Welcome to Philosophy, Religion and Ethics
In today’s complex and fast-changing multicultural world, the time-honoured subjects of Philosophy, Religion and Ethics are more vital and relevant than ever.
Formerly the Department of Philosophy, Religions and Liberal Arts, we recently joined the newly formed School of History, Archaeology and Philosophy (SHAP) and together with our SHAP colleagues we offer a broad and varied programme of degrees.
You will be taught by a lively, enthusiastic and highly qualified team of academics, committed to giving you the best possible experience. We are a team of nationally and internationally respected researchers with a wide range of interests, overlapping with those in the wider School of HAP and beyond, e.g. Education.
Our degrees are a great preparation for many careers: recent graduates have gone into journalism, teaching, counselling, social work, law, religious ministry and commerce, as well as postgraduate study and research. We have a large community of MPhil/PhD students working on a wide range of research topics.
Collaborative Provision
Sarum College is a Trusted Collaborative Partner, and the University of Winchester validates the following programmes:
Latest News
Bligh's breadfruit and a passion for passionflowers
Eighteenth-century scientists relied more on local knowledge than history would have us believe. In a major new AHRC/NERC-funded project, Dr Christina Welch is unearthing hidden indigenous Caribbean contributions to Western botanical science. The project is a collaboration between the University of Winchester, St Vincent Botanial Gardens (image below), Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Natural History Museum and the Linnean Society among others. As part of the project, an exhibition titled A Caribbean Garden launches on 8 November in Wycombe Museum.
Find out more about the project and the exhibition
For more Public Engagement with Research news, see below.
Meet the Philosophy, Religion and Ethics team
Academic team
- Nora Kreft, Lecturer in Philosophy
- Dr Marika Rose, Senior Lecturer in Philosophical Theology
- Dr Timothy Secret, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Religion
- Dr Christina Welch, Reader in Theology, Religion and Philosophy
We work closely with colleagues in the wider School of HAP and the Winchester Centre of Religion, Reconciliation and Peace.
Visiting Professors
- Professor Babette Babich
- Revd Dr Malcolm Brown
- Canon Giles Fraser
- Revd Dr John Gay
- Brian Walker
- Revd James Woodward
Emeritus Professors
- Prof. Robin Baker, Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
- Prof. Andrew Bradstock, Professor of Theology and Public Life
- Revd Prof. Stephen Heap, Professor of Theology
Visiting Research/Knowledge Exchange Fellows
Research Fellows
- Dr Jakub Kowalewski
- Dr Sotiris Mitralexis
- Steve Nolan
- Dr Marcus Throup
- Rev Dr Konstantinos Papanikolaou (Early-Career Research Fellow)
- Dr Elizabeth Slinn (Early-Career Research Fellow)
- Dr Patrick Martin (Early-Career Research Fellow)
- Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh
Knowledge Exchange Fellows
Research in Philosophy, Religion and Ethics
Research strengths
- Sacred Art and Monasticism
- Scripture and Old Testament
- Mesopotamian religious beliefs
- Religion, Reconciliation and Peacebuilding
- Political theology
- Contemporary continental philosophy and its relation to the arts, technology and the sciences
- Indigenous religions
- Religions, nature and environmentalism
- Death Studies
- Religion in art and visual culture
- Disability theology
- Systematic theology
- Medieval Jewish Winchester
Research Excellence Framework (REF)
Postgraduate research supervision
We have a large community of MPhil/PhD students working on a wide range of research topics.
Public Engagement
Our links with faith communities, media and professional groups ensure that our research has impact well beyond the academic community and is informed by real-world issues and questions. We have close ties with Winchester Cathedral, we participate in community events such as Winchester Heritage Open Days.
Engagement around research projects
We work closely with local authorities on projects such as Medieval Jewish Winchester and West Hill Cemetery. Both are led by Dr Christina Welch, who has developed highly popular guided tours for Winchester Heritage Open Days, and and self-guided tours for Medieval Jewish Winchester (available via the MJW webpage).
Dr Welch also leads the AHRC/NERC-funded research projectUnearthing Indigenous Caribbean contributions to Western botanical knowledge', investigating the archives of the 18th-century Scottish botanist Dr Alexander Anderson, founder of the Botanical Garden in St Vincent, the Caribbean. Dr Welch has given talks, written blogs and developed an exhibition on the project. After touring the world, from England and Scotland to St Vincent, the exhibition was curated online by project partner Kew Gardens and can still be enjoyed via the Kew website.
Books and book launches
Mesopotamian Civilization and the Origins of the New Testament
In November 2022, we hosted the book launch of Mesopotamian Civilization and the Origins of the New Testament by Emeritus Professor Robin Baker, Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. In this ground-breaking study, Robin Baker investigates the contribution ancient Mesopotamian theology made to the origins of Christianity.
Praise for Mesopotamian Civilization and the Origins of the New Testament:
"This book is long overdue in the fields of New Testament studies and Christian origins. It provides a missing link between scholarship on the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East and scholarship on the New Testament and early Christianity. The necessity of this book cannot be overstated." Tyson Putthoff, Trinity College Dublin
Our Visiting Research Fellow Dr Jakub Kowalewski published the edited volume The Environmental Apocalypse: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Climate Crisis. The book partly emerges from work surrounding the department’s seminar series 'Philosophy and the Apocalypse: Thinking in a Burning World' that ran last year during COP 26. Jakub is currently working on a following monograph, A Philosophy of Climate Apocalypticism, due out in 2024.
The return of Socrates: Plato's Republic reimagined for a new age
Socrates On Trial (Bloomsbury 2021), the new book by leading educational philosopher Professor Nigel Tubbs, has been named by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as one the Books of the Year in The New Statesman (Nov 2021).
Written mostly as a dialogue, the book imagines what might happen if Socrates were to return today. It tells of Socrates’ return to a modern city, to find that orators have become spin doctors, and that society is still plagued by prejudice, privilege and populism. Once again he insists on asking uncomfortable questions in the agora. Once again he is arrested and interrogated.
The book includes a new version of Plato’s famous Republic and asks: how might a new Republic respond to the symbiotic relationship between education and elitism? Socrates explores a new model for the just city – a city based not on power and property but on learning – before offering a new Apology to the court that will, once again, decide his fate.
Plato sitting by Socrates' tomb - image Wikimedia Commons
Nigel also recently authored a blog for WONKHE, asking whether we are in danger of developing a two-tier education system - the good stuff for the elite, and job training for the rest?
Praise for Socrates on Trial
‘An impassioned challenge to the stupidities of current educational practice from the UK’s best educational philosopher’ Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
'Compelling' Howard Caygill, Professor of Philosophy, Kingston University
'A much-needed plea for a Socratic uprising in education' Emma Cohen de Lara, Senior Lecturer In Political Theory, Amsterdam University College, The Netherlands
'A tour de force’ Josh Cohen, Professor of Modern Literary Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London
The Secret's out
Philosopher Dr Timothy Secret is a former AHRC/BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker. His essay exploring how we react when looked at by animals for BBC Radio 3's 2012 Free Thinking Festival forms part of Instant Expert, a Penguin audiobook collecting the first 100 Essays by New Generation Thinkers broadcast on BBC Radio 3 during the first 10 years of the New Generation Thinkers scheme – a partnership between the AHRC and BBC Radio 3. Instant Expert was published in Sept. 2021.
