Devin Singh
Theology
E-mail: devin.singh@yale.edu
Devin Singh researches theology and social thought, focusing primarily on links between theological, economic and political concepts. Trained in systematic theology, religious studies methods, and social and cultural theory, Devin is interested in the contextual forces shaping theological ideas, and the ways such ideas in turn work back upon their contexts. For Devin this means that theology is not only an object for rigorous social scientific study, but is itself a critical tool in understanding culture and society. To do theology is thus to engage in social theory. His work has examined political theology in theoretical and historical perspective, liberation theology, global and racial/ethnic contextual theologies, as well as ideas of the image and representation. His interdisciplinary approach includes phenomenology, postcolonial thought, the sociology of knowledge, and economic theory.
Devin’s dissertation, advised by Kathryn Tanner, attempts to conceptualize how money and ideas of God can be brought into relation for mutual clarification and meaningful social engagement. Focusing on the Christian theological tradition, Devin examines how early ideas of the incarnate son of God, i.e., Christology, draw upon and interact with monetary economy. Not only can Christ and money be related, Devin argues, but they have always been so, and this has shaped them both. The aim is to demonstrate this link through engagement with patristic thought and contemporary theologies of money, and to develop a conceptual model for analyzing theological factors shaping monetary economy in the West.
Devin has served as teaching fellow in courses on systematic, medieval, and practical theology, as well as the sociology of religion. During the 2011-12 academic year he will be a fellow at Yale’s Graduate Teaching Center, providing training in pedagogy to the Graduate School community. He is the recipient of several competitive grants and fellowships, including the Whiting Dissertation Fellowship at Yale, and the Fund for Theological Education’s North American Doctoral Fellowship. Devin received his BA in religious studies from Pomona College, MDiv from Trinity International University, and MA in social sciences from the University of Chicago.
