Revd Dr Matthias Grebe is Lecturer and Tutor at St Mellitus College, London. Prior to this, Matthias held a research fellowship at the University of Bonn, Germany, where he worked on a project on theodicy and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Matthias undertook doctoral work on Karl Barth under the supervision of Prof. David Ford at the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge. His revised PhD thesis is published under Election, Atonement, and the Holy Spirit (2014).

Matthias read Theology, Philosophy and Rhetoric at the University of Tübingen, where he also trained for a professional certificate in psychotherapy. He is the associate vicar of St Edward King and Martyr in Cambridge and the Church of England's Adviser for European Church Relations for the Council for Christian Unity at Church House, and recent publications include After Brexit? European Unity and the Unity of European Churches (2019). He is married to Victoria and they have two small children.

• PhD in Systematic Theology, University of Cambridge
• MPhil in New Testament Studies, University of Cambridge
• BA (equiv.) Theology, Philosophy and Rhetoric, University of Tübingen

• Topics in Christian Doctrine
• Advanced Topics in Christian Doctrine
• Methods in Modern Theology
• Ecclesiology
• Christian Faith and Ethical Living
• Foundations in Christian Worship
• Advanced Study of a Christian Figure: Bonhoeffer

• Twentieth-century German theology (Barth, Tillich, Bonhoeffer)
• Christian and Jewish mysticism
• Ethics of responsibility
• Christian existentialism and developmental psychology
• Ecclesiology and pneumatology
• Interpretations of the atonement
• Suffering and the problem of evil

Matthias’ current research is focussed on theodicy. He is working on a project entitled Theodicy and Soteriology: a cross-centred solution to the problem of theodicy and its Trinitarian implications, with reference to Bonhoeffer, Moltmann and Metz.

This project examines the apparent contradiction posed by the omnipotence and love of God, and the reality of evil and suffering in the world, and seeks to explain it through the lens of redemption. In doing so, it considers the trilemma of theodicy – the discrepancies perceived between the experience of the world, the conception of God, and the question of the justification of God in a world of suffering. It asks not only what it means to do theology after Auschwitz but, more significantly, what it means to live ethically after Auschwitz. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, what might Life Together look like, after Auschwitz?

Matthias is also editing the T&T Clark Handbook to Suffering and the Problem of Evil (2022). This Handbook provides an extensive exploration of the theology of theodicy, asking questions such as should all instances of suffering necessarily be understood as evil? Why would an omnipotent and benevolent God perpetrate or allow evil? Is God unable or unwilling to reduce human and animal suffering on Earth? Do humans have the capacity to exercise a moral evaluation of God’s motives and intentions? Conventional disciplinary boundaries have tended to separate theological approaches to these questions from philosophical ones. This volume aims to overcome these boundaries by including biblical (Part I), historical (Part II), doctrinal (Part III), philosophical (Part IV), pastoral and interreligious perspectives (Part V) on theodicy.

In his role at Church House, Matthias is also currently editing a book on episcopacy entitled Towards Interchangeability (2022).

Selected Publications:

Books and Edited Volumes

• 2020: Mark Chapman, Friederike Nüssel, and Matthias Grebe (eds.), Revisiting the Meissen Declaration after 30 years (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt).

• 2019: Polyphonie der Theologie: Verantwortung und Widerstand in Kirche und Politik (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer).

• 2019: Matthias Grebe and Jeremy Worthen (eds.), After Brexit? The Church of England, the European Churches and the Future of European Unity (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt).

• 2014: Election, Atonement, and the Holy Spirit: Through and Beyond Barth’s Interpretation of Scripture (foreword by David F. Ford) (Oregon: Wipf & Stock, Princeton Theological Monograph series).

Articles and Chapters

• 2020: ‘The Eclipse of Responsibility and an Ethics Gone Awry: An Outsider View from the Inside’, in Jonathan Chaplin and Andrew Bradstock (eds.), The Future of Brexit Britain: Anglican Reflections on National Identity and European Solidarity (London: SPCK).

• 2020: ‘What Constitutes a Church?: Revisiting Ecclesiology, Ordained Ministry, and Episcopé in light of the Meissen Declaration’, in Mark Chapman, Friederike Nüssel, and Matthias Grebe (eds.) Revisiting the Meissen Declaration after 30 years (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt), 28–50.

• 2019: ‘Suffering, Sin-bearing, and Stellvertretung: Revisiting the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’, in Matthias Grebe (ed.), Polyphonie der Theologie. Verantwortung und Widerstand in Kirche und Politik(Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2019), 175–193.

• 2019: Will Adam, Matthias Grebe and Jeremy Worthen, ‘The Church of England and European Ecumenism: Making our Unity Visible’, in Matthias Grebe and Jeremy Worthen (eds.), After Brexit? The Church of England, the European Churches and the Future of European Unity, (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt), 129–148.

• 2017: ‘The Problem of Evil’, in Adam J. Johnson (ed.), T&T Clark Companion to the Atonement. (London: T&T Clark), 707–712.

• 2017: ‘Jürgen Moltmann,’ in Adam J. Johnson (ed.), T&T Clark Companion to the Atonement, (London: T&T Clark), 651–654.

• 2016: ‘Revelation as Salvation: A Comparison of «Revelation» in Barth and Tillich,’ in Mireille Hébert and Anne Marie Reijnen (eds.), Paul Tillich et Karl Barth: Antagonismes et accords théologiques (Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2016), 25–44.

• 2015: ‘Jesus Christ: Victim or Victor? Revisiting Galatians 3:13 in conversation with Karl Barth and Scripture,’ Communio Viatorum: A Theological Journal (LVII, 2015, III), 240-251.