Christopher Oldfield

Curriculum Vitae

My professional life

I am a research associate of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. I work on foundational questions in the logic of scientific metaphysics, with special interests in the history and meta-philosophical interpretation(s) of “naturalism”, “physicalism” and “materialism” in contemporary metaphysics.

Interests

I’m interested in the metaphysics of the manifest image, and ways of attending to things unseen in the scientific image. I’m interested in the use of organicist principles to reconcile a constructive empiricist philosophy of the object of mathematical physics with a realist philosophy of the objects of perception.

“…they suppose themselves to be above ‘metaphysics’ when in fact they are only a very little above it - being up to the neck in it.”

— Joseph Henry Woodger, Biological Principles (1929, p.246; II.V; §4)

Motivations

Besides my personal interests, I grieve the poverty of our public discourse, especially what passes for an understanding of the virtues of science and religion. I aspire to a more literate experience, and hope to remedy the wealth of myth-understanding at work, inside and outside the philosophy room.

“Vouloir faire tenir la nature dans la science, ce serait faire entrer le tout dans la partie”

— Henri Poincaré, Science et Méthode (1920, p.8; §1 Le Choix des Faits)

Inspirations

I learned from James Ladyman, Bas van Fraassen, and Hans Halvorson to think of naturalism and empiricism as ways of asking ontological questions, not to be confused with an answer or the only way of asking them. I learned from Peter Harrison, Alasdair MacIntrye, and Maria Rosa Antognazza the benefit to philosophy of the study of its history. I learned from Michael Friedman, Thomas Uebel, and Nancy Cartwright that the physicalist manifesto of the Vienna circle has been radically misunderstood; and from Janet Soskice, Peter van Inwagen, and Merold Westphal to value theologically motivated forms of anti-realism.

Portfolio

Curicculum Vitae (PDF and online)
Photograph courtesy of 2022 workshop on Hylomorphism and Teleology at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

2022 Workshop on Nature’s Goals, Hylomorphism and Teleology at Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge. Photograph courtesy of the organisers.

  • Lecturer (Selected)

    • University of Hertfordshire
      Metaphysics (syllabus) 2024-25

    • University College London
      Science and Religion
      - New Atheism (outline), 2024-25
      - Darwinism (outline), 2024-25

    • University of Oxford
      The Limits of Philosophy, Science and Religion (with Stephen Law), 2022

    • Fordham University
      Philosophical Ethics (syllabus), 2016-19

    Tutor (Cambridge)

    Teaching Assistant (London)

    • UCL
      History of Modern Science
      Philosophy of Science
      Science and Religion

    • KCL
      Philosophy of Physics
      Metaphysics
      Philosophy of Psychology
      Philosophy of Religion
      Philosophy of Mind

    • Why Middle Sized Matters to Science and Religion: William Simpson and I co-edited a special issue of Scientia et Fides, Volume 13, No. 2, published in October 2025. Our editorial, with contributions from Barbara Drossel, George Ellis, Hans Halvorson, Robert Koons, Emily Qureshi-Hurst, and Howard Robinson (among others) is available online: https://apcz.umk.pl/SetF/issue/view/3066

    • The Activity View (Research Project, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion): Following van Fraassen’s (2002) rejection of the meta-philosophical ‘Principle Zero’, I am working to develop an alternative way of thinking about what is at stake in debates about a range of philosophical ``-isms” (like “naturalism”, “physicalism”, “scientism”, etc). The Activity View promises to explain why arguments for/against specific theses often serve to generate more heat than light, by identifying a profound but persistent meta-philosophical error. The error is to mistake the spirit of an activity for the content of a theory.

    • Bound States and Living Organisms
      (Draft)

    • Pan-Psyche-Ism
      (Draft)

    • Categorical Dualism
      (Draft)

    • Newman, Plantinga and Darwin’s Doubt (Draft, Slides from ‘Our Irrational Past’, 2025)

    • The Activity View of Physicalism
      (Abstract)

    • When Are Fosters Parts?
      (Abstract, Draft, Video from BUMP conf 2024)

    • Naturalism without Content (Video from ‘Christianity Facing Naturalism’ conf, 2024)

    • Myth-Understanding Scientific Agency, and the Tragedy of Scientism in a Secular Age
      (Draft from ESSAT conference 2024)

    • Hylomorphism and the Inverse Special Composition Question (Draft, Video from Symposium on Middle Sized Matters, 2023),

