Our People in the Centre for Theology and Public Issues
Andrew Bradstock
Andrew is Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues and Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Otago, Dunedin.
Appointed to this new chair in January 2009, he was previously Co-Director of the Centre for Faith and Society at the Von Hügel Institute in Cambridge where he co-authored Moral, But No Compass, a path-breaking report on government and welfare provision commissioned by the bishops of the Church of England.
From 2000-2005 he was national Secretary for Church and Society with the United Reformed Church in the UK and prior to that senior lecturer in Theology at colleges in Southampton and Winchester. From 1990-1 he was Postdoctoral Fellow in Church History at the University of Otago. He is an Honorary Professor of the University of Winchester.
His most recent books are Radical Religion in Cromwell's England: A concise history from the English Civil War to the end of the Commonwealth (I.B. Tauris, 2011) and Louder Than Words: Action for the 21st-Century Church (Darton Longman & Todd, 2007) and he is co-editor, with Christopher Rowland, of Radical Christian Writings: A Reader (Blackwell, 2002).
Ellie Sanderson
The Reverend Dr Eleanor Sanderson is the Centre’s first Post-Doctoral Fellow. Based at St John’s College, Auckland, Ellie is exploring how a ‘conversation’ between the philosophy of Luce Irigaray and the Mothers’ Union in the context of the three Tikanga Anglican Church in the Province of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, might cultivate a relational theology and inform a feminist contribution within the field of public theology.
Andrew Shepherd
Dr Andrew Shepherd is an Assistant Research Fellow at the Centre, working with the Director to produce a resource book on public theology for New Zealand churches.
Jill Rutherford
Jill Rutherford is the Centre's Administrator. Originally from Canada where she worked as a journalist and in politics, Jill was the University of Otago's Media Advisor for five years. Apart from her media and political background, Jill's main interest lies in faith and religion in general, having gained an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Toronto.
Jill is the first point of contact for queries about Centre events, mailings and becoming a new Friend of the Centre. She can be reached at jill.rutherford@otago.ac.nz or at (03) 471 6458.