Staff profile

I am both an anthropologist and theologian with theoretical and practical interests. After an initial degree in Anthropology at Durham I engaged in my first research on Mormonism at the Oxford Institute of Social Anthropology under the supervision of the sociologist Bryan Wilson. I then read a theology degree at Durham and shortly afterwards became Lecturer at Nottingham University where I became Professor of Religious Studies before leaving for Durham in 1997. During that period I engaged in further work on Mormonism, as well as in Sikhism and Anglicanism, and in death rites. I also completed my first doctorate there on the issue of meaning and salvation. In Durham, as Professor in the Study of Religion, I help teach undergraduate modules on the Introduction to the Study of Religion, and Death, Ritual and Belief, and a module for postgraduates on Ritual, Symbolism and Belief in the Anthropology of Religion. Academically speaking, I also hold the degree of D.Litt. from Oxford as well as an Honorary Dr. Theol. from the University of Uppsala in Sweden. In 2009 I was made an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.

A great deal of my general work has sought to relate issues in theology and social (Anthropology and Theology, Berg, 2002). I then have several other areas of research interest. Special research in Mormonism has resulted in An Introduction to Mormonism, ( CUP. 2003) and The Mormon Culture of Salvation, (Ashgate. 2000) along with other books, chapters and encyclopaedia entries. I have also been a visiting professor at Brigham Young University in Utah. In terms of death Studies I have edited the Encyclopedia of Cremation, (with Lewis Mates: Ashgate, 2005), and also written A Brief History of Death, (Blackwell, 2004), Death, Ritual and Belief, (Revised and expanded edition, Continuum 2002). Extensive empirical research for Reusing Old Graves. (With A. Shaw. 1995) has been influential in relation to issues of burial reform in the UK. In terms of Christian church life I have, for example, joint edited ( with Helen Cameron, Philip Richter and Frances Ward) Studying Local Churches: A Handbook, ( SCM Press, 2005). My Private Passions, (Canterbury Press, 2000) was the Archbishop of Wales's Lent Book for that year. Church and Religion in Rural England. (With C. Watkins and M. Winter, 1991) involved a major study of the Church of England. Many other papers and book chapters numerous aspects of religious life including, for example, some biblical interests in, 'Purity, Spirit and Reciprocity in the Acts of the Apostles', in Anthropology and Biblical Studies, (eds) L.J.Lawrence and M.I. Aguilar, Leiden: Deo Publishing. 2004), and 'Rebounding Vitality: Resurrection and Spirit in Luke -Acts'. The Bible in Human Society. eds. M.D.Carroll, D.Clines and P. Davies. Sheffield Academic Press,1995.

• Mormon religion
• death, ritual and belief
• sociology and anthropology of religion
• Emotions and Religion

• 2017:

  Fellow of the British Academy

  : Fellow of the British Academy
• 2016:

  Honorary Vice President of the Cremation Society of Great Britain

  : Honorary Vice President of the Cremation Society of Great Britain
• 2012:

  Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales

  : Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales
• 2009:

  Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

  : Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
• 2009:

  President of the British Association for the Study of Religion (2009-12)

  : President of the British Association for the Study of Religion (2009-12)
• 2004:

  Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), University of Oxford

  : Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), University of Oxford
• 1998:

  Doctor of Sacred Theology (honoris causa), Uppsala University, Sweden

  : Doctor of Sacred Theology (honoris causa), Uppsala University, Sweden

Authored book

• Davies, D. (2022). Worldview Religious Studies. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003242437
• Davies, D. J. (2017). Death, Ritual and Belief. (3rd). Bloomsbury Academic
• Jupp, P. C., Davies, D. J., Grainger, H., Raeburn, G., & White, S. (2017). Cremation In Modern Scotland: History, Architecture and the Law. John Donald
• Davies, D. J. (2015). Mors Britannica: Lifestyle and Death-Style in Britain Today. Oxford University Press
• Davies, D., & Rumble, H. (2012). Natural Burial: Traditional-Secular Spiritualities and Funeral Innovation. Continuum
• Davies, D. J. (2011). Emotion, Identity, and Religion: Hope, Reciprocity, and Otherness. Oxford University Press
• Davies, D. J. (2010). Joseph Smith, Jesus, and Satanic Opposition: Atonement, Evil and the Mormon Vision. Ashgate Publishing
• Davies, D. (2008). The Theology of Death. T&T Clark
• Davies, D., & Guest, M. (2007). Bishops, Wives and Children: Spiritual Capital Across the Generations. Ashgate Publishing
• Davies, D. (2004). A Brief History of Death. Blackwell
• Davies, D. (2003). An Introduction to Mormonism. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610028
• Davies, D. (2002). Anthropology and Theology. Berg
• Davies, D. (2000). The Mormon Culture of Salvation. Routledge
• Davies, D. (1997). Death Ritual and Belief The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites. Bloomsbury
• Davies, D., & Shaw, A. (1995). Reusing Old Graves: A Report on Popular British Attitudes. Shaw and Sons

