Michael Northcott
Born
Michael Stafford Northcott

(1955-05-13) 13 May 1955 (age 68)
London, England
NationalityBritish
Spouse
Jill Benz
(m. 1977)
Ecclesiastical career
ReligionChristianity (Anglican)
Church
Ordained
  • 1981 (deacon)
  • 1982 (priest)
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisAn Empirical Study of the Social and Theological Factors in the Development of New Patterns of Ministry in the Church of England in the Diocese of Durham (1982)
Doctoral advisorDavid Jenkins
Academic work
DisciplineTheology
Sub-discipline
Institutions
Website2019 Personal Website archive

Michael Stafford Northcott (born 1955) is Professor Emeritus of Ethics at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.[1] He is best known for his contributions to environmental theology and ethics.

Life

Born in London[2] on 13 May 1955 to James and Betty Northcott, Michael Northcott was raised in Kent, England, and attended schools in Beckenham and Cranbrook. He was married in 1977 to Jill Benz, with whom he has two daughters and a son.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology and a Master of Arts degree in systematic theology from the University of Durham where he attended St Chad's College. He was ordained to the diaconate of the Church of England, after attending Cranmer Hall, Durham, in 1981, and to the priesthood in 1982. He received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) and Sunderland Polytechnic (now Sunderland University) in 1982 for a thesis on new patterns of ministry in the Northeast of England; his advisor was David E. Jenkins.[3] He served as an Anglican curate in St Clements, Chorlton-cum-Hardy,[4] from 1981 to 1984.

He began his academic career as a research assistant in Sunderland Polytechnic from 1977 to 1980. He was appointed lecturer in practical theology at the Seminari Theologi Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in 1984 and as Associate Professor in the South East Asia Graduate School of Theology in 1986. He joined the University of Edinburgh in 1989 as lecturer in Christian ethics and practical theology; he became a full professor there in 2007.[5] He has supervised thirty doctoral students at Edinburgh.

He has been visiting professor at Dartmouth College (1997 and 2011), Claremont School of Theology (2002), the Nicholas School of Earth Sciences, Duke University (2005), Flinders University Adelaide (2008), the University of Malaya (2008)[1][6] and ETF Leuven (2019).[7]


He writes regularly in the Church Times and is a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church where he has served as Associate Priest at Old Saint Paul's, Edinburgh,[8] and St James, Leith.[9]

Current research projects

Northcott's research deals with the relationship between ethics, ecology and religion. He is currently[when?] working on four research projects:[1] place, ecology and the sacred, climate change and Christian ethics, religion and ecology in southeast Asia, and the morality of making: work, technology and Christian ethics. He leads a large[clarification needed] AHRC grant on faith-based ecological activism in the UK entitled Caring for the Future Through Ancestral Time.[10] He is a co-investigator on the Human-Business at Edinburgh Initiative investigating the ethical implications of current modes of representing economic value.[11]

Bibliography

Books written

Books edited

Articles

Book chapters

Other publications

References

  1. ^ a b c "University of Edinburgh, Staff Profile". Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  2. ^ Clarke, Paul Barry; Linzey, Andrew, eds. (1996). Dictionary of Ethics, Theology and Society. London: Routledge. p. xxv. doi:10.4324/9781315002842. ISBN 978-0-415-06212-1.
  3. ^ Northcott, Michael (1989). The Church and Secularisation. Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Peter Lang. p. 20. ISBN 3-631-42035-8.
  4. ^ "StClementChurchChorlton". www.StClement-Chorlton.org.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  5. ^ "UOE Inaugural Lecture News Archive". Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  6. ^ "University of Malaya, Visiting Scholars 2008". Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  7. ^ "ETF Leuven Appoints Environmental Ethicist Michael Northcott". 18 December 2019.
  8. ^ www.justinreynolds.co.uk. "Old Saint Paul's Scottish Episcopal Church ~ Welcome to Old Saint Paul's Scottish Episcopal Church". www.OSP.org.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  9. ^ "St James, Scottish Episcopal Church, Leith". Archived from the original on 6 February 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  10. ^ "Caring for the Future Through Ancestral Time -". AncestralTime.org.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  11. ^ "Human Business Network - where value meets values". www.Human-Business.hss.Ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2017.