Christopher Watkin

Christopher Watkin is Associate Professor in European Languages at Monash University, Melbourne. His research explores modern and contemporary European philosophy, atheism, the social contract, and the ways in which ideas shape our understanding of ourselves and our world. His academic books include Michel Serres: Figures of Thought (Edinburgh UP, 2020) and The State of Nature and the Shaping of Modernity: Tracing the Roots of Colonialism, Secularity, and Ecology (Cambridge UP, 2025).

Alongside his academic research, Chris is committed to bringing the Bible into thoughtful conversation with modern and contemporary secular thought, guided by the principle audi alteram partem (‘listen to the other side’). His books exploring the relationship between Christianity and contemporary culture include Thinking Through Creation (2017), studies of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, and Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture (Zondervan Academic, 2022). Biblical Critical Theory was named Australian Christian Book of the Year in 2023 and Christianity Today’s Book of the Year for 2024. Running through this work is the conviction that Christians must not only explain the Bible to the culture, but also explain the culture through the Bible.

Chris curates Thinking Through the Bible, providing articles, lectures and resources to help Christian university students and faculty think biblically about their disciplines and the wider world. He also hosts Silicon Spiritualities, a podcast from The Gospel Coalition exploring what artificial intelligence reveals about human identity, work and responsibility. His academic research and writing can be found at christopherwatkin.com. You can find him on X @DrChrisWatkin and Bluesky @drchriswatkin.bsky.social.

Western Modernity and the Social Contract. My book The State of Nature and the Shaping of Modernity (2025) explores how the idea of the state of nature has shaped Western understandings of political authority, colonialism, secularity and ecology. I am currently writing a second volume on the common good, investigating how modern societies understand what they share, who belongs to the political community, and how the benefits, responsibilities and burdens of common life are distributed.

Theology and Contemporary Cultural Theory. In Biblical Critical Theory (2022), I develop an approach to cultural criticism that brings the Bible's unfolding story into sustained conversation with contemporary secular thought. My current follow-up book explores the relationship between two defining features of contemporary Western culture: the individual search for meaning and the polarisation of our common life. It asks how the biblical movement from grasping and scattering to receiving and sharing can help us understand both phenomena and imagine a different way of living together.

Artificial Intelligence and Human Flourishing. My recent work explores what artificial intelligence reveals about human identity, work, creativity, freedom and relationships. I am particularly interested in how AI changes not only what we can do, but how we understand what it means to be human. My current writing and public engagement bring these questions into conversation with philosophy, contemporary social theory and the Bible's account of human dignity and flourishing.