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Overview

Professor Douglas Davies

Professor in the Study of Religion

FAcSS, FLSW, FBA


Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Professor in the Study of Religion in the Department of Theology and Religion+44 (0) 191 33 43943
Director in the Centre for Death and Life Studies
Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing

Biography

Douglas J. Davies is an anthropologist and theologian specialising in the history, theology, and social-scientific study of death. Educated in Social Anthropology (1966-69) and Theology (1971-74) at Durham University, with the intervening years spent at the Oxford Institute of Social Anthropology under the distinguished sociologist Bryan Wilson of All Souls (1969-71), Davies then moved to Nottingham University in 1974 as inaugural Lecturer in the Philosophy and Phenomenology of Religion where he also completed his first doctorate (1979). Returning to Durham in 1997 as Professor in the Study of Religion, Davies continues to teach undergraduate and postgraduate modules on a variety of topics including Worldview-Religious Studies (Level 1); Death, Ritual, and Belief (Level 2); Emotion, Identity, and Religion (Level 3); and Ritual, Symbolism, and Belief in the Anthropology of Religion (Level 4). He also serves as Director of the Centre for Death and Life Studies.   

Davies' broader academic interests embrace the anthropology, sociology, and phenomenology of religion, Mormonism, Sikhism, Anglicanism, and the ongoing interface between Anthropology and Theology (2002). His noteworthy titles among many include Meaning and Salvation in Religious Studies (1984); The Mormon Culture of Salvation (2000); The Encyclopedia of Cremation (2005); The Theology of Death (2008); Emotion, Identity, and Religion (2011); and Mors Britannica: Lifestyle and Death-Style in Britain Today (2015). Death, Ritual, and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites, now in its third edition (1997, 2002, 2017), has been translated into five languages. Elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2009, the Learned Society of Wales in 2012, and the British Academy in 2017, Davies' contribution to scholarship has also been recognised internationally in numerous collaborations and appointments and by an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University (1998). This was shortly followed, in 2004, by a higher doctorate for research (D.Litt.) from the University of Oxford. In 2024, Davies published a major six-volume work on The Cultural History of Death spanning 2,500 years from Classical Antiquity to the Modern Age.

Esteem Indicators

  • 2017: Fellow of the British Academy:
  • 2017: Guest, M., Middlemiss-Le Mon, M. (Eds.). (2017). Death, Life and Laughter: Essays on Religion in Honour of Douglas Davies. London: Routledge.:
  • 2016: Honorary Vice President of the Cremation Society of Great Britain:
  • 2012: Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales:
  • 2009: Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences:
  • 2009: President of the British Association for the Study of Religion:
  • 2004: Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), University of Oxford:
  • 1998: Doctor of Sacred Theology (honoris causa), Uppsala University, Sweden:

