The conference offers four keynote lectures, two on each day. Below you can find biographical information about our keynote speakers and the presentations they are offering. 

Dr Celia Deane-Drummond is Director of the Laudato Si’ Research Institute and Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, University of Oxford. She also is Visiting Professor in Theology and Science at the Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, and was Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame from 2011 to 2019.

Celia began her career in the natural sciences, graduating with a BA (Hons) and MA in Botany from the University of Cambridge as well as receiving a PhD in Plant Physiology from the University of Reading in 1980. The global and ethical challenges of the use of GMOs encouraged her to retrain in theology, education, and environmental ethics. After a year of Christian studies at Regent College, Vancouver, Celia gained another BA (Hons) in Theology from Trinity College, Bristol, and a PGCE in Religious Studies and Science from Manchester Metropolitan University before completing a second PhD in Systematic Theology at the University of Manchester. 

Her main research interests are in theological and ethical engagement with the natural and social sciences on questions related to ecology, genetics, animal studies, and anthropology. Drawing on a wide variety of sources ranging from Catholic thinkers such as Sergius Bulgakov and Hans Urs von Balthasar to contemporary evolutionary science and psychology, Celia addresses multiple topics raised from disciplines as diverse as systematic theology, global development, and transhumanism. Present research projects include the evolution of gratitude as well as morality and pneumatology.

Celia has published hundreds of academic articles and book chapters, and edited or published as single author over twenty scholarly books. A recent publication is In Solidarity with the Earth: A Multi-Disciplinary Theological Engagement with Gender, Mining and Toxic Contamination, edited with another of our speakers, Hilda P. Koster (2023). Before that, Celia led a large scale collaborative research project on the evolution of wisdom and human distinctiveness that nourished Theological Ethics Through a Multispecies Lens: The Evolution of Wisdom - Volume I (2019) and Shadow Sophia: The Evolution of Wisdom - Volume II (2021). Other recent publications include Theology and Ecology Across the Disciplines: On Care for Our Common Home, edited with Rebecca Artinian Kaiser (2018), Religion in the Anthropocene, edited with Sigurd Bergmann and Markus Vogt (2017), as well as a 2nd edition of Ecology in Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology (2016).

Celia serves as Vice President of the Science and Religion Forum of Great Britain as well as trustee of the International Society for Science and Religion. Celia also co-edited the international journal Philosophy, Theology, and the Sciences until 2023 and chaired the European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment from 2011 to 2018. 

Andrew Davison is the University of Oxford’s new Regius Professor of Divinity and residentiary canon of Christ Church Cathedral, joining from the University of Cambridge where he held a chair in Theology and Natural Sciences and co-founded the Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe. From 2022 to 2024, Andrew also was a visiting fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey.

Andrew first came to Oxford as an undergraduate to read Chemistry and gained a DPhil in Biochemistry in 1999. After a year partly in Florence and partly in New York, he moved to Cambridge to complete another MA in Theology and Religious Studies, this time training as an ordinant in the Anglican church. Having served his curacy in Southeast London, Andrew first taught Christian doctrine at St Stephen’s house, Oxford, while also completing a PhD on the understanding of finitude in Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus. Having moved to Cambridge once more, Andrew was appointed Starbridge Lecturer and later Professor in Theology and Natural Sciences.

As an extremely prolific scholar, Andrew has written numerous articles and encyclopaedic entries, as well as authored and edited several monographs, the most recent of which include Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine: Exploring the Implications of Life in the Universe (2023), Imaginative apologetics: theology, philosophy, and the Catholic tradition (2021), Participation in God: A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics (2019), The God we Proclaim: Sermons on the Apostles’ Creed (2017), and Amazing Love: Theology for Understanding Discipleship, Sexuality and Mission, written in collaboration with a working group after having served on the Church of England commission on marriage and sexuality (2016).

Andrew serves as editor of the Cambridge Elements in Christianity and Science, the Cambridge Elements in the Origins of Life, and the Theology, Philosophy, and the Sciences journals. He is a fellow in the UK FIRES programme, a climate change research network based at Cambridge University.

