Our people

Dr David Newheiser

Senior Research Fellow
Religion and Theology, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry

Areas of expertise: religious ethics; continental philosophy; philosophy of religion; political theology; gender and sexuality; history of Christian thought

Email: david.newheiser@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Melbourne Campus

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full, Provisional, Not accredited

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8024-7964

My research explores the role of religious traditions in debates over ethics, politics, and culture. In my view, the study of religion & theology clarifies the context of contemporary debates, and it offers resources that anyone may draw on to address them.

I received a PhD in Religion from the University of Chicago and an MPhil in early Christian thought from Oxford. I joined the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry in 2015. I am available to supervise projects on religion + ethics / politics / culture, and I'm especially keen to work with students from underrepresented groups.

My interests are broad and interdisciplinary. My first book, Hope in a Secular Age, argues that hope is a discipline required to sustain commitment of any kind: personal, political, or religious. I am currently working on my second book, which considers the link between premodern miracle traditions and democratic imagination.

Alongside these larger projects I have written on secularism, sexuality, neoliberalism, marginalization, and the intersection of theory and art. I am the editor of several edited collections, including most recently The Varieties of Atheism (The University of Chicago Press, 2022) and I'm co-editor of the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion. Together with my ACU colleague Dr Lexi Eikelboom, I am co-director of a project funded by the Templeton Religion Trust, "Spiritual Understanding in a Secular Agel."

View academia profile

Select publications

Books

• (2019) Hope in a Secular Age: Deconstruction, Negative Theology, and the Future of Faith, (Cambridge University Press).

Edited books

• (forthcoming) Art-Making as Spiritual Practice: Rituals of Embodied Understanding (co-edited with Lexi Eikelboom).
• (2022) The Varieties of Atheism: Connecting Religion and Its Critics, (ed.) (University of Chicago Press).
• (2015) Desire, Faith and the Darkness of God, (co-edited with Eric Bugyis),University of Notre Dame Pressy.

Edited journal issues

• (2020) Negative Political Theology, special issue of Modern Theology 36.1.
• (2016) Phenomenology and the Study of Religion, special issue of Louvain Studies 39.4.
• (2016) The Secularization of Hope, special issue of Political Theology 17.2.

Selected articles & chapters

• (2023) "How Place Shapes the Aspirations of Hope: The Allegory of the Privileged and the Underprivileged" (co-authored with Victor Counted), Journal of Positive Psychology.
• (2022) "The Genealogy of Atheism," in The Varieties of Atheism, Ed. David Newheiser (University of Chicago Press, 2022).
• (2022) "Hope in Turbulent Times,"Critical Research on Religion 10.3, 363-368.
• (2021) "How hope becomes concrete,"Critical Research On Religion 9.3, 349-352.
• (2020) "Why the World Needs Negative Political Theology,"Modern Theology 36.1, 5-12.
• (2020) "Desacralizing Political Theology: Dionysius the Areopagite and Giorgio Agamben,"Modern Theology 36.1, 76-89.
• (2018) "Derrida and the Danger of Religion," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 86.1, 42-61.
• (2016) "Foucault, Gary Becker and the Critique of Neoliberalism," Theory, Culture & Society 33.5, 3-21.
• (2015) "Sexuality and Christian Tradition: Innovation and Fidelity, Ancient and Modern," Journal of Religious Ethics 43.1 (2015), 122-145.

Translations

• (2020) Jacques Derrida, "Christianity and Secularization," Critical Inquiry 47.1 (2020), 138-148.

Projects

• (2024) advisory board, "Awe-some spirituality: A theological and psychological cross-disciplinary exploration of awe as an approach to spiritual yearning of the nonreligious," funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
• (2021-2022) co-director (with Lexi Eikelboom), "Spiritual Understanding in a Secular Age," funded by the Templeton Religion Trust with colleagues from Oxford, Coventry University, and elsewhere.
• (2016-19) project leader, "Atheism and Christianity: Moving Past Polemic," Australian Catholic University Research Fellowship, with colleagues from ACU, Yale, and KU Leuven.
• (2016-17) "Can hope combat marginalization?" Australian Catholic University Research Fellowship, with Vincent Lloyd (Villanova) and Linn Tonstad (Yale).

