NEICE - Research Interests

NEICE Research Interests

NEICE 1981 – 2013
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The Institute ceased its activity and the charity was dissolved at the end of April 2013
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Philosophical and Theological Reflection on Christian Education in the Church

Some Relevant Publications

Jeff Astley, ‘The Idea of God, the Reality of God and Religious Education’, Theology, LXXXIV, 1981

Jeff Astley, ‘The Role of Worship in Christian Learning’, Religious Education, 79, 1984

Jeff Astley, ‘On Learning Religion: some theological issues in Christian education’, The Modern Churchman, XXIX, 1987

Stephen Skinner, ‘Christian Education as a Hermeneutical Project with special reference to the Ascension of Christ’, MLitt thesis, University of Durham, 1987

David Heywood, ‘Christian Education as Enculturation: the life of the community and its place in Christian education in the work of John H Westerhoff III’, British Journal of Religious Education, 10, 1988

David Heywood, ‘Revelation and Christian Learning’, PhD thesis, University of Durham, 1989

Mark Savage, ‘Christian Doctrine in Adult Religious Education: a critical study’, MA thesis, University of Durham, 1990

Jeff Astley and David Day (eds), The Contours of Christian Education, McCrimmons, 1992, Part One; Part Two, Sections One and Three
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Jeff Astley, The Philosophy of Christian Religious Education, Religious Education Press/SPCK, 1994
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Jeff Astley and Leslie J Francis (eds), Critical Perspectives on Christian Education: a reader on the aims, principles and philosophy of Christian education, Gracewing, 1994
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Jeff Astley, Leslie J Francis and Colin Crowder (eds), Theological Perspectives on Christian Formation: a reader on theology and Christian education, Gracewing/Eerdmans, 1996
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Jeff Astley, ‘The Christian Vocation of Teaching and Learning’, Tufton Review, 2, 1998

Jeff Astley, ‘Learning Moral and Spiritual Wisdom’, in Stephen C Barton (ed.), Where Shall Wisdom be Found: wisdom in the Bible, the church and the contemporary world, T & T Clark, 1999

Jeff Astley (ed.), Learning in the Way: research and reflection on adult Christian education, Gracewing, 2000
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Jeff Astley, Timothy Hone and Mark Savage (eds), Creative Chords: studies in music, theology and Christian formation, Gracewing, 2000
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Jeff Astley, ‘In Defence of Ordinary Theology’, British Journal of Theological Education, 13, 1, 2002

Leslie J Francis and Jeff Astley (eds), Children, Churches and Christian Learning, SPCK, 2002
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Jeff Astley, Ordinary Theology: Looking, Listening and Learning in Theology , Ashgate, 2002
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Jeff Astley, ‘Spiritual Learning: Good for Nothing?’, in David Carr and John Haldane (eds), Spirituality, Philosophy and Education (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003)

Jeff Astley, ‘Preaching and Listening’, Journal of the College of Preachers, July 2003

Jeff Astley, Leslie Francis, John Sullivan and Andrew Walker (eds), The Idea of a Christian University: Essays on Theology and Higher Education (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2004)
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Jeff Astley, ‘Christian Teaching, Christian Learning and Christian Love: Education as Christian Ministry and Spiritual Discipline’, in Jeff Astley, Leslie Francis, John Sullivan and Andrew Walker (eds), The Idea of a Christian University: Essays on Theology and Higher Education (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2004)

Jeff Astley, ‘What is Religion and Whose Faith is it Anyway? Some Issues concerning the Nature and Normativity of Religion, and the Risks of Religious Education’, in H. Lombaerts and D. Pollefeyt (eds), Hermeneutics and Religious Education (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2004),

Jeff Astley, ‘Giving Voice to the Ordinary: Theological Listening and the Mother Tongue’, in Natalie K. Watson and Stephen Burns (eds), Exchanges of Grace: Essays in Honour of Ann Loades (London: SCM Press, 2008),

Jeff Astley, ‘What Does Christianity Have to Say to “Secular” Education?’, Journal of Chaplaincy in Further Education, 6, 2, 2010 Jeff Astley, ‘Religion and Language’, in Patrick Colm Hogan (ed), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Jeff Astley, ‘Forms of Faith and Forms of Communication’, in John Sullivan (ed), Communicating Faith (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2011)

Jeff Astley, ‘Teaching about Christian Teaching’, RE Today, 28, 1, 2011,

Jeff Astley and Bridget Nichols, ‘The Formative Role of the Book of Common Prayer, Part 1’, Prayer Book Society Journal, 26, Trinity 2011,

Jeff Astley and Bridget Nichols, ‘The Formative Role of the Book of Common Prayer, Part 2’, Prayer Book Society Journal, 27, Michaelmas 2011,

Jeff Astley, ‘On Standing and Delivering: Preaching and Theological Posture’, Rural Theology, 9, 2, 2011

Jeff Astley, ‘Christianity’, in Peter Jarvis with Mary Watts (eds), The Routledge International Handbook of Learning (London: Routledge, 2012)

Jeff Astley, ‘A Theological Reflection on the Nature of Religious Truth’, in Jeff Astley, Leslie J. Francis, Mandy Robbins and Mualla Selçuk (eds), Teaching Religion, Teaching Truth: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012)

Jeff Astley, ‘Can we Choose our Beliefs? A Philosophical Question for Religious Education’, in Stephen Parker, Rob Freathy and Leslie J. Francis (eds), Religious Education and Freedom of Religion and Belief (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012)

Jeff Astley, ‘Ordinary Theology and the the Learning Conversation with Academic Theology’, in Jeff Astley and Leslie J. Francis (eds), Exploring Ordinary Theology: Everyday Christian Believing and the Church (Farnham, Ashgate, 2013)

Current Projects

spirituality and ethics
religious language, hermeneutics and Christian communication
gender issues in faith formation and expression