Andrew McGowan

For the Scottish theologian, see A. T. B. McGowan.

The Very Reverend

Andrew McGowan

Born|

Andrew Brian McGowan

(1961-08-17) 17 August 1961 (age 63)

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Nationality| Australian
Title| Dean and President of Berkeley Divinity School (since 2014)
Ecclesiastical career
Religion| Christianity (Anglican)
Church| Anglican Church of Australia

Offices held

| Canon of St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne (2007–2014)
Academic background
Alma mater|

* University of Western Australia
* Trinity College Theological School
* University of Notre Dame

Thesis| To Gather the Fragments (1996)
Doctoral advisor| Harold W. Attridge
Academic work
Discipline| Theology
Sub-discipline| Historical theology
Institutions|

* University of Notre Dame Australia
* Episcopal Divinity School
* Trinity College Theological School
* University of Melbourne
* Yale University

Doctoral students| Paul Oslington
Website| abmcg.blogspot.com

Andrew Brian McGowan (born 1961) is an Australian scholar of early Christianity and an Anglican priest. He is McFaddin Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School and dean and president of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.[1]

Prior to appointment at Berkeley and Yale he was the seventh warden of Trinity College (University of Melbourne) (2007–2014) and Joan F. W. Munro Professor of Historical Theology in the Trinity College Theological School, Melbourne within the University of Divinity.

## Early life and education

[edit]

McGowan was born on 17 August 1961 in Melbourne,[2] moving to Perth as a teenager. He attended Christ Church Grammar School in Perth and was an early member of the music group that became the Triffids. He then studied classics and ancient history at the University of Western Australia (BA Hons 1983). He studied theology at Trinity College (BD Hons 1986) in Melbourne. After ordination he served a curacy in Como/Manning before appointment as rector of Forrestfield in 1988. He then undertook doctoral studies in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United States (MA, PhD, 1996), where he was supervised by Harold W. Attridge. His thesis was titled "To Gather the Fragments: The Social Significance of Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals",[3] and published in revised form by the Clarendon Press at Oxford in its Oxford Early Christian Studies series as Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals.

## Career

[edit]

On his return to Australia in 1996, McGowan was lecturer in New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Fremantle. In 1998 he was appointed assistant professor in Early Christian History at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, being promoted to associate professor in 1999.

He returned to Trinity College as director of its theological school in 2003. After serving as acting warden in 2005 and 2006, he was appointed seventh warden of Trinity College in January 2007. In October 2012, he was elected one of the 10 foundation professors of the MCD University of Divinity, Australia's first specialist university.[4] During this time he was a member of the chapter (i.e., canon) of St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, and a clerical member of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia.

In July 2014, McGowan returned to the United States to succeed Joseph H. Britton in the post of dean and president of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Associate Dean for Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School. He was also appointed J. L. Caldwell McFaddin and Rosine B. McFaddin Professor of Anglican Studies by the president and fellows of Yale University from July 2014.

McGowan was editor of the Journal of Anglican Studies from 2013 to 2020.[5]

## Research

[edit]

McGowan's research interests centre on ancient Christianity, especially the Eucharist, sacrifice, food and meals in antiquity, early North African Christianity, and on Anglican theology. He has also been a commentator on aspects of higher education and religion in contemporary society, including in the Washington Post, USA Today, The Age, The Australian, The Conversation, ABC's The Drum,[6] the news column of the Biblical Archaeology Society called "Bible History Daily" and SkyNews.[7] He is a Christian socialist.[8]

## Select publications

[edit]

* Seven Last Words: Creation and Cross (Portland, Or.: Cascade), 2021.
* Ancient and Modern: Anglican Essays on the Bible, the Church, and the World (Portland, Or. and Melbourne, Australia: Wipf & Stock, and Morning Star), 2015.
* Ancient Christian Worship: Early Church Practices in Social, Historical, and Theological Perspective (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014). Also published in Italian translation as Il Culto Cristiano dei Primi Secoli (Bologna: Dehoniane, 2019)
* Method and Meaning: Essays on New Testament Interpretation in Honor of Harold W. Attridge, ed. Andrew B. McGowan and Kent Harold Richards (Leiden: Brill, 2012)
* God in Early Christian Thought: Essays in Memory of Lloyd G. Patterson ed. Andrew B. McGowan, Tim Gaden, and Brian E. Daley (Leiden: Brill, 2009).
* Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals (Oxford: Clarendon, 1999)

## See also

[edit]

* Biography portal
* Christianity portal

* Anglican Diocese of Perth

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Andrew McGowan Appointed Dean, accessed 12 August 2014.
2. ^ McGowan, Andrew. "Curriculum Vitae". Retrieved 3 May 2020.
3. ^ McGowan, Andrew Brian (1996). To Gather the Fragments: The Social Significance of Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals (PhD thesis). Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame. OCLC 35027214.
4. ^ "MCD University of Divinity Appoints its First Professors" Archived 21 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 1 June 2013
5. ^ Blackman, Graeme L. (2020). "Journal of Anglican Studies: Change of Editor" (PDF). Journal of Anglican Studies. 18: 1. doi:10.1017/S1740355320000297. S2CID 225936859. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
6. ^ "Contributors to The Drum". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
7. ^ Professor Andrew McGowan discusses the appointment of Pope Francis
8. ^ "Andrew McGowan". Twitter. Retrieved 3 May 2020.

## External links

[edit]

* Blog on theology, Anglican affairs and early Christianity

Academic offices

Preceded by

Donald Markwell

|  Warden of Trinity College, Melbourne
2007–2014  | Succeeded by

Campbell P. Bairstow

Preceded by

Joseph H. Britton

|  Dean and President of
Berkeley Divinity School
2014–present  | Incumbent

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Australia
* Netherlands
* Norway
* Poland
* Vatican
* Israel
* Catalonia
* Belgium

People|

* Trove

Other|

* IdRef