Contributors

Lord David Alton, a senior lay British Catholic, is very active in the political life of the nation and the world. He is a former Liberal Party and later Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament who has sat as a cross-bench member of the House of Lords since 1997. He is known for his human rights work, including the cofounding of Jubilee Action, the children’s charity now known as Chance for Childhood. He is also Professor of Citizenship at Liverpool John Moores University.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1994. He was the ninth president of Brigham Young University. He was president of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities and is known for his work with understanding communities that are being persecuted, especially conflict between Christians and Jews (he was given a Torch of Liberty for that work), and supporting the plight of dispossessed and refugee communities such as the Yazidis.

The Reverend Dr. Andrew Teal has been a full member of Oxford’s Faculty of Theology and Religion since 2008. He has been an admissions coordinator, disability officer, harassment advisor, and teacher of New Testament Greek across the university and a Pro-proctor of the university for two seasons. He is chaplain, fellow, and lecturer in theology at Pembroke College Oxford, teaching historical and systematic theology; the history of Christianity; and the study of religions, with research interests especially in patristic and modern theology, Christology and ecclesiology, Eastern Orthodox theology and interfaith dialogue, theology and the arts, and theology and frontier spirituality. He is especially committed to furthering theological understanding in dialogue with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Lord Rowan Williams is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian, and poet. He was also the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan and Primate of all England, and leader as First Among Equals of the Anglican community worldwide from 2003 until 2012. Previously, he was Bishop of Monmouth, Archbishop of Wales, and Regius Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church at Oxford. He is now Master of Magdalen College in Cambridge.

The Reverend Professor Frances Young taught theology at the University of Birmingham from 1971 to 2002. While there, she was an Edward Cadbury Professor, head of the Department of Theology, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. She is also an ordained Methodist minister, which allows her to serve and preach in a deprived, formerly industrial Methodist circuit of the West Midlands, while continuing to pursue academic service. She writes about Christianity in its formative centuries, as well as the New Testament. Additionally, she has reflected publicly, at personal cost, upon her experience of being the mother of Arthur, her firstborn son, who was born with profound disabilities. She has worked in the theological and ecumenical dimensions with L’Arche communities and the Faith and Light movement together with Canadian Catholic philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian Jean Vanier.