Ashley Cocksworth

I work in the area of Christian theology. More specifically, I am interested in the relation between religious belief and religious practice. I am particularly interested how these questions get framed and theorised in modern theology and increasingly in Anglican systematic theology. 

In terms of actual religious practices, I am primarily interested in ‘everyday’ (or nearly everyday) religious practices and some of the ordinary things religious people do. I have written on Evening Prayer in Anglican liturgy, the Sabbath as a form of contemplation, the Sabbath as a form of ecological practice, baptism, the saying of the creeds in worship, the idea of giving glory to God, the practice of 'reading', the smile, and more generally and variously theological matters relating to the practice of prayer - including when prayer goes wrong. I have found prayer to be a useful ‘way in’ to investigate the relation between belief-formation and practice. My next major research project develops a theology of joy in dialogue with strands of social and developmental psychology.

Publications

• Karl Barth on Prayer (Studies in Systematic Theology Series; T&T Clark / Bloomsbury, 2015)
• Prayer: A Guide for the Perplexed (Bloomsbury, 2018)
• The Grammar of Grace: Readings from the Christian Tradition (Cascade Books, 2019).
• The T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Prayer, co-edited with John C. McDowell (Bloomsbury, 2021).
• Karl Barth: Spiritual Writings, co-edited with W. Travis McMaken (Classics of Western Spirituality Series; Paulist Press, 2022).
• From the Shores of Silence: Conversations in Feminist Practical Theology, co-edited with Rachel Starr and Stephen Burns (London: SCM Press, 2023).
• Glorification and the Life of Faith, co-authored with David F. Ford (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2023).
• Ford's The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology Since 1918, co-edited with Rachel Muers (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2024).

I am Programme Convener of the Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology (DTh). If you are interested in the DTh programme, please contact me and I will be pleased to provide further information.

I am supervising the following doctoral projects: Luke Larner (on pneumatologies of mission and community organising); Andrew Axon (on burnout and joy); Lisa Bewick (on safeguarding in the Church of England’; Leslie Crossland: (on faith formation in public worship); Jonathan Mead (on tradition formation and transmission); David Childs (on perinatal loss and trauma theology); Pippa Ross-McCabe (on theological reflection in TEIs); Monica McArdle (on somantic awareness in lectio divina); Mark Ord (on Baptist missiology and embodiment).

I have convened a variety of modules accross all levels (FdA, BTh, BA, MA, DTh). In 2023/24, I am convening the following:

• Christian Doctrine in Practice [L6]
• Final Year Project [L6]
• Publishable Article [L8]

• British and Irish Association for Practical Theology
• Society for the Study of Theology
• American Academy of Religion
• Karl Barth Society of North America.