John Christopher "Aidan" Nichols (born 17 September 1948) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

academic and Catholic priest. Nichols served as the first John Paul II Memorial Visiting Lecturer at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

for 2006 to 2008, the first lectureship of Catholic theology at that university since the Protestant

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

. He is a member of the

Order of Preachers The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilian priest named Dominic de Guzmán. It was approved by Pope Honorius ...

(Dominicans) residing in the Priory of St Michael the Archangel in Cambridge, England.

Early life

Nichols was born in

Lytham St Annes Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population of the built-up area at the 2021 United Kingdom census, ...

, Lancashire, on 17 September 1948. He graduated with

first-class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

from

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

, with a degree in modern history.

Religious life

Nichols entered the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

in 1970. He spent the next seven years at

Blackfriars, Oxford Blackfriars Priory (formally the Priory of the Holy Spirit) is a Dominican religious community in Oxford, England. Its primary work is the administration of two educational institutions: Blackfriars Studium, a centre of theological studies in th ...

, during which time he was ordained to the priesthood. He then moved to Edinburgh, where he served as a chaplain at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. He received his doctorate at Edinburgh in 1986. Between 1983 and 1991, Nichols was lecturer in dogmatics and ecumenics at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. In 1990 he was awarded the degree of

Licentiate of Sacred Theology Licentiate in Sacred Theology (; abbreviated LTh or STL) is the second of three ecclesiastical degrees in theology (the first being the Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology and the third being the Doctorate in Sacred Theology) which are conferred ...

from the university. In 2003, the master of the Dominican Order conferred on Nichols the degree of

Master of Sacred Theology Master of Theology (, abbreviated ThM, MTh or MTheol, or ''Sacrae Theologiae Magister''; abbreviated STM) is a post-graduate degree offered by universities, divinity schools, and seminaries. It can serve as a transition degree for entrance into a ...

. From Rome. Nichols moved back to England and to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, where he began as assistant Catholic chaplain, then as an affiliated university lecturer (1998) as

prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...

of St Michael's for two terms between 1998 and 2004, and again for a third term from 2013.

Academic work

Nichols began his academic work in the Russian theological tradition and has written on many figures, including

Sergei Bulgakov Sergei Nikolayevich Bulgakov (, ; – 13 July 1944) was a Russian Orthodox theologian, priest, philosopher, and economist. Orthodox writer and scholar David Bentley Hart has said that Bulgakov was "the greatest systematic theologian of the tw ...

. However he is best known for his work on

Hans Urs von Balthasar Hans Urs von Balthasar (; 12 August 1905 – 26 June 1988) was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who is considered one of the most important Catholic theologians of the 20th century. With Joseph Ratzinger and Henri de Lubac, he founded the th ...

, publishing three analytic volumes on von Balthasar's famous trilogy: ''The Word Has Been Abroad: A Guide Through Balthasar's Aesthetics'' (1998), ''No Bloodless Myth: A Guide Through Balthasar’s Dramatics'' (2000) and ''Say It Is Pentecost: A Guide Through Balthasar’s Logic'' (2001). He was also one of the contributors to the ''Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar'' (2004). He has also written ''The Theology of

Joseph Ratzinger Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as po ...

'' (1988), a book on the theological history of

Anglicanism Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

in ''The Panther and the Hind'' (1992) and a more general work on religion in the modern world, ''Christendom Awake'' (1993).

Selected publications

* ''The Theology of Joseph Ratzinger: An Introductory Study'' (1988) * ''Yves Congar'' (1989) * ''The Holy Eucharist: From the New Testament to Pope John Paul II'' (1991) * ''The Shape of Catholic Theology: An Introduction to Its Sources, Principles, and History'' (1991) * ''The Panther and the Hind: A Theological History of Anglicanism'' (1992) * ''Discovering Aquinas: An Introduction to His Life, Work and Influence'' (2002) * ''Epiphany: A Theological Introduction to Catholicism'' (2002) * ''Lovely, like Jerusalem. The Fulfilment of the Old Testament in Christ and the Church'' (2007) * ''G. K. Chesterton, Theologian'' (2009) * ''Chalice of God. A Systematic Theology in Outline'' (2012) * ''There Is No Rose: The Mariology of the Catholic Church'' (2015) * ''All Great Art is Praise: Art and Religion in John Ruskin'' (2016) * ''Balthasar for Thomists'' (2020) * ''Romance and System: The Theological Synthesis of Matthias Joseph Scheeben'' (2021) * ''Apologia: A Memoir'' (2023)

References

External links

Blackfriars, Cambridge

Christendom Awake website

Interview with ''Touchstone'' magazine

Sermons by Aidan Nichols at Torch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, Aidan 1948 births Living people 20th-century British Roman Catholic theologians 20th-century English Roman Catholic priests 21st-century British Roman Catholic theologians 21st-century English Roman Catholic priests Academic staff of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas Academics of the University of Cambridge Alumni of Blackfriars, Oxford Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Dominican theologians English Dominicans New Blackfriars people