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Background

Laurence Hemming is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Lancaster University. He is also a Fellow, tutor in Philosophy and Liturgy, and member of the Advisory Board, of St. Bede’s Hall, an independent Catholic College in Oxford.

Previous appointments include Dean of Research at Heythrop College, University of London, and Research Fellow at St. Mary’s University College, Strawberry Hill. He has also been a Guest Professor and Research Fellow at the Catholic University of Leuven.

A short Curriculum Vitae is available for him here.

Laurence Hemming is a founder member of the Society of St. Catherine of Siena and the Temple Studies Group.

Research interests

Laurence Hemming’s principal interest is in the intersection of philosophy and theology, and the impact of their inter-relation on social life.

He is currently leading a research group "Heidegger’s ‘Movement of Nihilism’ as Political and Metaphysical Critique" at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Lancaster University, to conclude in 2009, and planning a project on Machination and Work for 2010. He has written extensively on the work of Martin Heidegger, as well as Descartes, Nietzsche, St. Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, Kant and Hegel.

Publications

Laurence Hemming’s most recent book is Worship as a Revelation: The Past, Present and Future of Catholic Liturgy (Burns & Oates [Continuum], London, 2008). Other research monographs are Heidegger’s Atheism: The Refusal of a Theological Voice (Notre Dame University Press, Notre Dame, 2002) and Postmodernity’s Transcending: Devaluing God (Notre Dame University Press, Notre Dame and SCM Press, London, 2005). He is currently examining Heidegger’s ‘being with others’ (Miteinandersein) for a book to be published in 2010. In 2005 he wrote a short book on Pope Benedict XVI.

His book on Postmodernity was the subject of a research conference at the Catholic University of Leuven in October 2004, and the papers engaging with its themes were published in Supplement Series of the online journal Ars Disputandi (University of Utrecht) in October 2005 and can be read or downloaded from here.

A full list of his publications, conference papers, public lectures and other initiatives can be found here.

Laurence Hemming edits two current book series: Studies in Fundamental Liturgy for T&T Clark (Continuum) and Faith in Reason: Philosophical Studies for Notre Dame University Press and SCM Press. He edited the series Heythrop Studies in Contemporary Philosophy, Religion and Theology until its closure in 2005 after nine books. He is an editor of the liturgical journal Usus Antiquior, which he helped found, and which will begin publication in January 2010.