Chapter in book

• Davies, D. J. (in press). Thriving Through Myth. In C. C. Cook (Ed.), Spirituality, Theology & Mental Health (160-177). SCM Press
• Davies, D. J. (in press). Mormon Studies. In G. D. Chryssides, & B. E. Zeller (Eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements (47-51). Bloomsbury Academic
• Davies, D. J. Valuing Emotion in Tragedy. In A. Day, & M. Lövheim (Eds.), Modernities, Memory and Mutations: Grace Davie and the Study of Religion (113-129). Routledge
• Davies, D. J. Death in material and metal culture. In J. McKenzie, & T. HutchingS (Eds.), Materiality and the Study of Religion: The Stuff of the Sacred. Routledge
• Davies, D. J. Death's Impossible Date. In S. McCorristine (Ed.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Mortality and its Timings: When is Death?. Palgrave Macmillan
• Davies, D. J. Ritual, Identify and Emotion. In R. Uro, R. Roitto, J. J. Day, & R. E. DeMaris (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual (55-73). Oxford University Press
• Davies, D. J. Kaleidoscopic Crematoria. In V. Valentijn, & K. Verhoeven (Eds.), Goodbye Architecture - The Architecture of Crematoria in Europe (219-225). NAI Publishers
• Davies, D. J. (in press). Kaleidoscopic Crematoria. In V. Valentijn, & K. Verhoeven (Eds.), Goodbye Architecture. The Architecture of Crematoria in Europe (219-225). nai010
• Davies, D. (2018). The death turn: interdisciplinarity, mourning and material culture. In Z. Newby, & R. E. Toulson (Eds.), The Materiality of Mourning: Cross-disciplinary perspectives (245-260). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351127660-13
• Davies, D. J. (2018). Anthropology and Theology: Fugues of Thought and Action. In J. D. Lemons (Ed.), Theologicallyu Engaged Anthopology (194-210). Oxford University Press
• Davies, D. J. (2015). Salvation, Death and Nature as Grace. In H. Bacon, W. Dossett, & S. Knowles (Eds.), Alternative Salvations (85-96). Bloomsbury
• Davies, D. (2015). Emotions, Grief, and Reality-Unreality in Human Mortality. In O. Hakola, S. Heinämaa, & S. Phihlström (Eds.), Death and Mortality: From Individual to Communal Perspectives (10-31). Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
• Davies, D. J. (2015). Immortality. In J. Behr, & C. Cunningham (Eds.), The Role of Death in Life: A Multidisciplinary Examination of the Relationship between Life and Death (31-44). Cascade Books
• Davies, D. J. (2010). Geographies of the Spirit World. In J. Hockey, C. Komaromy, & K. Woodthorpe (Eds.), The Matter of Death, Space, Place and Materiality (208 - 222). Palgrave Macmillan
• Davies, D. J. (2009). Superplausibility in Life and Death. In A. D. Bremborg, & et al. (Eds.), Religionssociologi i brytningstider (13 - 28.). Lund University
• Davies, D. J. (2009). Dying in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition. In A. Kellehear (Ed.), The Study of Dying (233 - 252.). Cambridge University Press
• Davies, D. J. (2009). Baptism for the dead; Cremation: Cremation Movements. In C. Bryant, & D. L. Peck (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Condition (98 -101, 232 - 237, 237 - 241.). SAGE Publications
• Davies, D. J. (2009). Christ in Mormonism. In O. Hammer (Ed.), Alternative Christs (170 -189). Cambridge University Press
• Davies, D. J. (2009). Visions, Revelations and Courage in Joseph Smith. In R. L. Nelson, & T. L. Givens (Eds.), Joseph Smith Jnr. Reappraisals after Two Centuries (129 - 142). Oxford University Press
• Davies, D. (2008). Cultural Intensification: A Theory for religion. In A. Day (Ed.), Religion and the individual: belief, practice, identity (7-18). Ashgate Publishing
• Davies, D. J. (2008). Resurrection and Immortality of the Soul. In P. C. Jupp (Ed.), Death our Future (82 - 92). Epworth
• Davies, D. (2007). The invention of sacred tradition: Mormonism. In J. Lewis, & O. Hammer (Eds.), The Invention of Sacred Tradition (56-75). Cambridge University Press
• Davies, D. (2006). Inner Speech and Religious Traditions. In J. Beckford, & J. Walliss (Eds.), Theorizing Religion (211-223). Ashgate Publishing
• Davies, D. (2005). Forms of Disposal. In K. Garces-Foley (Ed.), Death and Religion in a Changing World (228-245). M E Sharpe
• Davies, D. (2004). Priests, parish and people : reconceiving a relationship. In M. Guest, K. Tusting, & L. Woodhead (Eds.), Congregational studies in the UK : Christianity in a post-Christian context (153-168). Ashgate Publishing
• Davies, D. (2004). Time, Place and Mormon Sense of Self. In S. Colemand, & P. Collins (Eds.), Religion, Identity and Change (107-118). Ashgate Publishing
• Davies, D. (2000). Health morality and sacrifice : the sociology of disasters. In R. Fenn (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to sociology of religion (404-417). Blackwell
• Davies, D. (1999). Ethics of Cremation and Religion. In R. Lichtner (Ed.), Handbook on cremation : commemorative publications for the 75th anniversary of the International Cremation Federation (55-73). Fachverlag des deautschen Bestattungsgewerbes
• Davies, D. (1995). Rebounding Vitality: Resurrection and Spirit in Luke-Acts. In M. Carroll, D. Clines, & P. Davies (Eds.), . Sheffield Academic Press

