Jeremy Worthen, Research Fellow

Jeremy Worthen

Research Fellow

Jeremy is currently the Team Rector of Ashford Town Parish in the Diocese of Canterbury. He previously served as the Church of England’s Secretary for Ecumenical Relations and Theology, where his responsibilities included participation in national ecumenical dialogues and support for the work of the Faith and Order Commission. Before that, he was a member of staff and then Principal at the South East Institute for Theological Education, where he taught courses on a range of subjects including spirituality and formation.

Having studied for undergraduate and Master’s degrees at the University of Cambridge, he gained his doctorate at the University of Toronto’s Center for Medieval Studies, with a focus on Latin meditational literature from the twelfth century. His current research interests include ecumenism, ecclesiology, and the Psalms in Christian spirituality.

Publications

Books

  • Responding to God’s Call: Christian Formation Today (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2012). [Reviewed in: Church Times, New Directions, Review and Expositor, Pastoral Review 2012]
  • The Internal Foe: Judaism and Anti-Judaism in the Shaping of Christian Theology (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009). [Reviewed in: Theology, Epworth Review 2011: 65–66, Ecclesiology 9 (2013): 388–90.]

Edited volumes

  • After Brexit? European Unity and the Unity of European Churches, edited by Matthias Grebe and Jeremy Worthen (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2019).

Journal Articles

  • “The Ecclesiology of Visible Unity at Lambeth 1920: Lost beyond Recovery?” Ecclesiology 16 (2020): 224-242.
  • “The Centenary of the ‘Appeal to All Christian People’ and the Ecumenical Vocation of Anglicanism,” Theology 123.2 (2020): 104–122.
  • “Reforming: A Theological Idea in a Secular Age?”, One in Christ 51.2 (2017): 298–313.
  • “The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation: An Ecumenical Event?”, Theology 120.2 (March / April 2017): 100–07.
  • “Is there a Special Relationship between Christianity and Judaism?”, Current Dialogue 58 (November 2016): 41–43.
  • “What’s New about Renewal in Evangelii Gaudium?”, Ecclesiology 12 (2016): 73-90.
  • “Difficult Texts: Matthew 27.25”, Theology 118.5 (2015): 354-46.
  • “Praying the Psalms and the Challenges of Christian–Jewish Relations: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Thomas Merton,” Studies in Christian–Jewish Relations 9:1 (2014): 1-23.
  • “Beginning without End: Christianity in Franz Rosenzweig’s Star of Redemption,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 39:3-4 (2002): 340-362.
  • “Theology and the History of Metanarrative: Clarifying the Postmodern Question,” Modern Believing 42:4 (2001): 15-23.
  • “The Theology of Time Regained: Eucharist, Eschatology and Resurrection,” New Blackfriars 80 (1999): 512-524.
  • “Remembrance and Redemption: Including Walter Benjamin,” Theology CII no. 808 (1999): 262-269.
  • “Joseph Butler on the Enemies of Virtue,” Studies in Christian Ethics 12.1 (1999): 48-56.
  • “Adam of Dryburgh and the Augustinian Tradition,” Revue des Études Augustiniennes 43 (1997): 339-347.
  • “Joseph Butler’s Case for Virtue: Conscience as a Power of Sight in a Darkened World,” Journal of Religious Ethics 23 (1995): 239-261.
  • “Dicta mea dicta sunt patrum: John of Fécamp’s Confessiones,” Recherches de Théologie Ancienne et Médiévale LIX (1992): 111-124.
  • “On the Matter of the Text,” University of Toronto Quarterly 60 (1991): 337-353.
  • “Christianity and the Limits of Tragedy,” New Blackfriars 70 (1989): 109-117.

Chapters in edited volumes

  • “Anglican Moral Discernment: Sources, Structures, and Dynamics of Authority,” in Churches and Moral Discernment, vol. 1, Learning from Traditions, ed. Myriam Wijlens and Vladimir Shmaliy, Faith and Order Paper No. 228 (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2020).
  • “The Centenary of the 1920 Lambeth Conference’s Appeal to All Christian People: The Unity of the Church and the Strife of Nations,” in On Nations and the Churches: Ecumenical Responses to Nationalisms and Migration, ed. Jelle Creemers and Ulrike Link-Wieczorek, Proceedings of the 20th Academic Consultation of the Societas Oecumenica (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlangsanstalt, 2020), pp. 237–47.
  • Joint chapter with William Adam and Matthias Grebe, “The Church of England and European Ecumenism: Making our Unity Visible,” in After Brexit? European Unity and the Unity of European Churches, edited by Matthias Grebe and Jeremy Worthen (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2019), pp. 129–48.
  • “Ecumenical Dialogue and the Question of Authority,” in Incarnating Authority: A Critical Account of Authority in the Church, ed. Paul Avis, Angela Berlis, Nikolaus Knoepffler, Martin O’Malley, Ta Ethika vol. 18 (München: Utzverlag, 2019), pp. 191–208.
  • “Evangelii Gaudium: Good News for Ecumenism”, in Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, and the Renewal of the Church, ed. Duncan Dormor and Alana Harris (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2017), pp. 218–38.
  • “Reasons for the Conversations: Reflections from an Anglican Late Arrival”, in Sharing the Faith at the Boundaries of Unity: Further Conversations between Anglicans and Baptists, ed. Paul S. Fiddes, Centre for Baptist History and Heritage Studies 12 (Oxford: Regent’s Park College, 2015), pp. 137–48.
  • “Praying the Psalms in the Name of Christ: Christian-Jewish Relations since Vatican II and a Pre-modern Spiritual Tradition,” in Interpreting the ‘Spirit of Assisi’: Challenges to Interfaith Dialogue in a Pluralistic World, ed. Maria Diemling and Thomas J. Herbst (Canterbury Franciscan International Study Centre, 2013), pp. 235-51.
  • “Priestly Formation through Part-time Study in the Church of England and its Relationship to Roman Catholic Developments,” in Late Have I Loved You. Part-time Priestly Formation for Adults: Psycho-spiritual Aspects, ed. Matt Ham (Lulu Press, 2011), pp. 40–51.
  • “Augustinian Anxiety and the Creation of Narrative in William of St Thierry,” in Sources of Transformation: Revitalising Traditions of Christian Spirituality, ed. Edward Howells and Peter Tyler (London: Continuum, 2010), pp. 105–14.
  • “A Model of Ministerial Formation: Conceptual Framework and Practical Implications,” in The Making of Ministry, ed. Angela Shier-Jones (Peterborough: Epworth, 2008), pp. 38–54.
  • “Babes in Arms: Speechlessness and Selfhood,” in Children of God: Towards a Theology of Childhood, ed. Angela Shier-Jones (Peterborough: Epworth,  2007), pp. 41–61.
  • “Interpreting Scripture for the Love of God: Hugh of St Victor on Reading and the Self,” in Biblical Interpretation: The Meanings of Scripture Past and Present, ed. John M. Court (London: T&T Clark, 2004), pp. 54–70.
  • “Augustine’s De Trinitate and Anselm’s Proslogion: ‘Exercere Lectorem’” in Augustine: Presbyter Factus Sum, ed. Joseph T. Lienhard, Earl C. Muller, Roland J. Teske, Collectanea Augustiniana (New York: Peter Lang, 1993), pp. 517–29.

Church publications