Tim Middleton
About
Tim is a Tutorial Fellow in Theology at Regent’s Park College, Oxford. He is also a Research Affiliate at the Laudato Si’ Research Institute having previously completed his DPhil in Theology and Religion in association with the Institute, supervised by Celia Deane-Drummond and Graham Ward. His initial training was in the sciences, and he also holds a doctorate in Earth Sciences, investigating earthquakes in northern China.
Tim was born in Switzerland and retains a lifelong love of the mountains. He lives in Oxford and particularly enjoys road cycling with the Cowley Condors.
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Education
DPhil, Theology and Religion, University of Oxford
MPhil, Modern Theology, University of Oxford
PGDip, Theology, University of Oxford
DPhil, Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
MSci, Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge
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Research Interests
Tim’s research focusses on the intersections of theology and religion with science, nature, and the environment. Specifically, he is interested in religious approaches to the contemporary ecological crisis, and much of his work is in the field of Christian ecotheology. His recent research draws on trauma theology to explore how the category of trauma might be applied to issues of nonhuman suffering in the context of mass extinction and catastrophic climate change. His first monograph—Witnessing a Wounded World: A Theology of Ecological Trauma—was published by Fordham University Press in 2025. He is currently working on a second project about the interaction between religious views of the long-term future and geological understandings of deep time.
Tim is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Before joining Regent’s Park College, he taught at St Anne’s College Oxford, the University of Roehampton, and Ripon College Cuddesdon. Most recently, he was a Junior Research Fellow in Religion and the Frontier Challenges at Pembroke College Oxford.
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Selected Publications
Middleton, Timothy A. Witnessing a Wounded World: A Theology of Ecological Trauma. New York: Fordham University Press, 2025.
Middleton, Timothy A., ‘Back to the Present?: Deep Time and Ecological Action in Kathryn Tanner’s Eschatology’, Theology and Science (2025), 1-13 https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2025.2550542.
Middleton, Timothy A., ‘Christology and the Temporal Trauma of the Anthropocene’ in Krebs, Andreas (ed.) Rethinking Theology in the Anthropocene (WBG, 2024), pp. 63-80 https://www.herder.de/wissen/shop/p8/90137-rethinking-theology-in-the-anthropocene-open-access-pdf/.
Middleton, Timothy A., ‘Science, Religion, and Deep Time’, Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology (2022), 5-15.
Middleton, Timothy A. & Natasha Chawla, ‘Introduction: The Humanities in Deep Time’, Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology 26/3 (2022), 173-77 https://doi.org/10.1163/15685357-02603013.
Middleton, Timothy. A., ‘Christic Witnessing: A Practical Response to Ecological Trauma’, Practical Theology 15/5 (2022), 420-31 https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2022.2063781.
Middleton, Timothy A., ‘Giving Birth to the Impossible: Theology and Deconstruction in Johannes Climacus’s Philosophical Fragments’, International Journal of Philosophy and Theology, 82/2 (2021), 116-35 https://doi.org/10.1080/21692327.2021.1923557.