Accolades and Awards

• (2022) Duncan Forrester Fellowship, University of Edinburgh: awarded to support a five-month research visit.
• (2021) Winner of The ATF Literary Trust Book Prize for Hope in a Secular Age: Deconstruction, Negative Theology, and the Future of Faith (Cambridge, 2019)
• (2020) Winner of The Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for theological promise for Hope in a Secular Age: Deconstruction, Negative Theology, and the Future of Faith

Appointments and Affiliations

Appointments

• (2021-) Australian Catholic University, Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry
• (2015-2020) Australian Catholic University, Research Fellow in the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry
• (2013-15) University of Texas at Austin, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas

Service Roles

• Co-chair, Political Theology Program Unit, American Academy of Religion
• Publications Chair & Executive Committee member of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion
• Member of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Religion, one of the standing committees of the American Academy of Religion

International journal review panels

• Peer reviewer for Bloomsbury; Fordham University Press; Oxford University Press; The Journal of the American Academy of Religion; Theory, Culture & Society; Modern Theology; The Journal of Religious Ethics; The Journal of Religious History; Political Theology; Cultural Critique; Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift; Colloquium; Religions; Sophia; Politics, Religion & Ideology; Jewish Studies Quarterly; Epoché; European Journal for Philosophy of Religion; Journal of Bioethical Inquiry

Grant agency review panels

• Australian Research Council, Excellence in Research for Australia evaluation (in Philosophy and Religion & Religious Studies)
• European Science Foundation, Junior and Senior Postdoctoral Fellowships (panel for Humanities: Philosophy and Ethics)

Public engagement activities

Public Writing

• "Remembering Vattimo" (with Simonetta Moro, John D. Caputo, Gavin Hyman, Silvia Mazzini, Mario I. Aguilar), Political Theology Network (7 Oct).
• "How a Bike Accident Changed Me, By a Philosopher of Hope," The Conversation (19 Aug 2022).
• "Pandemic life and the chance of transformation," ABC Religion & Ethics (3 May 2022).
• "Theology for Atheists,"Syndicate (20 Apr 2020).
• "Sustaining hope through coronavirus uncertainty,"ABC Religion & Ethics (9 Apr 2020).
• "The promise of negative political theology," ABC Religion & Ethics (10 Mar 2020).
• "Law, Order, and Idolatry", ABC Radio National, Religion& Ethics program (26 July 2018)
• "Tradition, Novelty, and the Need for Discernment", The Living Church (29 January 2012), 19-22
• "Vulnerability and the Possibility of Progress," University of Chicago Religion and Culture Web Forum (May 2010).

Radio

• "Paradox and Palm Sunday" on ultra106.5fm (23 Mar 2024).
• "Religious differences in the family" on God Forbid, ABC Radio National (22 Mar 2024).
• "The meaning of Christmas," on ultra106.5fm (22 Dec).
• "Varieties of Atheism" on RN Breakfast, ABC Radio National (7 Apr 2023).
• "Christmas in a secular society" on ultra106.5fm (22 Dec 2022).
• "Is hope necessary?" on God Forbid, ABC Radio National (23 Sep 2022).
• "How David was lost, then found" on Conversations, ABC Radio National (29 Aug 2022).
• "Rupture and Hope" on The Philosopher's Zone, ABC Radio National (1 May 2022).
• "How's your Soul? A look back on 2021" on Soul Search, ABC Radio National (12 December 2021)
• "Contemplating Hope", ABC Radio National, Soul Search (5 July 2020)
• "Theology for Atheists", Syndicate (20 April 2020
• "Politics and the Sacred", ABC Radio National, The Philosopher's Zone (21 April 2019)
• "How can we live with coronavirus uncertainty?", ABC Radio National, The Minefield (8 April 2020)
• "Should Christians and Atheists Get Along?", ABC Radio National, The Spirit of Things (29 July 2018)

Coverage & Quotes

• Stuff: Philip Matthews, "The Covid cloud and the silver lining: Was change possible?" 8 Oct 2022.
• Vox: Eleanor Cummins, "Is this the end of American optimism?" 29 Oct 2020.
• Buzzfeed News: Scott Lucas, "The World Feels Hopeless. I Talked To Christian Scholars About What To Do." 25 Oct 2020.
• The Catholic Leader: Nick Holt, "Atheists and Christians can Enjoy Sympathetic and Interesting Conversations about Religion." 9 Jan 2019.
• The Conversation: Lyn McCredden, "Popular music's search for the sacred in a secular world." 5 Oct 2018.