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Home About Us The Team Senior Leadership Team Revd Dr Stephen Roberts

Revd Dr Stephen Roberts

A little about me:

I am a practical theologian, Church in Wales priest, and amateur saxophonist. Originally from London, I have lived in Cardiff since 2004 and have found a spiritual home in the Church in Wales, which I am pleased to be serving in my role at St Padarn’s. I was ordained in St Paul’s Cathedral in 1991 for a curacy in Kilburn and West Hampstead.

I then became Team Vicar in the Uxbridge Team Ministry, working across churches of different traditions, before taking up a post as Chaplain to Brunel University in West London. That’s where my further studies of theology began, at Heythrop College, University of London - thinking theologically about the interreligious encounters that were central to chaplaincy ministry. My ministry since then has all been in theological education: firstly, at St Michael’s, Llandaff, then at the University of Chichester, and most recently at Cardiff Baptist College and Cardiff University.

Most of my music-making is in Wonderbrass, which has also been very significant for my academic work (see, for example, the article: Collective Joy). I love finding theological meaning the in-between places: between theology and music, church and world, different Christian and different religious traditions.

Research Interests

My research all comes under the umbrella of Practical Theology, which refers to a way of doing theology that pays sustained attention to lived experience and practice. This approach has shaped my way of joining a rich conversation about the relationship between music and theology, the main area in which I have published. Another specific research interest – the subject of my Master’s and PhD – is interfaith relations. My approach to this has been increasingly shaped by thinking about forms of lived experience, such as hybrid religious identities, that challenge some of the neat theological categories which sometimes characterise thinking about the relationship between religions (see, for example, my chapter reflecting on Pope Francis and interreligious dialogue, Is the Pope Catholic?). A lot of my theological trajectory has been shaped by my experience of university chaplaincy, with chaplaincy studies being a third area of practical theology in which I have published.

Published Work
  • (with Hannah Buckley) ‘Sounding the depths: Reflections on playlist as pilgrimage through collaborative autoethnographic musicking’ in Liesl van der Merwe et al. Autoethnographies in Music, Spirituality and Well-being, Volumes I & II (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2026)
  • ‘Chaplaincy, Liminality and the Future of Theology’, in Graeme Smith and Andrew Todd (eds.), Future Faith: Public and Practical Theologies for the Contemporary World (Abingdon:Routledge, 2025)
  • (with Robert Smith and Hannah O’Mahoney) ‘Collective Joy: The Spirituality of the Community Big Band Wonderbrass’, Religions 14, no. 9: 1099. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14091099
  • (with Sarah Dunlop,eds.) Chaplaincy and Practical Theology: Researching a Pioneering Ministry, Abingdon: Routledge, 2022.
  • ‘Music and Spirituality in a Polyphonic Public Sphere’, in Karin Hendricks and June Boyce-Tillman (eds.), Authentic Connection: Music, Spirituality, and Wellbeing, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2021.
  • ‘Listening to Lockdown: Sound Theology in a Time of Crisis’, Practical Theology, 14.1-2, 2021.
  • (with Martin Poole), ‘Public Liturgical Theology through Community and Public Art’, in Sheona Beaumont and Madeleine Emerald Thiele (eds.), Transforming Christian Thought in the Visual Arts: Theology, Aesthetics, and Practice, Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
  • ‘Keeping Contact:Traditions and Trajectories of British and Irish Practical Theology as Evidenced in the History of BIAPT’s Journal’, Practical Theology, 13.1-2, 2020, 19-31.
  • ‘John Tavener’s Musical Theology of Religions’, in June Boyce-Tillman and Anne-Marie Forbes (eds.), Heart’s Ease: Spirituality in the Music of John Tavener, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2020.
  • ‘Theology Down at the Crossroads: The Spirituality of the Devil’s Music’, in June Boyce-Tillman, Stephen B Roberts and Jane Erricker (eds.) Enlivening Faith: Music, Spirituality and Christian Theology, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019.
  • (with Dr Anthony Allison) Reading non-Christian Scriptures in Christian Liturgy, CTBI briefing paper reflecting on the experience of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow, 2018 (CTBI website), https://ctbi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Reading-Non-Christian-Scriptures-in-Christian-Worship-Discussion-Paper.pdf
  • ‘Is the Pope Catholic? A Question of Identity in Pope Francis’ Practical Theology of Inter-Religious Dialogue’, in Harold Kasimow and Alan Race (eds.), Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue: Religious Thinkers Engage with Recent Papal Initiatives, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018
  • ‘Walking with Turtles and Botanising on Asphalt: Chaplain as flâneur as Public Theologian’, Practical Theology, 10.4, 2017, 351-366
  • ‘Beyond the Classic: Lady Gaga and Theology in the Wild Public Sphere’, International Journal of Public Theology, 11.3, 2017, 163-187
  • ‘Time, Space and the Possibility of God’, in Tony Bayfield (ed.), Deep Calls to Deep: Transforming Conversations Between Jews and Christians, London: SCM, 2017.

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