    • Mereology Naturalised? Not Yet
      (Draft, Audio, Foundations of Physics 2023)

    • The Attentional Stance: McGilchrist for Dennettians (Draft, Audio from ISSR, 2023)

    • God, the Science, the Evidence, by Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonassies
      Seen and Unseen (first draft, published 2025)

    • Natural Philosophy (OUP), by Alister McGrath, Science and Christian Belief: 36/1:147-9 (2023)

    • Inventing the Universe, by Alister McGrath, Science and Christian Belief 27/1 : 134-5 (2017)

    • Mind and Cosmos (OUP), by Thomas Nagel,
      Science and Christian Belief 28/2: 103-4 (2015)

    • 2025 Discussion on Physicalism; Dr Nathan Hawkins’ Youtube channel (unedited, edited)

    • 2024 On Praise of Love an Being in Love as an Ethical Idea (video, slides); St Ethelberger’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, London

    • 2024 The Metaphysics of Pregnancy: dispatches from the B.U.M.P. debates (Podcast, Slides), Program for Medicine, Spirituality and Religion, Yale University

    • 2023 Extended Q+A with Iain McGilchrist on The Matter with Things at The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion (online)

    • 2023 `Can A Rational Person Believe in Miracles?' (1 minute response to prompt) Universities and colleges Christian Fellowship

    • 2022 `The Selfish Green?’ (audio): panel on the religious roots of the Anthropocene (with Mazviita Chirimuuta, Timothy Howles, Hannah Malcolm), Greenbelt Festival

    • 2022 The Limits of Philosophy, Science and Religion (with Stephen Law), Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford

    • 2021 Epiphany (article),
      Christchurch London Broadcast

    • 2019 The Myth of Conflict (article), Christchurch London Broadcast

    • 2017 Science, Religion and the Ethics of Belief, (Evening Lecture) Institute of Physics: Northern Branch, University of Leeds

    • 2017 Science, Religion and the Business of Knowledge, (online) for Faraday short course, Department of Physics, University of Hull

    • 2016 Who’s Afraid of Naturalism? (article) Pulse magazine 22 (Spring 2016): 22-26

  • Memberships

    • European Society for Science and Theology (2024- present)

    • British Society for the History of Philosophy (2023-present)

    • International Society for Science and Religion (2023-present)

    • British Society for the Philosophy of Science (2022-present)

    • Postdoctoral Society of Trinity College, Cambridge (2022-2024)

    Employment

    • Research Associate, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge (2021-)

    • Adjunct Professor, London Faculty for Teaching, Fordham University (2016-2019)

Testimonials

2024 presentation on Thinking with Assent while Living with Doubts at Newman House, University College Dublin Photograph courtesy of the organisers of Wittgenstein, Newman and Hinge Epistemology

“I am indebted to Christopher Oldfield of the Faraday Institute at the University of Cambridge for his illuminating grasp of the scientific, philosophical, and theological dimensions of reductionism.”

— Jeremy Begbie, Duke Divinity School and the University of Cambridge

“Rigorous, clearly explained technical concepts, always available and responsive to questions.”
“He’s great, absolutely wonderful. I think I want to take this subject for a Masters”
“Helpful, informative seminars, Chris went out of his way to help me when I was struggling”

— Anonymous KCL Staff and Student teaching evaluations (avg 4.6/5.0)

“I wanted to thank you for your time and instruction. Science and Religion is in my top 3 favourite courses I have ever taken and gave me much to ponder after every class. I really enjoyed our conversations and how much attention you put into your lectures.”

“I just wanted to let you know […] how much I enjoyed our weekly seminars. You made the conversations so informative, digestible, and interesting! Truly made me more interested in the course, I looked forward to it every week.”

— Unsolicited UCL student emails from the 2024 HPS/BASC programme

“The image is not a certain meaning, expressed by the director, but the entire world, reflected as in a drop of water”

— Andrei Tarkovsky (1986) Sculpting in Time, p.110

Our common lot

“Il faut cultiver notre jardin” - Voltaire. 2024 Photograph courtesy of Jude Aytoun (Passio). Vibes have been rumoured to include The Soil by David Benjamin Blower, The Garden by Bobby Mcferrin, A Garden Disciple by Willie Jennings, Praying by Mary Oliver, Staying Power by Jeanne Murray Walker, and occasional Beats In Abundance

Contact

2024 Symposium on Why Middle-Sized Matters for Science, Theology and Metaphysics, at All Souls College, in the University of Oxford. Photograph courtesy of the organisers.