Mark Chapman (theologian)

Mark David Chapman (born 1960) is a British Anglican priest, theologian, historian, and academic. He was Vice-Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon from 2002 to 2024, and has been Professor of the History of Modern Theology at the University of Oxford since 2015.

The Reverend Canon Mark Chapman
Born	1960 (age 64–65)
Academic background
Alma mater	Trinity College, Oxford
Academic work
Discipline	Theologian
Institutions	University of Sheffield Ripon College, Cuddesdon Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford

Early life and education

Born in 1960, Mark David Chapman was brought up in Essex and Berkshire.^[1][2] He was educated at St Bartholomew's School in Newbury, Berkshire; this school was an all-boys grammar school when he joined, becoming a mixed-sex comprehensive school in 1975.^[3] He studied philosophy, politics and economics (specialising in politics and philosophy) and theology at Trinity College, Oxford, graduating in 1983 with a Master of Arts degree.^[2][4] He remained at Trinity to undertake a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree, which he completed in 1989.^[2][5] His doctoral thesis was titled "Theology as a vocation: Ernst Troeltsch as philosophical theologian".^[6]

Career

Chapman became a Stephenson Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield in 1989. In 1992, he joined the staff at Ripon College, Cuddesdon. Since 2002,^[7][8] he has been Vice-Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon.^[2] In 2015, he was appointed Professor of the History of Modern Theology by the University of Oxford.^[9] As of 2016, Chapman is a visiting professor at Oxford Brookes University,^[10] and is course director for the Oxford undergraduate degree programme in theology.^[2]

Having trained for ordination on the Oxford Ministry Course, Chapman was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1994 and as a priest in 1995.^[7] Between 1994 and 1999, he was non-stipendiary minister in Dorchester and then, from 1999 to 2014, he took up an equivalent post at Wheatley and from 2014 to 2024 at Garsington, Cuddesdon and Horspath.^[1] He has held permission to officiate in the Diocese of Worcester since 2024.^[1] He is also Canon Theologian of Truro Cathedral and a member of the General Synod.^[2][5]

Selected works

Chapman has researched the history of Christian theology, especially modern doctrine, the history of Anglicanism, liberal theology and Christianity in America. He has also written about the history of Christianity at Cuddesdon.

His published works include:^[2][10]

Books

• Anglicanism: A Very Short Introduction ("Very Short Introductions" [#149]. Oxford University Press, 2006).
• Doing God: Religion and Public Policy in Brown's Britain (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2008)
• Anglican Theology (T. & T. Clark, 2012)
• The Fantasy of Reunion: Anglicans, Catholics, and Ecumenism, 1833–1880 (Oxford University Press, 2014)
• Theology and Society in Three Cities: Berlin, Oxford and Chicago, 1800–1914 (Cambridge: James Clarke, 2014)

Journal articles and book chapters

• "7th September: Proper 18", Expository Times, vol. 119, issue 11 (2008), pp. 545–546
• "7th December: 2nd Advent", Expository Times, vol. 120, issue 2 (2008), pp. 79–80
• "Theological Responses in England to the South African War, 1899–1902", Journal for the History of Modern Theology, vol. 16, issue 2 (2009), pp. 181–196
• "Newman and the Anglican Idea of a University", Journal for the History of Modern Theology, vol. 18, issue 2 (2009), pp. 212–227
• "Rowan Williams's Political Theology: Multiculturalism and Interactive Pluralism", Journal of Anglican Studies, vol. 9, issue 1 (2011)
• "George Tyrrell and Catholic Modernism", Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 62 (2011), pp. 405–407
• "Red Toryism: Some Historical Reflections", Political Theology, vol. 13, issue 3 (2012), pp. 277–291
• with Woodhead, L., Naquib, S., "God-Change" in Religion And Change In Modern Britain (Routledge, 2012), pp. 173–195
• "Ernst Troeltsch: Kierkegaard, compromise and dialectical theology" in Stewart, J. (ed.), Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, Tome I (Ashgate Publishing, 2012), pp. 377–392
• "The Oxford Movement, Jerusalem and the Eastern Question", in Brown, S. J., Nockles, P. B. (eds.), The Oxford Movement (Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 221–235
• "American Catholicity and the National Church: The Legacy of William Reed Huntington", Sewanee Theological Review (2013)