The largest research grant ever given to the School of Divinity at St Andrews will be used to create an online guide to the world’s major religions.
The encyclopedia will be launched thanks to a £3.4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation and has been tipped to be among the most significant advances in theology research this century.
The St Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology will begin with Christianity before expanding to Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, offering articles written from within the faiths.
Brendan Wolfe, Honorary Reader at the School of Divinity, will edit the encyclopedia, with senior lecturer Dr Steve Holmes, as chairman of the editorial board.
Articles will be written by leading scholars and will give perspectives from inside their subjects and will enable and inform inter-religious discussion and understanding.
Mr Wolfe said: “The Christian theology section is expanding quickly, due in large part to the support of the entire School of Divinity’s research community.
“We are developing links with other institutions so that the work in other traditions can be similarly grounded in communities of scholarship.”
The School of Divinity, also known as St Mary’s College, has been dedicated to the study of religion since 1579. It is ranked among the top 20 theology and religion faculties worldwide.
Dr Steve Holmes, who compared the new project to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, added: “If the St Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology can achieve the same level of scholarly excellence, it will be the most significant new initiative in academic theology this century.”
The project team at the University also includes Professor Christoph Schwöbel, Professor of Systematic Theology and Professor N.T. Wright as senior editors for Christianity, with associate lecturer Dr Oliver Langworthy as an academic editor. Professor Lejla Demiri, chairwoman of Islamic Doctrine at Tübingen, will be the first senior editor in Islam.
The project is currently in negotiations to add a third senior editor in Christianity, and further senior editors in Judaism and Islam.
