Elaine Storkey
Encyclopedia
Elaine Storkey is an English philosopher, sociologist and theologian. She is known for her lecturing, writing and broadcasting.
, West Yorkshire, and was educated at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
, doing postgraduate work in philosophy at McMaster University
, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and York University
, England.
In 1968 she married Alan Storkey
an economist, writer and lecturer, with whom she has had three sons.
's work, Storkey's first academic post was in philosophy in Oxford, as a tutor at Manchester College, Oxford.
She left Manchester College, Oxford to marry and join her husband on the faculty of the University of Stirling
. She started broadcasting with the BBC in 1986, after they both returned from a period of lecturing at Calvin College, Michigan and Covenant College, Tennessee in the United States. She has since been involved in many documentaries, arts, news and current affairs programmes. She has been a presenter on Radio 4's Thought for the Today for over 20 years and has written many scripts for the BBC World Service. Elaine Storkey has authored several books including What's Right With Feminism, The Search for Intimacy and Mary's Story, Mary's Song. She has also been a member of the General Synod of the Church of England
since 1987, serving on the Archbishops Rural Commission and the Cathedrals Commission. For many years she wrote for The Independent
and now regularly writes for the Swedish newspaper Dagen and for the Church Times
. During the 1990s she collaborated with Roman Catholic author and theologian Magaret Hebblethwaite and they co-authored a book exploring Christian feminism from two different traditions. Their writings on women are widely used within the Roman Catholic as well as other churches. Storkey was also a close colleague of the Biblical scholar, Catherine Clark Kroeger, whose obituary she wrote in July 2011
After many years teaching and writing with the Open University
and presenting radio and television documentaries on gender, race and ethnicity, Storkey succeeded John Stott
as Executive Director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) in 1991, a post she held until 1999. She also taught at King's College London
. In 1997 she became President of Tearfund
, a Christian relief and development charity, and has since been involved in monitoring aid, relief and advocacy work in countries of the Global South. In 2010 she and her husband, Alan, became founder members of Restored, an organisation committed to advocating against violence to women.
Storkey has served on many other boards and councils, including the Crown Nominations Commission, the environmental agency A Rocha
, the global advocacy group, Micah Challenge
, and as Vice President of the University of Gloucestershire
. She is currently Chair of Fulcrum
, a Church of England think-tank. She holds a Lambeth DD degree
and was given an honorary PhD from the University of Gloucestershire.
Storkey's Created or Constructed grew out of lectures given at the University of New South Wales in Australia. From 2003 to 2007, Elaine Storkey was a colleague of Alister McGrath
as Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford
. Amidst much publicity in 2008, after 12 members of the academic staff had resigned, critical of the leadership of the college principal, Richard Turnbull
, she took Wycliffe Hall to an employment tribunal. The college admitted that it did not comply with employment law and was ordered to pay compensation. She continues to teach on the Christian Mind course at Oxford University. She became a member of High Table at Newnham College, Cambridge
in January 2008 and in February 2009 she was appointed as Director of Education and Training for the Church of England's Church Army
. In the summer of 2009 she held a Cambridge Templeton Fellowship in Journalism and in 2010 she became Chair of The Church and Media network. Among the lectures she has given since summer 2010 are the Frumentius Lectures, the Annual Barnardo Lecture the 'Global Gender Lectures' for the Cymru Institute the Oliver Lyseight Annual Memorial Lecture A fuller list of lectures can be found on the author's webpage
Storkey lectures across the world, including in Haiti, India and Ethiopia and is a prominent feminist evangelical. Her writings have brought a biblical perspective to the feminist movement. She is concerned to highlight the impact of climate change and global poverty, as well as of sexual violence, on women. She has visited many African countries and been involved in advocacy. She was awarded a life-time award for services to women by the American group CBE in 2008.
What's Right with Feminism SPCK 1985
Mary's Story, Mary's Song Harper-Collins 1993
Magnify the Lord Harper Collins 1996
The Search for Intimacy Hodder Headline 1994
Conversations on Christian Feminism with Margaret Hebblethwaite: Harper-Collins 1999
Created or Constructed: The Great Gender Debate Paternoster Press 2000
The Origins of Difference Baker Book House 2002
Word on the Street Old Hall Press, 2005
Other publications
'The Production of Social Divisions', Social Sciences: A Foundation, Open University Press 1985
'Sex and Sexuality in the Church', Mirror to the Church, Editor Monica Furlong, SPCK. 1986
Faith in the Countryside, Report of the Archbishops' Commission on Rural Areas, co-author. 1990
'Modernity and Anthropology' in Faith and Modernity, edit Sampson, Sugden, Samuel, Lynx. 1994
'Dooyeweerd's Anthropology – The Male-Female Dimension' in Christian Philosophy at the
Close of the Twentieth Century, Assessment and Perspective, Sander Griffioen, Bert M. Balk,
ed. Uitgeverij kok Kampen 1995
'Sexuality and Spirituality' in David Torrance, Family, Sexuality and Spirituality Hansel Press 1997
'A Commentary – New Testament Study Bible' with Catherine Kroeger and Mary Evans CUP 2002
'Theology and Gender' in A Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology CUP 2008
Early years and education
Storkey is the eldest of three children to James and Anne Lively. She grew up in OssettOssett
Ossett is a market town within the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It is located on junction 40 of the M1 motorway, half-way between Dewsbury, to the west, and Wakefield, to the east. In the 2001 census, it was classified as part of the West Yorkshire...
