Badham, P.
| English Phonetics | Paul Badham |
|---|---|
| Sort Name | Badham, Paul |
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Biographical Information
Professor Paul Badham has been Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at University of Wales Lampeter since 1991. He was born in 1942 and educated at Jesus College Oxford (traditional Christian Theology); at Jesus College Cambridge (Modern Religious Thought); and at Westcott House (Anglican Ministry). He then went to Birmingham and for five years worked as a Curate while simultaneously writing a PhD under John Hick. Since 1973 he has been at Lampeter where he has gradually moved from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer to Reader and finally to Professor and Dean.
On his arrival at Lampeter he joined five other Anglican clergymen in a very traditional Department of Theology. One of his main concerns has been to transform the Department into a vibrant centre for the study of all world religions, with a particular emphasis on religion in the contemporary world and with an emphasis on the possibility of studying each religion from within. The Department now consists of 18 full-time and 12 part-time staff across the whole area of Religious Life and Thought, with specialists in each of the major faiths and with all disciplines of Religious Studies included.
Exploration of the arguments for and against belief in a life after death has been one of Paul Badham’s main academic concerns. This led to his books Christian Beliefs about Life after Death and Immortality or Extinction? as well as to his edited collections Death and Immortality in the Religions of the World; Perspectives on Death and Dying; Ethics on the Frontiers of Human Existence and Facing Death. He has for many years directed a unique MA programme on Death and Immortality, taught jointly with the Philosophy Department at Lampeter, and he has always had a succession of research students working in this area from all over the world. He has contributed to seven television documentaries on the Near-death experience and is currently preparing for a major international conference on this in Washington.
Paul Badham is also deeply interested in issues of Modern Theology and Inter-faith Dialogue, and has contributed to a series of books in this area arising from Conferences in Claremont as well as his edited John Hick Reader. He has also written a series of bilingual (England and Japanese) publications with Professor Daigan Lee Matsunaga on Near-Death Experiences, Interfaith Dialogue and Christian Beliefs About God and Christ in Relation to True Pure Land Buddhism (published in Japanese as Christianity for Buddhists). He is currently working on a Centenary volume for the Modern Church People’s Union on The Contemporary Challenge of Modernist Theology.
Paul Badham’s other concern is the relationship between Religion and Politics. This has led to his edited work Religion, State and Society in Modern Britain and to an ongoing project with Vladislav Arzenukhin on Religion and Change in Eastern Europe. This concern also helped to establish an MA degree on Religion Politics and International Relations, jointly taught by the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Lampeter and by the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth. (Source Accessed Feb 14, 2023)
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