R. David Muir

David is Head of Whitelands College and Senior Lecturer in Public Theology & Community Engagement. He is a political scientist and theologian. David began his career as a secondary school teacher in south London where he taught Religious Education and History. He was a former head of research and regional development at the Commonwealth Institute and Home Office adviser on policing, diversity and community relations. In 2000, he was appointed by the Home Secretary to the new Metropolitan Police  Authority (MPA) where he was Deputy Chairman and chair of the MPA's first public inquiry (The Virdi Inquiry). David was  director of the Humanities Programme at London Metropolitan University (LMU) and special adviser to the Vice Chancellor's Office. At LMU, he taught Ideology & Conflict, Caribbean Political Economy and post-war Black British History. He has taught history, theology and politics at a number of UK universities and colleges, including Goldsmiths College, Simon of Cyrene Theological Institute, Canterbury Christ Church University and the Centre for Black and White Christian Partnership. David was executive director for Public Theology and Public Policy of UK's Evangelical Alliance. David currently convenes the Pentecostal Network; he is also Co-Chair of the National Church Leaders' Forum (NCLF) and co-author of the first Black Church political manifesto (2015). David is an executive member of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race (TRRR) and a member of the Middle East Contact Group of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. David is a frequent commentator in the media and the Christian press.

In 2003, David was awarded the National Social Justice Award for outstanding contribution to social action.  

BA (Hons), Dip.Th, PGCE, MA, PhD, FHEA

Research interests include:

• Public theology and community engagement
• Black Theology and African and Caribbean Churches
• Liberation Theology
• The intersection of theology and politics
• The role of faith in public discourse and public policy
• Pentecostal history and theology
• Black religion and Black radicalism
• Critical theory and discourse ethics
• Black Church movement in Britain
• The life and theology of James Cone
• Christian apologetics
• The social and political philosophy of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Cross-cultural ministry and mission
• Prosperity Gospel and entrepreneurship in diaspora churches

PhD proposals are welcomed in any of these and related areas.

Member of the Government's Faith Leaders Roundtable (Covid) Group

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Executive Committe, Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race (TRRR)

Co-Chair of the National Church Leaders' Forum (NCLF)

Member of GloPent (Research Network on Global Pentecostalism)

Member of the European Pentecostal Theological Association (EPTA)

Academic Guardian of the Roswith Gerloff Collection and Archive (housed at the HQ of the New Testament Church of God, Northampton, UK

Member of the Council of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics (KLICE)

Member of the Middle East Contact Group of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

Co-Secretary of the Anglican-Pentecostal Theological Study Group

Trustee of the British and Irish Association of Practical Theology (BIAPT)

External Examiner for Durham University (Common Awards in Theology, Mission and Ministry)

Public Theology and Community Engagement

Ministerial Theology

Christian Apologetics

Supervision of MA, DTh and PhD students

• African and Caribbean Churches Socio-Political Engagement (principal investigator and co-author of the Black Church Political Mobilisation)
• Pentecostal Credit Union (project looking at entrepreneurship in Pentecostal churches)
• Caribbean Churches and the Windrush Generation 
• Episcopacy in Pentecostalism
• Race, Ethnicity and the Church of England
• Environmental Justice and Black Majority Churches (with Christian Aid)

http://policeauthority.org/metropolitan/scrutinies/gvirdi/index.html#h1000

https://bit.ly/2UdWBxC  How the Church and the Caribbean Community

 Pentecostalism & socio-political engagement: a prolegomenon for the common good

 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/apr/16/marriage-conservatives-tax

https://www.keepthefaith.co.uk/2018/06/15/he-has-brought-us-a-mighty-long-way-caribbean-pentecostal-churches-in-britain-by-dr-r-david-muir/

 http://nclf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Black-Church-Political-Mobilisation-FINAL-WEB-Apr15.pdf