Professor 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)
- Hearing and Doing: The Speeches in Acts and the Essence of Christianity (Baylor University Press, 2022)
His newest book is titled The Mystery of Existence: God, Hebrews and the Unity of Scripture, and will be published in 2027 by Baylor University Press.
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
- CHTH 111 Doing Theology
- CHTH 213 The Trinity
- CHTH 313 The Trinity (Advanced)
- CHTH 212 Spirit, Church and Sacraments
- CHTH 312 Spirit, Church and Sacraments (Advanced)
- CHTH 416 The Theology of Bonhoeffer
Preferred areas of supervision
- General areas of Christian doctrine
- The doctrine of God
- The Trinity
- Pneumatology
- Christology
Current research
I’m writing a monograph on the literal sense of Moses’s law.
Current postgraduate students
- Joshua Bond (PhD) Word and Love: A Dogmatic Investigation of the Psychological Analogy in Trinitarian Theology
- Sebastian Murrihy (PhD) Church in Fulfilled Time: Karl Barth, Ephraim Radner and Social Acceleration
Completed postgraduate students
- Ethan Harrison (PhD) Divine Goodness and the Doctrine of Sacred Scripture: A Systematic Contribution in Conversation with Aquinas on the Psalms
- Jenny Hsu (PhD) An Exegetical Approach to the Nestorian Controversy: A Comparative Study of Nestorius' and Cyril's Exegeses and Christologies in Light of Their Soteriological Presuppositions
- Timothy Stanton ( PhD ) God and creation in theory and practice: A conversation with Petrus van Mastricht (1630-1706)
- Walter Noteboom ( PhD ) Beyond Justice: A Study in Reconfiguring Providence Along Thomistic Paths
- Deborah Broome (PhD) Sociality in Augustine's City of God
- Stephen Bond ( MTheol ) Origin and Nature of Sin in Calvin's Institutes
- 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