Lewis Ayres

Dr. Lewis Ayres, a lay Catholic theologian, husband, and father of three, is currently Associate Professor of Historical Theology at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. [http://www.candler.emory.edu/ABOUT/faculty/ayres.cfm] The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) and The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. named Lewis Ayres one of seven Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology for 2007-2008. [http://candler.emory.edu/NEWS/020907.cfm] In May, 2009, he begins an appointment as the Bede Chair of Catholic Theology at Durham University in the United Kingdom. As holder of the Bede Chair, he will be the figurehead for the newly established Durham Centre for Catholic Studies and will also be involved in a wide range of outreach activities for the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. [http://www.centreforcatholicstudies.co.uk/?cat=7]

Biography

Lewis Ayres was born and educated in the UK, completing his M.A. at the University St. Andrews (1988) and his D.Phil. at Merton College, Oxford University (1994) under the direction of Rowan Williams, now Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. He has taught for most of his career in Ireland and most recently in the United States at Duke University and Emory University. [http://www.centreforcatholicstudies.co.uk/?cat=7]

Research

The core of his research has been Trinitarian theology in Augustine and in the Greek writers of the fourth century. On this theme he has published a number of articles and "Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth Century Trinitarian Theology" (Oxford, 2004/6). Forthcoming from Cambridge is "Augustine and the Trinity" (2009). His next monograph in this area will be a study of Greek and Latin pneumatology between 350 and 400. He has also edited or co-edited a number of books in this area, including (with Andrew Louth and Frances Young) the "Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature" (2004). Besides Trinitarian theology in this pivotal period he is also interested in the later development of Trinitarian theology and in the place of Scripture in Early Christianity – both the history of Christian reading practices from the late second century and the history of what can be termed the theology of Scripture itself. He also has a number of interests in modern Catholic fundamental and dogmatic theology – as will be evident from the last chapter of "Nicaea" and some of the articles he has published. He is interested in the modern reception of Patristic Trinitarian theology and in the modern use of post-idealist themes in the supposed "revivals" of Trinitarian theology that we have seen over the last two centuries. He also has a strong interest in the place of Scripture (and Tradition) in modern Catholic theology and the fundamental structure of Catholic theology. He is convinced that the ideological and professional divisions that have arisen between Scripture scholars, "systematic" and "historical" theologians have served Catholic theology ill. He believes that "ressourcement" theologians have offered us many resources that can move us beyond these divisions, but much further work is necessary for their agenda to be taken forward. In the hopes of contributing to this debate he is currently working slowly on a book for Blackwells entitled "The Practice of Christian Doctrine: A Catholic Essay". With his wife (Medi Ann Volpe) he is also co-editing the "Oxford Handbook of Catholic Theology" (hopefully forthcoming in 2011). He is involved in co-editing a number of book series, including the Blackwells series "Challenges in Contemporary Theology". He also serves on the editorial boards of the "Journal of Early Christian Studies" and "Modern Theology". [http://www.centreforcatholicstudies.co.uk/?cat=7]

Collaboration with Michel Barnes

Together with Michel Barnes, Associate Professor of Theology at Marquette University, and Rowan Williams, Ayres is part of a rereading of Augustine's trinitarian theology that breaks with the older neoplatonic-centered account. This new reading is referred to as "New Canon" Augustine scholarship. [http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/10161/190/1/D_Johnson_Keith_a_052007.pdf] The basis of the New Canon reading of Augustine was worked out in the years 1995-2000, during which Ayres and Barnes conducted an almost daily common reading and discussion, via e-mail, of Augustine's trinitarian writings.

Personal

1. Among his students, Lewis Ayres is known for his sharp wit and prodigious consumption of coffee.
2. Because of the close co-operation between Ayres and Michel Barnes, the well-known French-American Patrologist, junior Patrologists now refer to them simply as "Shake and Bake." [North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting, May 2008, Chicago]
3. Lewis Ayres is currently planning a book of recipes, focusing mainly on Southern-fried cuisine and fried fish/boiled meat dishes from his native England. [http://projects.eveningedge.com/recipes/list/?filtercuisine=12&filtercategory=5]
4. It is rumored that as a doctoral student at Oxford Ayres was a member of a clandestine group that restored statues of Mary to the Anglican church niches they had been removed from during the Cromwell years. ["The Emory Wheel,"January 6, 2005]
5. At the International Conference on Patristic Studies in August 2007, Ayres led his students on a pub crawl that included walking through well-fertilized cow fields in utter darkness. The highlight was an encounter with a 'humped zebra'.
6. Ayres claims to have seen every episode of the TV drama 'Law and Order' with Lenny Briscoe.
7. Due to the combination of his extremely discriminating taste and unmistakably British disposition, some have nicknamed Ayres the "Simon Cowell of Historical Theology" (but never to his face).
8. If it weren't for the good sense of his wife, Medi, Lewis would have a large reproduction of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe on the rear window if his car.
9. Dr. Ayres' other vocational passions are Pastoral Care and Spiritual Direction.
10. Despite his own affinity for purple, Lewis Ayres' musical idol is the Man in Black, Johnny Cash.
11. Every night before bed, Lewis Ayres reads a poem by Emily Dickinson... and cries... because he hates her.