Biography:
John O’Connor is Regent of Blackfriars Hall and a Dominican friar. He has a doctorate in moral philosophy from the University of Edinburgh; and an MA in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Oxford. In addition, he has a DPhil in applied physics from the University of Oxford. His research centres mainly on the dialogue between contemporary philosophy and moral theology; but he also has active interests in aesthetics, metaphysics, philosophical theology, and science and religion. He has been a Teaching Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and a Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow. He is currently an Honorary Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow and is involved there with co-supervision of doctoral theses
Faculty Research Area(s):
Christian and Religious Ethics, Philosophical Theology
Research Interests:
Moral Philosophy and Theology; Virtue Ethics; Natural Law; Ethics of St Thomas Aquinas; Value Theory and Theology; Debates on theory/anti-theory in ethics; Metaphysics and Theology; Philosophical and Theological Aesthetics; Science and Religion.
Editorships:
I am Assistant Editor of New Blackfriars.
Links:
https://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/people/rev-dr-john-oconnor/
Publications & Research Outputs:
‘Natural Law and Ethical Non-Naturalism’, Studies in Christian Ethics, 34(2), May 2021, pp.190-208;
‘Theological Aesthetics and Beauty as Revelatory: An Interdisciplinary Assessment’ in Heather Walton (ed.), Literature and Theology: New Interdisciplinary Spaces, Routledge 2011, pp. 111-126;
‘Theological Aesthetics and Revelatory Tension’, New Blackfriars 89(1022), July 2008, pp.399-417;
‘Are virtue ethics and kantian ethics really so very different?’, New Blackfriars 87(1009), May 2006, pp.238-252;
‘Expansive Naturalism and the Justification of Metaphysics in Sacramental Theology’, New Blackfriars 84(989/990), July/August 2003, pp.361-370.
