David William Brown FBA FRSE, is an Anglican priest and British scholar of philosophy, theology, religion, and the arts.
He taught at the universities of Oxford, Durham, and St. Andrews before retiring in 2015. He is well-known for his non-punitive theory of purgatory, his defense of specific versions of social Trinitarianism and kenotic Christology, his distinctive theory of divine revelation as mediated fallibly through both tradition and imagination, and his proposals regarding a pervasive sacramentality discerned in nature and human culture alike.
Brown was born in Galashiels, Scotland and educated at Edinburgh University, Oxford University, and Cambridge University. He trained for ordained ministry in the Church of England at Westcott House, Cambridge. At Oriel College, Oxford, his primary philosophical mentors were Jonathan Barnes and Basil Mitchell, and at Clare College, Cambridge, his doctoral supervisors were Elizabeth Anscombe and Bernard Williams.
