Colin Gunton - Biography

Biography

Gunton grew up in Nottingham, England. He first studied the Classics at Hertford College, Oxford and graduated with a B.A. in 1966, the same year he was married. He then began his study of theology, and a year later received an M.A. from Mansfield College, Oxford. He then began his doctoral work under the direction of Robert Jenson, which took six years because he began teaching two years into his doctoral program as he became Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at King's College London in 1969. His dissertation was a study of the doctrine of God in the thought of Charles Hartshorne and Karl Barth, which was completed in 1973. He became an Associate Minister of the Brentwood United Reformed Church in 1975, a position which he held until his death.

Gunton was appointed Lecturer in Systematic Theology at King's College in 1980, and in 1984 became Professor of Christian Doctrine, later becoming the Dean of Faculty from 1988-1990. He also served as Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies from 1993-97. Gunton founded and directed the Research Institute in Systematic Theology which drew distinguished scholars and many graduate students from around the world. In 1992 he delivered the Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, (published as The One, the Three and the Many) and delivered the Warfield Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993. He also co-founded the International Journal of Systematic Theology with John Bainbridge Webster and Ralph del Colle in 1999.

Gunton was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of London (1993), the University of Aberdeen (1999), and shortly before his death, the University of Oxford (2003). He was also made a Fellow of King's College.