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Christopher Holmes 2020 imageProfessor in Systematic Theology
MRel, ThD (Wycliffe College and University of Toronto)

Room 4S6, Arts Building
Tel +64 3 479 5394
Email christopher.holmes@otago.ac.nz

Christopher Holmes studied systematic theology, completing a ThD on the doctrine of God's perfections in Karl Barth and two of his leading German speaking interpreters, Eberhard Jüngel and Wolf Krötke.

He is the author of over fifty book chapters and journal articles as well as six books, namely Revisiting the Doctrine of the Divine Attributes: In Dialogue with Karl Barth, Eberhard Jüngel, and Wolf Krötke (Peter Lang, 2007), Ethics in the Presence of Christ (T&T Clark, 2012), The Holy Spirit (Zondervan Academic, 2015), The Lord is Good: Seeking the God of the Psalter (IVP Academic, 2018), A Theology of the Christian Life: Imitating and Participating in God (Baker Academic, 2021), and Hearing and Doing: The Speeches in Acts and the Essence of Christianity (Baylor University Press, 2022).

Chris has continuing research interests in a variety of Christian doctrines, especially the doctrine of God and the doctrine of creation. He carries out this work in dialogue with a wide variety of thinkers from the classical Christian tradition, all in a way that is anchored in Holy Scripture and with a view to edifying the Christian community.

Teaching

Preferred areas of supervision

General Areas of Christian Doctrine, especially the Doctrine of God, the Trinity, Pneumatology and Christology

Current research

I'm working on a monograph on the metaphysics of creation.

Current postgraduate students

  • Stephen Bond (MTheol) Origin and Nature of Sin in Calvin's Institutes
  • Deborah Broome(PhD) Sociality in Augustine's City of God
  • Ethan Harrison (PhD) Divine Aseity
  • Jenny Hsu (PhD) An Alternative Approach to the Nestorian Controversy: A Comparison of Cyril's and Nestorius' Interpretation of Scripture and Its Implications for their Understanding of the Person and Work of Christ
  • Walter Noteboom (PhD) Divine Providence and the Existence of Sin
  • Timothy Stanton (PhD) “He Willed to Communicate Himself Ad Extra”: God and Creation in Conversation with Francis Turretin and Petrus van Mastricht

Completed postgraduate students

  • Brent Rempel (PhD) God the Trinity in the Theology of John Webster
  • Jason Pickard (PhD) Owen and Torrance on Christ's Mediation
  • Joel Banman (PhD) Christ Speaks Today: Biblical Interpretation in the Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1935-1940
  • Gareth Bezett (MTheol) The Compatibility of Physicalist Anthropologies and Traditional Sacramental Theology
  • Cameron Coombe (PhD) Moltmann's Use of Scripture (Humanities Division Exceptional PhD Thesis)
  • Ed Masters (MTheol) Calvin on Ephesians 1 and The Christian Life
  • Ann Thorp (PhD) Hilary of Poitier's Pneumatology
  • Michael Bartholomaeus (PhD) Karl Barth's Doctrine of Sanctification: An Exploration of Church Dogmatics §66
  • Mark Jacobsen (MTheol) Galatians and Bonhoeffer on the Freedom of the Christian
  • Jono Ryan (PhD) One Heart and Soul: Augustine's Call to Community in a Divided Society (Humanities Division Exceptional PhD Thesis)
  • Peter Ross (PhD) Pneumatology and Union: John Calvin and Pentecostal Theology
  • Kate Dugdale (PhD) T.F. Torrance's Trinitarian Ecclesiology
  • Cameron Coombe (MTheol) The Significance of the Cross for the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Theology of Juergen Moltmann
  • Glenn Paddison (MTheol) Yves Congar's Pneumatological Anthropology
  • Hugh Bowron (MTheol) Robert Jenson's Ontology of the Future: His Protest against Contentless Eschatology
  • Cameron Surrey (PhD) Bearing the Burden: Forgiveness and the Glorified Wounds of Christ
  • Andrea McDougall (PhD) Barth on the Humility of God and the Humility of the Christian
  • Deborah Broome (MTheol) Living in Two Cities: Lessons for the Church Today from Augustine's 'City of God'
  • Samuel Fernando (MTheol) Reality and Resurrection: In Dialogue with T.F. Torrance
  • Jonathan Hicks (PhD) Trinity, Economy, and Scripture: A Theologically-Motivated Recovery of Didymus the Blind (Humanities Division Exceptional PhD thesis)
  • Brian Dawson (MTheol) Crossing the Streams: Sources of Anglican Confirmation
  • Rebekah Banman (MDiv Hons) Union with the Incarnate Saviour: Exploring the Soteriological Implications of the Incarnation and the Atonement in Dialogue with John Calvin and Thomas F. Torrance
  • Don Fergus (PhD) Spatial Imagery in the Ecclesiology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • Mark Gingerich (MA) Reinhold Niebuhr and the Sermon on the Mount: In Dialogue with Stanley Hauerwas
  • Renee Kwan Monkmann (MDiv Hons) An irrevocable covenant? Toward a renewed understanding of Paul's reading of the history of Israel
  • Laura Vander Velden (MA) Whence this evil? Toward a Christological and pastorally minded doctrine of providence in dialogue with Karl Barth

Publications

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