Luke Bretherton

Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Research Professor of Moral & Political Theology

Office

301 Gray

Duke Divinity School
Duke University
407 Chapel Drive
Duke Box #90968
Durham, NC 27708-0968

Luke Bretherton is Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Research Professor of Moral and Political Theology and senior fellow of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. Before joining the Duke faculty in 2012, he was reader in Theology & Politics and convener of the Faith & Public Policy Forum at King's College London. His latest book is Christ and the Common Life: Political Theology and the Case for Democracy (Eerdmans, 2019). His other books include Resurrecting Democracy: Faith, Citizenship and the Politics of a Common Life (Cambridge University Press, 2015), which was based on a four-year ethnographic study of broad-based community organizing initiatives in London and elsewhere; Christianity & Contemporary Politics: The Conditions and Possibilities of Faithful Witness (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), winner of the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing; and Hospitality as Holiness: Christian Witness Amid Moral Diversity (Routledge, 2006), which develops constructive, theological responses to pluralism in dialogue with broader debates in moral philosophy. Specific issues addressed in his work include euthanasia and hospice care, debt and usury, fair trade, environmental justice, racism, humanitarianism, the treatment of refugees, interfaith relations, secularism, nationalism, church-state relations and the church’s involvement in social welfare provision and social movements. Alongside his scholarly work, he writes in the media (including The GuardianThe Times and The Washington Post) on topics related to religion and politics, has worked with a variety of faith-based NGOs, mission agencies, and churches around the world, and has been actively involved over many years in forms of grassroots democratic politics, both in the UK and the US. His primary areas of research, supervision, and teaching are Christian ethics, political theology, the intellectual and social history of Christian moral and political thought, the relationship between Christianity and capitalism, missiology, interfaith relations, and practices of social, political, and economic witness. He has received a number of grants and awards, including a Henry Luce III Fellowship (2017-18).

Selected Podcasts & Videos

The Whole Life Podcast
Luke Bretherton on how the Christian faith offers a better way for our politics—prioritising service, humility, and the good of others over the pursuit of power for its own sake.
The Disrupters: Faith Changing Culture
Kaitlyn Schiess and Luke Bretherton present an inspiring vision of how faith and citizenship can become unifying forces rather than divisive ones, grounded in the virtues of understanding and respecting others.
Yale Center for Faith & Culture
Luke Bretherton is interviewed by the Yale Center for Faith & Culture on the future direction of theology.
Listen, Organize, Act!
The Listen, Organize, Act! Podcast, hosted and facilitated by Luke Bretherton, focuses on the history and contemporary practice of community organizing and democratic politics.