Dr James King came to Aberdeen to explore the secular in theological perspective, and after joining CISRUL refined this to a consideration of Christian participation in liberal democratic politics. His thesis traces themes of the state, politics and violence in the work of three contemporary theologians (John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, John Milbank) and concludes with an examination, from the perspectives of legal and democratic theory, of the jury as a site of conscience in liberal polities. His advisers were theologian Professor Philip Ziegler, anthropologist Professor Trevor Stack and legal theorist Tamás Győrfi.
He is interested in theological construals of the secular, as well as the relation of popular and academic Christianity to liberal ideals and institutions such as tolerance, rights discouse and the separation of church and state.
He tutored for CISRUL’s course on human rights, and tutored and gave occasional lectures within Divinity and Religious Studies. He is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
He has published articles in the International Journal of Public Theology on the state in the theologies of John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas, and comparing Jesus’ articulation of the Golden Rule with John Rawls’ veil of ignorance.