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

  • 'Mourning Academic Mentors and Mentees'
    Davies, D. J. (2023). ’Mourning Academic Mentors and Mentees’. In M. Sławkowski-Rode (Ed.), The Meaning of Mourning: Perspectives on Death, Loss, and Grief (pp. 149-170). Lexington Books.
  • 'Bereavement, Sacred-Secrecy, and Dreams'
    Davies, D. J. (2021). ’Bereavement, Sacred-Secrecy, and Dreams’. In C. Pearce & C. Komaromy (Eds.), Narratives of Parental Death, Dying and Bereavement: A Kind of Haunting (pp. 167-188). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • ‘Grief in human and companion-animal loss, bonding, and dividual personhood’
    Davies, D. J. (2021). ‘Grief in human and companion-animal loss, bonding, and dividual personhood’. In M. H. Jacobsen & A. Peterson (Eds.), Exploring Grief: Towards a Sociology of Sorrow (pp. 153-168). Routledge.
  • 'Embodied Shadows: Sculpted Memory, Sensed Presence, and the Third Party'
    Davies, D. J. (2021). ’Embodied Shadows: Sculpted Memory, Sensed Presence, and the Third Party’. In M. Sandy & S. Cracolici (Eds.), Ghostly Encounters: Cultural and Imaginary Representations of the Spectral from the Nineteenth Century to the Present (pp. 74-88). Routledge.
  • ‘Spirit Possession and Exorcism in Today’s Church of England’
    Davies, D. J. (2020). ‘Spirit Possession and Exorcism in Today’s Church of England’. In G. Giordan & A. Possamai (Eds.), The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism in Christianity (pp. 137–157). Springer.
  • ‘Sociology of Ministry’
    Davies, D. J. (2019). ‘Sociology of Ministry’. In M. Percy, I. Markham, E. Percy, & F. Po (Eds.), The Study of Ministry: A Comprehensive Survey of Theory and Best Practice (pp. 56-69). SPCK.
  • 'Ritual, Identity, and Emotion'
    Davies, D. J. (2018). ’Ritual, Identity, and Emotion’. In R. Uro, R. Roitto, J. Day, & R. DeMaris (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual (pp. 55-73). Oxford University Press.
  • 'Anthropology and Theology: Fugues of Thought and Action'
    Davies, D. J. (2018). ’Anthropology and Theology: Fugues of Thought and Action’. In J. D. Lemons (Ed.), Theologically Engaged Anthropology (pp. 194-210). Oxford University Press.
  • 'The Death Turn: Interdisciplinarity, Mourning, and Material Culture'
    Davies, D. J. (2018). ’The Death Turn: Interdisciplinarity, Mourning, and Material Culture’. In Z. Newby & R. E. Toulson (Eds.), The Materiality of Mourning: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives (pp. 245-260). Routledge.
  • 'Kaleidoscopic Crematoria'
    Davies, D. J. (2018). ’Kaleidoscopic Crematoria’. In J. Visschers, L. Cramwinckel, K. Coenegrachts, & T. Olsen (Eds.), Goodbye Architecture: The Architecture of Crematoria in Europe (pp. 219-225). NAI Publishers.
  • 'Death's Impossible Date'
    Davies, D. J. (2017). ’Death’s Impossible Date’. In S. McCorristine (Ed.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Mortality and Its Timings: When is Death? (pp. 103-117). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • 'Death in Material and Mental Culture'
    Davies, D. J. (2016). ’Death in Material and Mental Culture’. In T. Hutchings & J. McKenzie (Eds.), Materiality and the Study of Religion: The Stuff of the Sacred (pp. 169-184). Routledge.
  • ‘Mormon Studies’
    Davies, D. J. (2016). ‘Mormon Studies’. In G. D. Chryssides & B. E. Zeller (Eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements (pp. 47-51). Bloomsbury.
  • 'Salvation, Death, and Nature as Grace'
    Davies, D. J. (2015). ’Salvation, Death, and Nature as Grace’. In H. Bacon, W. Dossett, & S. Knowles (Eds.), Alternative Salvations: Engaging the Sacred and the Secular (pp. 85-96). Bloomsbury.
  • 'Emotions, Grief, and Reality-Unreality in Human Mortality'
