; St Teresa of Avila; John Knox; John Henry Newman; George Eliot; radical deism; individualism and community; nature writing (where Dafydd’s contribution, on the 18^th century ‘parson-naturalist’, Gilbert White, was featured as choice in the Radio Times).

He has appeared on National Geographic’s The Story of God with Morgan Freeman (to discuss the practice of sin-eating); on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze (episodes Rights and Rules and Human Rights); at the English National Opera (to discuss Oscar Wilde’s Salome); and at the Scottish Land Commission (to discuss models for landownership). As an Ashmolean Public Engagement Research Associate, Dafydd recorded the Talking Emotions podcast Passion and Painting, Beauty and Virtue.

An occasional writer of fiction, Dafydd was a Bridport Prizewinner in 2020, for his short story, ‘What The Deal Is’, and one of six authors shortlisted for the Society of Authors’ ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award 2021.

Theological and philosophical ethics; historical theology and the history of Western philosophy; philosophical theology; intellectual and church history (with a particular focus on 'the Enlightenment' era)

Dafydd’s research is interested principally in exploring how, and demonstrating that, we cannot understand contemporary ethical and political debates (both practical and theoretical) without understanding their historical context – and that we cannot understand their historical context without reference to theology.

DI1001 – God and the World: Introducing Theology

DI1014 – The Good Life: Christian Ethics and Human Flourishing

DI2010 – Philosophical Theology

DI4634 – God and Morality: Faith and Philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment

DI4835 – Christianity and Politics: Patriotism, Republicanism, and Cosmopolitanism

DI5539 – The Good Life and the Good Death: Theological and Practical Ethics