Dennis P. Bray, PhD
Christian Philosophical-Theological Thinker
I'm a philosopher-theologian who integrates insights from philosophy, biblical and systematic theology, history, and the empirical sciences. I have lectured full-time at the University of St Andrews and at Biola University, teaching theology (historical, philosophical, and systematic) and philosophy.
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I am a Research Fellow in Theology and the Arts at the University of St Andrews. My current research is on the ability of art to help people open to divine revelation. I also write on Ramified Natural Theology and the history and nature of the doctrine of the Trinity. Welcome to my research website!
Research Interests
Hugh of St. Victor advises: "Learn everything: you will find that nothing is superfluous." Taking Hugh's advice to heart, I have determined to give my mind and strength to studying the most good and most lovely parts of the world.
My research interests lie at the intersection of theology, history, and philosophy. My current focus is on theological aesthetics and philosophy of art. My theological aesthetics work is on art and its ability help people open to divine self-revelation. Alongside this research trajectory, I am also completing a book on the philosophy of art, approached from a Christian, church-serving worldview (with IVP Academic).
Background projects are on triadic speculation in the history of Western philosophy. Thinkers at least as far back as 500 B.C.E. reasoned that God must be perfect and, if so, must also have some sort of threeness. Christian thinkers adopted and adapted some of these ideas to support their belief in the Trinity, i.e., the notion that the one God is also three divine persons. Philosophers of religion have recently returned to these themes, and so there is much work to be done in bridging the gap between the history of philosophy and cutting-edge natural theology. My current book project brings the best and most developed triadic arguments to light, expositing and analyzing those arguments and so making them accessible to thinkers today.
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Publications
D. Bray, 'Mysterian Social Trinitarianism: Responding to Charges of Projection, Anthropomorphism, and Apophasis', Verbum Vitae, (2023)
D. Bray, ‘Critical Ressourcement and Evaluative Correction in Trinitarian Theology: A Case Study on Richard of St. Victor’s De Trinitate’, International Journal of Systematic Theology 18 (2022)
D. Bray, ‘Bonaventure’s I Sentence Argument for the Trinity from Beatitude’, The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 95, n. 4 (2021)
D. Bray, ‘Gregory Of Nazianzus’ Trinitarian Argument in Oration 23’, TheoLogica vol. 4, n. 2 (2020)
D. Bray, What is Art?, Contours of Christian Philosophy Series, IVP