Hilda P. Koster is the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto Associate Professor of Ecological Theology and since 2021 Director of the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology at the Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology. Before joining St. Michael’s, she held joint appointments in Religion, Gender Studies, and Environmental Studies and was Associate Professor in Theology and Environmental Studies at Minnesota’s Concordia College.

A native of the Netherlands, Hilda holds a BA and an MDiv from the University of Groningen. After completing a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary and further study at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, she earned a PhD from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

Hilda’s research interests revolve around ecological theology, eco-feminism, climate change, resource extraction. Drawing on environmental ethics, intersectional feminism, decolonial theory, and Catholic Social Thought, Hilda has critically commented on Covid-19 responses, fracking, and sexual violence. Other interests include New Materialism, theologies of the Cross, and the intersections between theology, cosmology, and science.

Hilda’s publications on eco-theology and environmental ethics have appeared in Modern Theology, Theology Today, The Journal of Religion, Scriptura, and The Anglican Theological Review. 

She has co-edited or authored several volumes, including In Solidarity with the Earth: A Multi-Disciplinary Theological Engagement with Gender, Mining and Toxic Contamination with LSRI director Celia Deane-Drummond (2023), The &T Clark Handbook on Theology and Climate Change with Ernst M. Conradie (2019), Planetary Solidarity: Global Women’s Voices on Christian Doctrine and Climate Justice with Grace Ji-Sun Kim (2017), and Theology as Gift: The Contribution of Kathryn Tanner to Contemporary Theology with Rosemary P. Carbine (2015). Hilda also co-edits the T&T Clark series ‘Explorations in Theology, Gender and Ecology’ for Bloomsbury Press.

Luke Bretherton currently is the Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. He has been appointed as new Canon and Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Christ Church, University of Oxford.

Luke has a distinguished academic and practical background. He holds an MA in History from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Moral Philosophy and Theology from University of London. Before beginning his undergraduate studies, he served a year in the British army, undertaking a short service limited commission in the 7th Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery. After completing his PhD, Luke was appointed as Director of Studies at St Augustine’s Theological College before moving back to King’s College London in 2004 where he became Reader in Theology and Politics and convened the Faith & Public Policy Forum. In 2012 he was appointed to Duke University as Associate Professor and later full Professor. Luke has also been a Visiting Professor at St Mellitus Theological College since 2022.

Luke’s primary areas of research are Christian ethics, political theology, the intellectual and social history of Christian moral and political thought, the relationship between Christianity and capitalism, missiology, interfaith relations, and practices of social, political, and economic witness. His work addresses critical topics including debt and usury, populism and nationalism, euthanasia and hospice care, environmental justice and fair trade, racism, humanitarianism and the treatment of refugees, religious pluralism and secularism, church-state relations, and the church’s involvement in social welfare provision and social movements.

His latest book A Primer in Christian Ethics: Christ and the Struggle to Live Well (2023) provides a new, constructive framework for addressing the question of what it means to live a good life amid the difficulties of everyday life and the catastrophes and injustices that afflict so many today. His previous books include Christ and the Common Life: Political Theology and the Case for Democracy (2019), which explores the historical and contemporary relationship between Christianity and democracy; and Resurrecting Democracy (2015), which was based on a four-year ethnographic study of community organizing initiatives in London and elsewhere. Luke has received a number of grants and awards, including the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing for Christianity & Contemporary Politics (2010) and a Henry Luce III Fellowship (2017-2018).

Alongside his scholarly work, Luke is and is a regular contributor to major media such as The Guardian, The Times, and The Washington Post on on topics related to religion and politics. He has collaborated with various faith-based NGOs, mission agencies, and churches globally, and has been actively involved in forms of grassroots democratic politics, both in the UK and the US, a journey that Luke continues in hosting and writing the Listen, Organize, Act! Podcast, which focuses on the history and contemporary practice of community organizing.