, West Yorkshire, and was educated at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth University is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding Member Institution of the former federal University of Wales. As of late 2006, the university had over 12,000 students spread across seventeen academic departments.The university was founded in 1872 as...
, doing postgraduate work in philosophy at McMaster University
McMaster University
McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...
, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
, England.
In 1968 she married Alan Storkey
Alan Storkey
Alan Storkey is an economist, sociologist and artist. He is known for his writing and lectures and for his work on transport and the Arms Trade. He grew up in Wembley, Nottingham and Norwich, the son of Alec and Doris Storkey. In 1968 he married Elaine Storkey née Elaine Lively, a philosopher,...
an economist, writer and lecturer, with whom she has had three sons.
Working life
After research on Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
's work, Storkey's first academic post was in philosophy in Oxford, as a tutor at Manchester College, Oxford.
She left Manchester College, Oxford to marry and join her husband on the faculty of the University of Stirling
University of Stirling
The University of Stirling is a campus university founded by Royal charter in 1967, on the Airthrey Estate in Stirling, Scotland.-History and campus development:...
. She started broadcasting with the BBC in 1986, after they both returned from a period of lecturing at Calvin College, Michigan and Covenant College, Tennessee in the United States. She has since been involved in many documentaries, arts, news and current affairs programmes. She has been a presenter on Radio 4's Thought for the Today for over 20 years and has written many scripts for the BBC World Service. Elaine Storkey has authored several books including What's Right With Feminism, The Search for Intimacy and Mary's Story, Mary's Song. She has also been a member of the General Synod of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
since 1987, serving on the Archbishops Rural Commission and the Cathedrals Commission. For many years she wrote for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
and now regularly writes for the Swedish newspaper Dagen and for the Church Times
Church Times
The Church Times is an independent Anglican weekly newspaper. It is published in the United Kingdom on Fridays.The Church Times was founded in 1863 to campaign for Anglo-Catholic principles and has always been independent of the Church of England hierarchy. It was a family concern The Church Times...
. During the 1990s she collaborated with Roman Catholic author and theologian Magaret Hebblethwaite and they co-authored a book exploring Christian feminism from two different traditions. Their writings on women are widely used within the Roman Catholic as well as other churches. Storkey was also a close colleague of the Biblical scholar, Catherine Clark Kroeger, whose obituary she wrote in July 2011
After many years teaching and writing with the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
and presenting radio and television documentaries on gender, race and ethnicity, Storkey succeeded John Stott
John Stott
John Robert Walmsley Stott CBE was an English Christian leader and Anglican cleric who was noted as a leader of the worldwide Evangelical movement. He was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974...
as Executive Director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) in 1991, a post she held until 1999. She also taught at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
. In 1997 she became President of Tearfund
Tearfund
Tearfund is a UK Christian relief and development agency which works in over 50 countries. It is a founding member of both the Micah Network and the Disasters Emergency Committee.-History:...
, a Christian relief and development charity, and has since been involved in monitoring aid, relief and advocacy work in countries of the Global South. In 2010 she and her husband, Alan, became founder members of Restored, an organisation committed to advocating against violence to women.
Storkey has served on many other boards and councils, including the Crown Nominations Commission, the environmental agency A Rocha
A Rocha
A Rocha is an international environmental organization with a Christian ethos. A Rocha, which means "the rock" in Portuguese , was founded in Portugal in 1983 by Anglican minister Peter Harris and his wife Miranda...
, the global advocacy group, Micah Challenge
Micah Challenge
The Micah Challenge is an international campaign that encourages Christians to support the Millennium Development Goals. Their aim is to "encourage our leaders to halve global poverty by 2015."...
, and as Vice President of the University of Gloucestershire
University of Gloucestershire
The University of Gloucestershire is a university primarily based in Gloucestershire, England, spread over four campuses, three in Cheltenham and one in Gloucester...