    Davies, D. J. (2015). ’Emotions, Grief, and Reality-Unreality in Human Mortality’. In O. Hakola, S. Heinämaa, & S. Phihlström (Eds.), Death and Mortality: From Individual to Communal Perspectives (pp. 10-31). Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.
  • 'Valuing Emotion in Tragedy'
    Davies, D. J. (2015). ’Valuing Emotion in Tragedy’. In A. Day & M. Lövheim (Eds.), Modernities, Memory, and Mutations: Grace Davie and the Study of Religion (pp. 113-130). Ashgate.
  • 'Immortality'
    Davies, D. J. (2015). ’Immortality’. In J. Behr & C. Cunningham (Eds.), The Role of Death in Life: A Multidisciplinary Examination of the Relationship between Life and Death (pp. 31-44). Cascade Books.
  • ‘Modern Ethos and Spirituality in Changing Times’
    Davies, D. J., & Rowe, P. (2015). ‘Modern Ethos and Spirituality in Changing Times’. In D. Brown (Ed.), Durham Cathedral: History, Fabric and Culture (pp. 367-380). Yale University Press.
  • 'Thriving through Myth'
    Davies, D. J. (2013). ’Thriving through Myth’. In C. Cook (Ed.), Spirituality, Theology and Mental Health Multidisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 160-177). SCM Press.
  • ‘Kulturelt svik dodelighet og livskraft. 22 juli sett utenfra’
    Davies, D. J. (2013). ‘Kulturelt svik dodelighet og livskraft. 22 juli sett utenfra’. In O. Aagedal, P. K. Botvar, & I. M. Høeg (Eds.), Den Offentlige Sorgen: Markeringer, Ritualer og Religion etter 22 Juli. Universitetsforlaget.
  • ‘The Sea of Faith: Exemplifying Transformed Retention’
    Davies, D. J., & Northam-Jones, D. (2012). ‘The Sea of Faith: Exemplifying Transformed Retention’. In M. J. Guest & E. Arweck (Eds.), Religion and Knowledge (pp. 227-246). Ashgate.
  • ‘Gnade und Gehorsam im Mormonentum’
    Davies, D. J. (2012). ‘Gnade und Gehorsam im Mormonentum’. In K. Funkschmidt (Ed.), Zwischen Familiensinn und Politischem Engagement (pp. 17-31). Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen.
  • ‘Changing British Ritualization’
    Davies, D. J. (2012). ‘Changing British Ritualization’. In L. Woodhead & R. Catto (Eds.), Religion and Change in Modern Britain (pp. 203-218). Routledge.
  • ‘Mormon Studies in a European Setting’
    Davies, D. J. (2011). ‘Mormon Studies in a European Setting’. In S. Taysom (Ed.), Dimensions of Faith: A Mormon Studies Reader (pp. 73–82). Signature Books.
  • 'Geographies of the Spirit World'
    Davies, D. J. (2010). ’Geographies of the Spirit World’. In J. Hockey, C. Komaromy, & K. Woodthorpe (Eds.), The Matter of Death: Space, Place and Materiality (pp. 208-222). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • 'Dying in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition'
    Davies, D. J. (2009). ’Dying in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition’. In A. Kellehear (Ed.), The Study of Dying: From Autonomy to Transformation (pp. 233-252). Cambridge University Press.
  • ‘Latter-Day Saints’
    Davies, D. J. (2009). ‘Latter-Day Saints’. In G. Harvey (Ed.), Religions in Focus (pp. 143-156). Routledge.
  • 'Cremation'
    Davies, D. J. (2009). ’Cremation’. In C. D. Bryant & D. L. Peck (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience (pp. 232-237).
  • 'Cremation Movements'
    Davies, D. J. (2009). ’Cremation Movements’. In C. D. Bryant & D. L. Peck (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience (pp. 237-241).
  • 'Baptism for the Dead'
    Davies, D. J. (2009). ’Baptism for the Dead’. In C. D. Bryant & D. L. Peck (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience (pp. 98-101).
  • 'Superplausibility in Life and Death'
    Davies, D. J. (2009). ’Superplausibility in Life and Death’. In A. D. Bremborg, G. K. Hallonsten, & G. Gustafsson (Eds.), Religionssociologi i Brytningstider: en Vänbok till Curt Dahlgren (pp. 13-28). Centrum för Teologi och Religionsvetenskap, Lunds Universitet.
