Reverend Dr Liz Carmichael MBE

My research interests centre on practical theology including peacebuilding, and Christian spirituality. My first career was in medicine, qualifying at Oxford and St Thomas’s Hospital and working for a year on the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada and then for seven years, 1975-81, at Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto, South Africa. After a second BA in Theology (Oxford, 1983), my doctoral research focused on the use of the language of friendship in the interpretation of love, 'agape', as friendship-love in the western Christian tradition; this research became a book in 2004. From 1991 to 1996 I worked in spirituality, theological education, peacebuilding and community development in the Diocese of Johannesburg. I was ordained priest in Johannesburg in 1992, and appointed MBE for work on South Africa’s peace committees in 1995.

From 1996 to 2011 I was Chaplain, Fellow, and Tutor in Theology at St John's, teaching New Testament and Christian systematic theology, ethics, and spirituality. Then as an Emeritus Research Fellow 2011 to 2023, I researched and wrote a comprehensive book on the South African National Peace Accord of 1991-1994 and its role in the nation’s transition to democracy. I co-convene the Oxford Network of Peace Studies (OxPeace), a multidisciplinary initiative to promote the study of peace, peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping in the University and beyond. I direct the ecumenical St Theosevia Centre for Christian Spirituality and am involved in interfaith encounters. I am currently researching a book on the life and work of the Anglican priest and spiritual director Reginald Somerset Ward (1881-1962).

Books:

Friendship: Interpreting Christian Love (London: T&T Clark, Continuum, now Bloomsbury, 2004). Print on demand.

Peacemaking and Peacebuilding in South Africa. The National Peace Accord 1991 – 1994 (Woodbridge: James Currey, Boydell & Brewer, 2022)