. She is currently Chair of Fulcrum
Fulcrum (Anglican think tank)
Fulcrum is a Church of England think tank representing the Evangelical Centre of the CofE. Formed in 2002, Fulcrum aims to renew the moderate centre of the evangelical tradition in the Church of England...
, a Church of England think-tank. She holds a Lambeth DD degree
Lambeth degree
A Lambeth degree is an academic degree conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury under the authority of the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 as successor of the papal legate in England...
and was given an honorary PhD from the University of Gloucestershire.
Storkey's Created or Constructed grew out of lectures given at the University of New South Wales in Australia. From 2003 to 2007, Elaine Storkey was a colleague of Alister McGrath
Alister McGrath
Alister Edgar McGrath is an Anglican priest, theologian, and Christian apologist, currently Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education at Kings College London and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture...
as Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford
Wycliffe Hall, Oxford
Wycliffe Hall is a Church of England theological college and a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located on the Banbury Road in central North Oxford, between Norham Gardens and Norham Road.-Overview:...
. Amidst much publicity in 2008, after 12 members of the academic staff had resigned, critical of the leadership of the college principal, Richard Turnbull
Richard Turnbull
Richard Duncan Turnbull is the Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, an Evangelical Anglican theological college which is part of the University of Oxford.-Biography:...
, she took Wycliffe Hall to an employment tribunal. The college admitted that it did not comply with employment law and was ordered to pay compensation. She continues to teach on the Christian Mind course at Oxford University. She became a member of High Table at Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
in January 2008 and in February 2009 she was appointed as Director of Education and Training for the Church of England's Church Army
Church Army
Church Army is an evangelistic Church of England organisation operating in many parts of the Anglican Communion.-History:Church Army was founded in England in 1882 by the Revd Wilson Carlile , who banded together in an orderly army of soldiers, officers, and a few working men and women, whom he and...
. In the summer of 2009 she held a Cambridge Templeton Fellowship in Journalism and in 2010 she became Chair of The Church and Media network. Among the lectures she has given since summer 2010 are the Frumentius Lectures, the Annual Barnardo Lecture the 'Global Gender Lectures' for the Cymru Institute the Oliver Lyseight Annual Memorial Lecture A fuller list of lectures can be found on the author's webpage
Storkey lectures across the world, including in Haiti, India and Ethiopia and is a prominent feminist evangelical. Her writings have brought a biblical perspective to the feminist movement. She is concerned to highlight the impact of climate change and global poverty, as well as of sexual violence, on women. She has visited many African countries and been involved in advocacy. She was awarded a life-time award for services to women by the American group CBE in 2008.
Published works
BooksWhat's Right with Feminism SPCK 1985
Mary's Story, Mary's Song Harper-Collins 1993
Magnify the Lord Harper Collins 1996
The Search for Intimacy Hodder Headline 1994
Conversations on Christian Feminism with Margaret Hebblethwaite: Harper-Collins 1999
Created or Constructed: The Great Gender Debate Paternoster Press 2000
The Origins of Difference Baker Book House 2002
Word on the Street Old Hall Press, 2005
Other publications
'The Production of Social Divisions', Social Sciences: A Foundation, Open University Press 1985
'Sex and Sexuality in the Church', Mirror to the Church, Editor Monica Furlong, SPCK. 1986
Faith in the Countryside, Report of the Archbishops' Commission on Rural Areas, co-author. 1990
'Modernity and Anthropology' in Faith and Modernity, edit Sampson, Sugden, Samuel, Lynx. 1994
'Dooyeweerd's Anthropology – The Male-Female Dimension' in Christian Philosophy at the
Close of the Twentieth Century, Assessment and Perspective, Sander Griffioen, Bert M. Balk,
ed. Uitgeverij kok Kampen 1995
'Sexuality and Spirituality' in David Torrance, Family, Sexuality and Spirituality Hansel Press 1997
'A Commentary – New Testament Study Bible' with Catherine Kroeger and Mary Evans CUP 2002
'Theology and Gender' in A Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology CUP 2008
External links
- http://www.templeton-cambridge.org/fellows/showfellow.php?fellow=34
- http://www.epolitix.com/policy/parliament/parliament-article/newsarticle/gordon-teams-up-with-god-for-4th-term-redemption/
- http://www.newn.cam.ac.uk
- http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk
- http://www.michaelramseyprize.org.uk/judges.php
- http://www.evri.com/media/article;jsessionid=g7qupt6bpnj4?title=Is+the+church+still+sexist?&page=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/04/should-women-ever-be-made-bishops&referring_uri=/person/elaine-storkey-0x60e21%3Bjsessionid%3Dg7qupt6bpnj4&referring_title=Evri
- http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=78990
- http://www.freewebs.com/reformationalperspectives/RARAutoBiog.pdf