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Dr Simeon Zahl

Email: smz21@cam.ac.uk

Website:

Professor Simeon Zahl

Fellow, Director of Studies in Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion
University Positions
Professor of Christian Theology
Specialising in
Christian Theology

Simeon Zahl is Professor of Christian Theology in the Faculty of Divinity. Professor Zahl鈥檚 recent research has focused on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (culminating in the publication of The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience [OUP] in 2020), the contributions to theology of affect theory and cognitive science, the place of experience and emotion in Christian religious life, and the theological legacy of the Protestant Reformation. He is working on a new book on the theology of sin and its contemporary relevance. 

Academic interests

Simeon Zahl鈥檚 academic interests include: 

  • Theologies of the Holy Spirit
  • Religious experience, emotion, and embodiment
  • Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon
  • Theology and mental health
  • Sin and fallenness
  • Theologies of salvation.

Degrees obtained

  • BA, Harvard.
  • PhD, Cantab.

Biography

I received my first degree in History and Literature from Harvard and my doctorate in Theology and Religious Studies from Cambridge. Before taking up my present appointment in 2018, I was a Junior Research Fellow at St John鈥檚 College, Oxford, and then Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Nottingham. 

From 2018-2022 I was Principal Investigator on the project Affect and Knowledge-Production in Theology and Religious Studies, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. 

Other interests

Architecture, running.

Department link

Publications, links and resources

Books

  • Zahl, S. (2020) , Oxford University Press.
  • Zahl, S. (2010) Pneumatology and Theology of the Cross in the Preaching of Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, T&T Clark/Continuum.

Articles and book chapters

  • Zahl, S. (2021) 鈥楤eyond the Critique of Soteriological Individualism: Relationality and Social Cognition鈥, Modern Theology 37(2), 336-361.
  • Zahl, S. (2020) 鈥楽in and Bodily Illness in the Psalms鈥, Horizons in Biblical Theology 42(2), 186-207.
  • Zahl, S. (2020) 鈥業ncongruous Grace as Pattern of Experience鈥, International Journal of Systematic Theology 22(1), 60-76.
  • Zahl, S. (2019) 鈥楴on-Competitive Agency and Luther鈥檚 Experiential Argument Against Virtue鈥, Modern Theology 35(2), 199-222.
  • Zahl, S. (2019) 鈥楨ngineering Desire: Biotechnological Enhancement as Theological Problem鈥, Studies in Christian Ethics 32(2), 216-228.
  • Zahl, S. (2018) 鈥楾radition and its 鈥淯se鈥: The Ethics of Theological Retrieval鈥, Scottish Journal of Theology 71(3), 308-323.
  • Zahl, S. (2018) 鈥楻evisiting the 鈥淣ature of Protestantism鈥: Justification by Faith Five Hundred Years On鈥, New Blackfriars 99(1080), 129-146.
  • Zahl, S. (2017) 鈥楨xperience鈥, in The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth Century Christian Thought, Oxford University Press, 177-195.
  • Zahl, S. (2016) 鈥楾he Bondage of the Affections: Willing, Feeling, and Desiring in Luther鈥檚 Theology, 1513-25鈥 in The Spirit, Affectivity, and the Christian Tradition. University of Notre Dame Press.
  • Zahl, S. (2015) 鈥極n the Affective Salience of Doctrines鈥, Modern Theology 31(3), 428-444.
  • Zahl, S. (2014) 鈥楾he Drama of Agency: Affective Augustinianism and Galatians鈥 in Galatians and Christian Theology, Baker Academic, 335-352.
  • Zahl, S. (2013) 鈥楢tonement鈥 in The Oxford Handbook of Theology and Modern European Thought, Oxford University Press, 611-632.
  • Zahl, S. (2010) 'Rethinking 鈥淓nthusiasm鈥: Christoph Blumhardt on the Discernment of the Spirit鈥, International Journal of Systematic Theology 12(3), 341-363.

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