Peter Stork
           MSc, MA (theol), PhD

Research

As an independent researcher, my interests focus on three big-picture concerns:

• ​The challenge of modern scientific discoveries, especially in cosmology and evolutionary anthropology, for Christianity.

• The phenomenon of universal human violence, including the crisis of human rights.

• The application of René Girard's mimetic theory in the above contexts.

​

The Challenge of the Century
for the Church

"How to speak appropriately about God's creation and human existence amid a worldview that is dominated by a scientific/technological understanding of the natural world and a secular self-understanding of the human condition?"

​

My aim is to write, speak, and pray that I may inspire fellow Christians to befriend the new cosmic story that emerges from the data of modern science. Why? Because I believe that neglecting scientific discoveries in our time can only lead to diminishing the public credibility of Christian truth claims.

TED PETERS

Australian readers may order a signed copy of Cosmos and Revelation for $40.00 (including postage).

Please order by phone 0422 958671 or by email via the contact form of this site. Please include your postal address. Pre-pay to BSB 112 908; Acc. 458 166 601.

Relying on René Girard's theory of mimetic desire and the dramatic theology of Raymund Schwager, I examine the fragility and failure of the human rights system when faced with escalating global violence. One of my central concerns is the human condition that makes violence foundational to the social order. I also argue that the human rights crisis is neither an accident nor a shortfall in implementation but the result of subconscious, collective structures of civilization itself. In the theological key, I relate the notion of imitative desire to data of Christian hope enabling the reader to reflect on important questions of human rights from a fresh perspective. 

"The Scientific Challenge for the Church in the Work of Arthur Peacocke.” St Mark’s Review 221, no. 3 (September 2012): 14–30.

​

"Jesus’ Path to a New Social Order: Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount." 

​

"Wisdom as the Interdisciplinary Space for Science and Theology.” AEJT 18, no. 3, (2011):211–218. 

​

"Anatomy of Violence: A psychological reflection with a theological twist" (unpublished research paper).

​

"Terrorism: Icon of Resentment" (unpublished working paper).

​

"Hope—Essential and Abundant." AEJT 15 (January 2010): 1–10.

​

"The Ambiguity of Human Rights and the Politics of God" (unpublished research paper, 2010).

​

"The Representational Grounds of Human Mimesis." (unpublished research paper, June 2020).

​

​

"The Church and the Rhetoric of Expulsion." (unpublished research paper, September 2021)