Brittain, Christopher C.

Chris Brittain-300a.jpg
College: University of Trinity College, Faculty of Divinity
Degrees: PhD (St. Michael's)
Email: chris.brittain@utoronto.ca
Phone: 416-978-7750
Teaching Category:
Regular Tenure Stream
Appointment Status:
Basic Degree
GCTS Full

Bio

Prof. Brittain researches relations within the global Anglican Communion, Interfaith Partnerships, and Theological Responses to Disaster and Terrorism. In addition, he works on Political Theology and on the writings of the early Frankfurt School on religion and theology. He is currently developing a theological study of the concept of power, entitled Power and Powerlessness.

Prof. Brittain is engaged in qualitative field research in theology. As such, he is a member of The Network for Ecclesiology and Ethnography, and an alumnus of the Engaged Scholars Studying Congregations fellowship programme. He is also on the editorial boards of the book series Studies in Critical Research on Religion (Brill) and of the journal Critical Research on Religion (Sage).

He is interested in supervising doctoral research projects in areas that include: Political Theology, Social Ethics, Church Conflict, Congregational Studies, Continental Philosophy of Religion, Religion and Disaster, and Anglican Theology.

  • Specializations

    • Contemporary Theology
    • Social and Political Theology
    • Christian Ethics
    • Anglican Theology
    • Congregational Studies/Qualitative Research
    • Theology and Disaster Studies

  • Publications

    Books:

    • The End of the Anglican Communion? The Crises of a Global Church. University Park: Penn State University Press, forthcoming 2018.
    • Plague on Both Their Houses: Liberals vs Conservatives and the Divorce of the Episcopal Church USA. London: T&T Clark, 2015.
    • Religion at Ground Zero: Theological Responses to Times of Crisis. London: Continuum, 2011.
    • Adorno and Theology. London: T&T Clark, 2010.

    Journal Articles:

    • “Reshaping Offline Community in the Image of Online Experience: The Impact of Digital Media on Church Conflict in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh," Ecclesial Practices 7.1 (2020), 48-66.
    • “Anglican disputes over sexuality in the intersection of global power relations: accounts from African church leaders,” In: Sarah Page & Andrew Yip (eds) Intersecting Religion and Sexuality: Sociological Perspectives (Brill 2020).
    • ‘Racketeering in Religion: Adorno and Evangelical Support for Donald Trump’, Critical Research on Religion 6.3 (2018), 269–288.
    • 'Partnership not Dialogue: Lent and Ramadan under the Same Roof,' Ecclesial Practices 3.2 (2016), 190-209.
    • 'A Religious Repair for Communicative Reason? Habermas’s Return to Religion & its Theological Reception,' Toronto Journal of Theology 30.2 (2014), 171-190.
    • 'On the Demonization and Fetishization of Choice in Christian Sexual Ethics,' Studies in Christian Ethics 27.2 (2014), 144-166.
    • 'Why Ecclesiology cannot live by Doctrine Alone: a reply to John Webster's "In the Society of God".', Ecclesial Practices, 1.1 (2014), 5-30.