Duke Divinity School Names William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Catholic Theology
November 19, 2007
Paul Griffiths, an internationally known scholar in the field of Catholic studies, has been appointed as Duke Divinity School’s first William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Catholic Theology.
Griffiths, Schmitt Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago for the last seven years, will begin his work at Duke in January.
"Paul is an outstanding scholar and teacher,” said Dean L. Gregory Jones. “We are delighted to have this opportunity to strengthen our ties with the Catholic community at Duke and in the Triangle area. We look forward to welcoming Paul to our faculty and to his leadership in the Divinity School, at Duke, and among Roman Catholics in the diocese.”
Griffiths has published eight books as sole author, and seven more as co-author or editor. The most recent are “The Vice of Curiosity: An Essay on Intellectual Appetite” (CMU Press, 2006), “Reason and the Reasons of Faith” co-edited with Duke Divinity School’s Reinhard Hütter (T. & T. Clark, 2005), and “Lying: An Augustinian Theology of Duplicity” (Brazos Press, 2004).
His main intellectual interests and topics of publication include Catholic theology and philosophy; the philosophical and political questions arising from religious diversity; fourth- and fifth-century African Christian thought; and Gupta-period Indian Buddhist thought.
The professorship was established with gifts from the William K. Warren Foundation and the Warren family of Tulsa, Okla., including John-Kelly Warren, a 1987 graduate of the School of Engineering at Duke University. The endowment agreement calls for the recipient to be “a scholar of true eminence and excellence.” It also states that the Warren professor will teach at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and will also be involved with continuing education seminars with non-degree clergy and lay people for the Catholic Church as appropriate.
“I congratulate Dr. Paul Griffiths on his selection as the Warren Professor of Catholic Theology at Duke University,” said Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh. “I look forward to working closely with him and will seek his collaboration in the important and essential work of bringing increased understanding and recognition of our Catholic faith to the campus at Duke University, to the Diocese of Raleigh and our entire region.”
Before taking the Schmitt Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago in 2000, Griffiths was a professor in The Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages & Civilizations, & the College, University of Chicago.
Griffiths was born in England in 1955 and lived there until 1980. Since then he has lived mostly in the United States, and he became a U.S. citizen in 1994. He is married to Judith Heyhoe, with whom he has two children. Griffiths and his family were received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1996, having previously been Anglican.