  • 'Christ in Mormonism'
    Davies, D. J. (2009). ’Christ in Mormonism’. In O. Hammer (Ed.), Alternative Christs (pp. 170-189). Cambridge University Press.
  • 'Visions, Revelations, and Courage in Joseph Smith'
    Davies, D. J. (2008). ’Visions, Revelations, and Courage in Joseph Smith’. In R. L. Neilson & T. L. Givens (Eds.), Joseph Smith: Reappraisals After Two Centuries (pp. 129-142). Oxford University Press.
  • 'Cultural Intensification: A Theory for Religion'
    Davies, D. J. (2008). ’Cultural Intensification: A Theory for Religion’. In A. Day (Ed.), Religion and the Individual: Belief, Practice, Identity (pp. 7-18). Ashgate.
  • ‘Altruism, Ritual, Welfare, and Practical Theology’
    Davies, D. J. (2006). ‘Altruism, Ritual, Welfare, and Practical Theology’. In A. B. Yeung (Ed.), Rajojen Ylityksiä: Uskonto, Kirkko, Sosiologia (pp. 121-146). Suomalainen Teologinen Kirjallisuusseura.
  • Inner Speech and Religious Traditions
    Davies, D. (2006). Inner Speech and Religious Traditions. In J. Beckford & J. Walliss (Eds.), Theorizing Religion (pp. 211-223). Ashgate Publishing.
  • ‘Welfare, Spirituality and the Quality of Life and Place’
    Davies, D. J. (2005). ‘Welfare, Spirituality and the Quality of Life and Place’. In A. Bäckström (Ed.), Welfare and Religion: A Publication to Mark the Fifth Anniversary of the Uppsala Institute for Diaconal and Social Studies (pp. 88-96). DVI.
  • ‘Anglican Soteriology: Incarnation, Worship, and the Property of Mercy’
    Davies, D. J. (2005). ‘Anglican Soteriology: Incarnation, Worship, and the Property of Mercy’. In R. R. Keller & R. L. Millett (Eds.), Salvation in Christ: Comparative Christian Views (pp. 53-68). Brigham Young University.
  • 'Mormonism'
    Davies, D. J. (2004). ’Mormonism’. In H. Hillerbrand (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Protestantism (pp. 1313–1317). Routledge.
  • ‘Purity, Spirit, and Reciprocity in the Acts of the Apostles’
    Davies, D. J. (2004). ‘Purity, Spirit, and Reciprocity in the Acts of the Apostles’. In L. Lawrence & M. Aguilar (Eds.), Anthropology and Biblical Studies: Avenues of Approach (pp. 259–280). Deo Publishing.
  • ‘Cultural and Spiritual Aspects of Palliative Medicine’
    Davies, D. J., & Cassidy, J. P. (2003). ‘Cultural and Spiritual Aspects of Palliative Medicine’. In D. Doyle, G. Hanks, N. Cherny, & K. Calman (Eds.), Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine (pp. 951-957). Oxford University Press.
  • ‘Gestus manifests habitus: Dress and the Mormon’
    Davies, D. J. (2001). ‘Gestus manifests habitus: Dress and the Mormon’. In W. Keenan (Ed.), Dressed to Impress (pp. 123-140). Berg.
  • ‘The Week of Mourning’
    Davies, D. J. (1999). ‘The Week of Mourning’. In T. Walter (Ed.), The Mourning for Diana (pp. 3-18). Routledge.
  • 'The Social Facts of Death'
    Davies, D. J. (1995). ’The Social Facts of Death’. In G. Howarth & P. Jupp (Eds.), Contemporary Issues in the Sociology of Death, Dying and Disposal (pp. 17-29). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24303-7_2
  • ‘William Robertson Smith and Frank Byron Jevons: Faith and Evolution’
    Davies, D. J. (1995). ‘William Robertson Smith and Frank Byron Jevons: Faith and Evolution’. In W. Johnstone (Ed.), William Robertson Smith: Essays in Reassessment. Sheffield University Press.
  • ‘The Evocative Symbolism of Trees’
    Davies, D. J. (1988). ‘The Evocative Symbolism of Trees’. In D. Cosgrove & S. Daniels (Eds.), The Iconography of Landscape (pp. 32-42). Cambridge University Press.
  • ‘Interpretation of Sacrifice in Leviticus’,
    Davies, D. J. (1985). ‘Interpretation of Sacrifice in Leviticus’,. In B. Lang (Ed.), Anthropological Approaches to the Old Testament. SPCK.

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Supervision students