Revd Prebendary Dr John Daniels

Anglican Priest and Theological Educator

John Daniels has been an Anglican priest since 1992, latterly serving as Local Ministry Officer and Warden of Readers in Hereford Diocese. His background is in earth sciences, having gained a PhD in Physical Oceanography in the 1980s. Following a brief period as a software engineer, he completed his ordination training with a Master’s degree in Religious Studies.

John’s academic interests over the years have been wide-ranging. He has published articles on Christian-Hindu dialogue, theology and economics, and the ecological crisis. His main concern throughout his ministry has been to help ordinary Christians better understand various facets of the times we live in, and to think through what an authentic Christian response might look like.

Most recently his research has been focussed on the cultural impasse jointly constituted by the longstanding ecological crisis and the Great Economic Stagnation which set in following the financial crash of 2008, along with exploring how all this may play out.

John is an experienced communicator, having facilitated parish-level study groups throughout his years of ordained ministry and also taught at tertiary-level on diocesan and regional ministry education courses in Cumbria, Yorkshire, Wales and the West Midlands. He is currently an Honorary Tutor on the Cuddesdon: Gloucester and Hereford course.

Publications

Recent publications:

‘Ethics after Industria: Reflections on Foragers, Farmers and Fossil Fuels by Ian Morris’, Crucible, January 2017, pp. 56-63

‘Agencement and Agency: If Gilles and Félix had met Stanley’, Modern Theology, 36(4), pp. 778-802 (2020)

‘In Praise of Redundancy, or Has the Hidden Hand Lost its Touch?’ Crucible, January 2021

Stories about Bodies: Complexity Theory, Energy and the Emergence of Ethics, Temple Tracts: William Temple Foundation, 2021

‘Building Back Better: A Tale of Two Visions’, Crucible, April 2022

Lecture titles

What will become of us? Humanity, technology and Christian faith
‘Does God exist? I would say, Not yet.’ (Ray Kurzweil, Director of Engineering, Google). Artificial Intelligence and human augmentation by means of technology are rapidly changing the world around us and people's sense of who they are. What does it mean to be human anyway, and what does Christian faith have to say about that?
Money: where it comes from, where it’s going, and why it’s all about faith
An introduction to what money is, what it does, and the origins and likely future of modern credit money, bringing out the centrality of faith in how money works.
Running out of steam: should Christians welcome the end of fossil fuels?
Fossil fuels have transformed human lives over the past two centuries. For various reasons, this era of plenty is likely coming to a close. This is a chance to take stock of the challenges which lie ahead.