Revd Dr James Crockford
Associate Supervisor
Email: jrwc5@cam.ac.uk
James supervises postgraduate research students at Westcott, alongside his pastoral, liturgical and tutorial duties as Dean across the road at Jesus College. His areas of specialism include:
- Christian theologies of music
- The interaction of religious texts and practice
- The early works of St Augustine
James grew up in Derbyshire and Kent, before reading Music at the University of Nottingham. He is a saxophonist and Fellow of the Royal Schools of Music.
After working in church community projects and training in counselling, he came to Cambridge to read Theology at Trinity Hall, whilst training for ordination at Ridley Hall. James served in parish ministry in south-east London and central Oxford, before returning to Cambridge as Dean of Chapel at Jesus College.
He holds a Lambeth Research Degree in Theology (PhD), on Augustine’s early thinking on music, supervised by Canon Professor Carol Harrison.
James’ research interests include music ministry, liturgical music, and the history of music in the Church; dialogue between theology and the arts; the philosophy and hermeneutics of music; embodiment and the senses in musical and religious experience; contested heritage and theologies of the built environment.
Publications
‘A Love Supreme: Mediations of immediacy in jazz ritual and recitation’, Yale Journal of Music & Religion 9(2), 2024, pp 9-30.
‘Martin Luther and the metaphysics of music’, Scottish Journal of Theology 76(4), November 2023, pp 357-368.
Review article, ‘Simon Jackson, George Herbert and Early Modern Musical Culture’ in Review of English Studies, Vol. 74 Issue 316, October 2023.
Review article, ‘Maeve Louise Heaney, Suspended God: Music and a Theology of Doubt’ in Theology, Vol. 126 No.1, 2023.
Review article, ‘Richard H. Bell, Theology of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Volumes I and II’ in Theology, Vol. 125 No.3, 2022.
‘Contested memorials and the discipleship of Christian memory’, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 22(2), July 2022, pp 97-110.
Review article, ‘Mark Porter, Ecologies of Resonance in Christian Musicking’ in Theology, Vol. 124 No.5, 2021.
Review article, ‘Mark A. Lamport, Benjamin K. Forrest and Vernon M. Whaley (eds), Hymns and Hymnody: Historical and Theological Introductions. Volume 1: From Asia Minor to Western Europe; Mark A. Lamport, Benjamin K. Forrest and Vernon M. Whaley (eds), Hymns and Hymnody: Historical and Theological Introductions. Volume 2: From Catholic Europe to Protestant Europe’ in Theology, Vol.124 No.3, 2021.
Faith Beyond Fear: Sermons from Newman’s Pulpit, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2021.
Review article, ‘Timothy Day, I Saw Eternity the Other Night: King’s College, Cambridge and an English singing style’ in Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, Vol. 43, 2019.
Review article, ‘David Brown and Gavin Hopps, The Extravagance of Music’ in Theology, Vol. 122 No.2, 2019.
Review article, ‘Jeremy Begbie, Redeeming Transcendence in the Arts’ in Theology, Vol. 122 No.2, 2019.
‘Get Happy: Luther and the power of musical affect’, LOGIA XXVI(1), January 2017, pp 47-52.
Review article, ‘Marcel Hébert, Religious Experience in the Work of Richard Wagner,’ in Theology, Vol. 119 No. 3, 2016.
‘Performing music, performing faith’, Theology 119(1), January 2016.
Photo credit: Patricia Boulhosa