Dr Dave Leal

Positions

Lecturer in Philosophy, Brasenose College;
Member of Faculty of Theology, Faculty of Philosophy;
Schools Liaison Officer for Philosophy

Qualifications

BA (Philosophy and Theology), Leeds
PhD (Philosophy), Leeds
PGCE (Mathematics), Leeds

Academic Background and Previous Positions

Since coming to Oxford in 1990, to teach moral theology at an Anglican theological college, I have taught philosophy and theology at a number of Oxford colleges. I moved to Brasenose in 2000 from Regent's Park College, where I had directed studies in philosophy and moral theology.

I have written less since coming to Brasenose than I would have liked to, due to a series of family deaths, but produced a textbook in moral philosophy for Lampeter in 2001, and in 2006 wrote an article on the moral theology of aspects of the Eucharist, currently being translated in German for publication in an edited collection. I am an editor of the book series 'Liturgy, Worship and Society', published by Ashgate, and am currently treasurer of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics.  

In 2009 I delivered a lecture on the interface between school and undergraduate study in philosophy at a conference organized by the philosophy section of the Higher Education Academy, and gave the Tyndale Lecture on the Philosophy of Religion at Cambridge, called 'Some Secular Conceptions of Heaven'.  I am currently working on a Dictionary of Ethics.

Undergraduate Teaching

First public examination: Logic, General Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Final examination: History of Philosophy, Knowledge and Reality, Ethics,
Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Religion, Christian Moral Reasoning

Graduate Teaching

Though the majority of my teaching is to undergraduates, I occasionally supervise particular papers for candidates reading for the Philosophy BPhil, especially in the Philosophy of Religion but also in Moral Philosophy.

Research Interests

Moral philosophy, moral theology, philosophical theology, questions in metaphysics, epistemology and language relating to theological issues and concepts.

Publications include

On Marriage as Vocation (Cambridge: Grove Books, 1996)
Debating Homosexuality (Cambridge: Grove Books, 1996)
'Tolerance' (Paper in: Studies in Christian Ethics, Volume 9 Number 2, September 1996)
'Questions of Clarification' (Contribution to: Tim Bradshaw, ed, The Way Forward (London: Hodder, 1997, republished London: SCM Press, 2003))
'The Bearer of Virtue' (Paper in: Studies in Christian Ethics, Volume 12 Number 1, March 1999)
'Against Conscience: A Protestant View' (Contribution to: Jayne Hoose, ed, Conscience in World Religions (Leominster: Gracewing, 1999))
Cybernauts Awake!: Report of a Working Party of the Board of Social Responsibility of the Church of England, on the ethical and spiritual implications of new communications technologies (London: Church House Publishing, 1999) [Member of working party which produced the report]
'Respect for Life in Germain Grisez's Moral Theology' in The Revival of Natural Law: Philosophical Theological and Ethical Responses to the Grisez School, edited by Nigel Biggar and Rufus Black (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000)
Transsexuality: a report by the Evangelical Alliance Policy Commission (member of working party that produced the report) (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2000)
Articles (on 'promising' and related themes; 'sexuality' and related themes) in The New Dictionary of Pastoral Studies, edited by Wesley Carr, Robin Gill, et al. (London: SPCK, 2002)
Forthcoming (probably 2007): 'Kyrie and Gloria' in a German volume on the moral theology of the Eucharist.

Email address

dave.leal@bnc.ox.ac.uk