Edited book

• Davies, D., & McCullough, M. (Eds.). Music, Mortality, and Memory. Brill Academic Publishers. Manuscript submitted for publication
• Davies, D. J. (Ed.). (in press). A Cultural History of Death: Volumes 1-6. Bloomsbury
• Davies, D., & Whitefield, R. (Eds.). Religious, Spiritual, and Ecclesiastical Responses to Death, Loss, Memory, and Mourning in the Long Nineteenth Century, 1780-1914. Routledge. Manuscript submitted for publication
• Davies, D. J., & Powell, A. J. (Eds.). Sacred Selves, Sacred Setting: Reflecting Hans Mol. Ashgate Publishing
• Warne, N. A., & Davies, D. J. (Eds.). (in press). Emotions and Religious Dynamics. Emotions and Religious Dynamics
• Davies, D. J., & Park, C.-W. (Eds.). (2012). Emotion, Identity and death: Mortality Across Disciplines. Ashgate Publishing
• Davies, D. J., & Mates, L. H. (Eds.). (2005). Encyclopedia of Cremation. Ashgate Publishing
• Davies, D., Cameron, H., Richter, P., & Ward, F. (Eds.). (2005). Studying Local Churches: A Handbook. SCM Press

Journal Article

• Davies, D. (in press). Afterword: Play, Personhood and Digital Mortality. Social Sciences, 13(8), Article 384. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13080384
• Whitefield, R., & Davies, D. (2022). The National Memorial Arboretum: An Ecology of Remembrance. Mausolus, 22(2), 38-47
• Davies, D. J. (2020). Dividual identity in grief theories, palliative and bereavement care. Palliative Care and Social Practice, 14, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/2632352420921867
• Davies, D., & Thate, M. (2017). Monstrosities: Religion, Identity and Belief. Religions, 8(6), Article 102. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8060102
• Davies, D. J. (2008). Death, Immortality, and Sir James Frazer. Mortality, Vol. 13.(No, 3.), 287-296. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576270802181681
• Davies, D. (2007). Mormon History, Text, Colour and Rites. Journal of Religious History, 31(3), 305-315

Report

• Davies, D., & Robinson, G. (2024). British Crematorium Managers & COVID-19. The Cremation Society