Prior to that he was Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology at Duke University in North Carolina (2012–present).
Rather than either a set of abstract dogmas, empirical facts, mathematical formulations, or philosophical axioms, truth on his account is a relational and participatory reality.
For Bretherton, coming to know the truth about God and neighbour necessarily entails listening to others, cultivating the quality and character of relations with others that enable both oneself and the other to be heard, and forming a common life with others through democratic politics.
[3] Between leaving school and going to university he served in the army, doing a short service limited commission in the 7th Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (1987–88).
After leaving university he worked as a researcher in Parliament for Peter Archer, a Labour Party MP and former Solicitor General.
He then worked for a Christian charity from 1992 to 1997 focused on helping churches involved in rebuilding civil society in former Communist countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
[4] During this time, he was part of a Christian collective of DJs, artists, and activists called Abundant which ran nightclubs, art events, and "alternative worship" services in London.
Through shared involvement in St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace and community organizing Bretherton formed a close working relationship with the Jewish political theorist Maurice Glasman.
From 2009 onwards, Bretherton worked with Glasman in the early stages of this movement to help initiate it as a force within the Labour Party.
A central focus of Bretherton’s work is the nature of democratic politics and how democracy enshrines core Christian commitments.
That is to say, I can form, norm, and sustain some kind of common life––amid asymmetries of power, competing visions of the good, and my own feelings of fear or aversion––without killing, dominating, or causing them to flee.
As well as addressing a broad range of ethical questions, the book situates moral formation and the pursuit of human and nonhuman flourishing alongside a concern for spirituality, pastoral care, and political struggles to survive and thrive in the contemporary context.
Through addressing questions about poverty and injustice, the formation of a common life with strangers, and the handling of power, it develops an innovative political theology of democracy.
2020–23 Selection Committee, Holberg Prize 2017–18 Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology 2014 Margaret L. Sorensen Lecture, Yale Divinity School 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing 2013 Thomas Langford Lectureship Award, Duke University This biography of a British theologian is a stub.