From Despair to Hope

From Despair to Hope:

Interdisciplinary Theology in the Service of Building Spiritual Capital

Made possible through a $4.5 mil grant from the John Templeton Foundation, this project’s underlying question is: What would it look like to develop and apply new, inter-disciplinary theologies of hope in domains where despair prevails and hope is yearned for? In trying to answer this question, CTI will convene groups of scholars residentially and digitally, host workshops and colloquia, create online resources, chair global webinars, and record new podcasts, among many other ventures. Our new state-of-the art building provides the perfect location and facilities for such an ambitious research agenda.

As Principal Investigator on the grant, Dr. Tom Greggs will be joined in leading the project by a co-investigator, The Rev’d Dr Jonathan Jong (a philosopher and psychologist working between the Universities of Oxford and St Mary’s University Twickenham, and a priest based in the Diocese of Chichester). Dr Valerie Cooper (Duke University) and Dr Amos Yong (Fuller Seminary) will be joining the project as Senior Fellows. 

The project focuses on developing theologies of hope in five areas: (1) Technology and AI; (2) Civics and Democracy; (3) Youth and Education; (4) Health and Medicine; (5) Entrepreneurship and Economics. Each area will bring together five fellows from around the globe to work, and adverts will soon be posted for these competitive fellowships. In addition to these areas, and sixty years on from the publication of Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology of Hope, several major works of systematic, practical and contextual theologies of hope will be produced by a core team (including Dr Joshua Mauldin, the Associate Director, and the two Senior Fellows).

  • Tom Greggs, DLitt, FRSE, arrived at CTI as director in July 2025 from the University of Aberdeen, where he held The Marischal Chair of Divinity (founded in 1616) and served for over a decade as either Director of Research or Head of Divinity. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Tom undertook studies in Theology at the University of Oxford (where he graduated first in his year) and a PhD in Systematic Theology at the University of Cambridge (where one of his mentors was the late Dan Hardy, first Director of CTI). He holds the higher Doctor of Letters degree for ‘research that marks an original and substantial contribution to humane learning’. Tom served on the UK government’s panel which assesses university research and  serves on the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission. A prolific author, his most recent books include: Dogmatic Ecclesiology Volume 1; The Church in a World of Religions; Barth and Bonhoeffer as Contributors to Post-Liberal Ecclesiology; and The Breadth of Salvation.

  • The Revd Dr Jonathan Lewis-Jong is an experimental psychologist and Anglican priest. He is Researcher in Psychology of Religion at St Mary's University Twickenham London and an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford. He has authored or co-authored over 80 articles in psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and theology. His recent books include Experimenting with Religion (OUP, 2023), and the forthcoming The Nature of Belief (OUP; with Eric Schwitzgebel, eds).

  • Dr. Valerie Cooper joins CTI as a senior fellow in the fall of 2025.  Holding degrees from Harvard University and Howard University, she will be on loan to CTI from her current faculty appointment at Duke University. The first black woman to earn tenure at Duke Divinity School, she has taught courses there on religion and society, religion and popular culture, and black church studies since 2014. Her book, Word, Like Fire: Maria Stewart, the Bible, and the Rights of African Americans, examines the biblical hermeneutics of Maria Stewart, a pioneering, nineteenth century black woman abolitionist and preacher.

    Dr. Cooper is looking forward to focusing on the question that CTI’s director Tom Greggs has posed for the first cohort of scholars he will gather at CTI: What would it look like to develop and apply new, inter-disciplinary theologies of hope in domains where despair prevails, and hope is yearned for? During her time at CTI, Dr. Cooper hopes to convene and participate in conversations and projects to develop theologies of hope and to learn from communities where hope has helped make people more resilient despite the challenges they face.