Paul Fiddes

Fiddes has recently published his first novel, A Unicorn Dies: A Novel of Mystery and Ideas (Oxford: Firedint Publishing, 2018). It is said to be, 'the first novel to reflect the modern cultural preoccupation with the image of the unicorn.' The Revd John Barton, DLitt, FBA, lately Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, has said of the book, 'This is such an intriguing and interesting novel. The plot is absolutely ingenious and both characterization and dialogue are wonderful.' A Unicorn Dies was also reviewed for the online newspaper The Baptist Times by Hugh Whittaker, Director of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies and Professor in the Economy and Business of Japan, University of Oxford, and Tutor for Admissions, St Antony's College. Professor Whittaker concludes, "A Unicorn Dies operates on several levels. It is both gripping and complex. I very much enjoyed this quest with Giles, and look forward to the next novel. It won’t be an easy act to follow." Fiddes's novel received a north American launch at University Baptist Church, Charlottesville, Virginia on 21 March 2018.

Fiddes is also the subject of Daniel John Sutcliffe-Pratt, Covenant and church for rough sleepers: a Baptist ecclesiology in conversation with the trinitarian pastoral theology of Paul S. Fiddes (Centre for Baptist History and Heritage studies, Occasional papers, vol. 14; Oxford: Regent's Park College, 2017).

In 2009, Fides delivered the Holley-Hull Lectures at Samford University on the subject Telling the Christian Story in Our World Today. In 2009 he delivered the Nordenhaug Lectures at the International Baptist Theological Seminary of the European Baptist Federation in Prague on the subject "Post Modernity and Wisdom". These lectures will be prepared for future publication. (Previous Nordenhaug Lecturers include Miroslav Volf, Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School, I. Howard Marshall, Professor of New Testament Exegesis in the University of Aberdeen, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, Jürgen Moltmann, Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Tübingen.) In 2010 (7–9 July) Fiddes was Main Speaker at the conference of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Theological Schools/Australian and New Zealand Society for Theological Studies, on "The Future of God", at Trinity College (University of Melbourne). At the same time he also spoke, as a keynote speaker, at the Melbourne College of Divinity Centenary Conference (5–7 July). Fiddes was a keynote speaker at "The Power of the Word: Poetry, Theology and Life", a conference held jointly between Heythrop College and the Institute of English Studies. Fiddes was also a keynote speaker at the 2010 Biennial Conference of the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture, St Catherine's College, Oxford (23–26 September 2010) on the topic "Attending to the Other: Critical Theory and Spiritual Practice".

In 2004 Fiddes was elected an Honorary Fellow of St Peter's, on which occasion he was described as being "recognised internationally as one of the leading scholars in the fields of theology and literature". Later in that year, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity, the highest that the University confers. In 2002 he was chosen to preach the University Sermon on the Grace of Humility, and in 2005 he was appointed to deliver the Oxford Bampton Lectures, choosing as his topic Seeing the world and knowing God: ancient wisdom and modern doctrine. In 2004 he became an Honorary Doctor of Divinity of the University of Bucharest. He is also a Trustee Fellow of Georgetown College.

Fiddes has served as a member of ecumenical study commissions for the British Council of Churches and its successor Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, Chairman of the Doctrine and Worship Committee of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Convenor of the Division for Theology and Education of the European Baptist Federation, Chair of the Baptist Doctrine and Inter-Church Cooperation Study Commission of the Baptist World Alliance. A committed ecumenist, Fiddes was Baptist Chair of the Anglican Communion-Baptist World Alliance International Conversations from 2000 until 2005 and has also been, together with the Most Reverend Dr Arthur J. Serratelli, Co-Moderator of the second series of Roman Catholic-Baptist World Alliance International Conversations (Second Series 2006-10). He is also an Ecumenical Representative to the General Synod of the Church of England. The Anglican community has honoured him in 2012 as an Honorary Ecumenical Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (ex officio a member of the Greater Chapter of the Cathedral) and as the first ever Ecumenical Prebendary of the Collegiate Church of St Endellion. He shares the latter honour with Rowan Williams, whom he "vested in the traditional fur almuce" upon the occasion of his admission and installation as a prebendary.

Fiddes was a member of the Oxford Theology Faculty Board from 1989-2007, serving as Chairman 1996-98, and having been a senior member of the Faculty since 1972. He was appointed Principal of Regent's Park in 1989 and was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford in 2002. In 2007 he resigned the Principalship of Regent's Park and was appointed Principal Emeritus, Professorial Research Fellow, and Director of Research.

Past Event and Present Salvation: the Christian Idea of Atonement (London: Darton, Longman, & Todd, 1989), one of Fiddes's most important works, was studied by the Reverend Father Eamonn Mulcahy, C.S.Sp., in his doctoral thesis at the Pontifical Gregorian University under the supervision of the distinguished Australian Jesuit scholar Gerald O'Collins. His thesis, which was entitled The Cause of Our Salvation: Soteriological Causality According to Some Modern British Theologians, 1988-98, also considered works by Colin Gunton, Vernon White, and John McIntyre. The thesis is now published as Eamonn Mulcahy, The Cause of Our Salvation: Soteriological Causality according to some Modern British Theologians, 1988-98 (Tesi Gregoriana Serie Teologia 140, Roma: Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana, 2007).

Meanwhile, Fiddes studied at Regent's Park College (the Baptist permanent private hall at Oxford) for ordination as a minister in the Baptist Union of Great Britain. From 1972-75 he was Junior Research Fellow in Old Testament and Hebrew at Regent's Park, became Fellow and Tutor in Christian Doctrine there in 1975 and from 1979-85 he was additionally Lecturer in Theology at St Peter's.

Fiddes was educated at Drayton Manor Grammar School. In 1965 he went up to St Peter's College, Oxford to read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He quickly changed his course and ended up with a Double First in English Language and Literature and Theology. The relationship between these disciplines has formed a major part of his subsequent scholarship. He then embarked on a doctoral thesis entitled The hiddenness of wisdom in the Old Testament and later Judaism, which he completed in 1976, before spending a year at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen undertaking post-doctoral studies, and attending seminars of Jürgen Moltmann and Eberhard Jüngel.

Paul Stuart Fiddes, FBA (born 30 April 1947) is a British Baptist theologian and novelist.