The University of Aberdeen has further strengthened its world-leading Divinity department with the appointment of an internationally recognised scholar of modern Christian theology.
Bruce McCormack will join the University in Autumn as Professor of Systematic Theology after 30 years at Princeton Theological Seminary, latterly as Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology.
A Presbyterian, Professor McCormack is interested in the history of modern theology, from Schleiermacher and Hegel through to Karl Barth. He is best known for his groundbreaking studies of the theology of Karl Barth—beginning with his book Karl Barth’s Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development, 1909–1936 (Clarendon Press, 1995).
He is currently undertaking a series of major studies in Christian doctrine, the first of which entitled The Humility of the Eternal Son: ‘Reformed’ Kenoticism and the Repair of Chalcedon was recently published by Cambridge University Press.
Professor McCormack’s contributions to theological scholarship have been fittingly honoured over the years by award of the Karl-Barth-Preis by the Union Evangelischer Kirchen in der EKD (1995), and receipt of an honorary doctorate from the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena (2004).
He is a member of the General Assembly committee commissioned to write a new catechism for the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has been a member of the panel on doctrine for the Church of Scotland. A member of the Karl Barth-Stiftung in Basel, Switerzland, he is North American editor of the Zeitschrift fuer Dialektische Theologie, published in Holland.
The University of Aberdeen’s Divinity department, which has a legacy dating back to the University’s foundation in 1495, was rated top in the UK for research in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF) and scores highly in major league tables.
Reverend Professor John Behr, head of the Department of Divinity, said: “The University of Aberdeen is delighted to welcome Bruce McCormack, an internationally recognized scholar of modern Christian theology of the 19th and 20th centuries.
“Professor McCormack is no stranger to Scotland, having begun his academic career as a Lecturer in Reformed Theology at New College in Edinburgh. We are pleased to be able to welcome him back as he takes up this new post with us here in Aberdeen and we look forward to the contributions he will make to enrich the life and work of the department.”