David Tombs (IRL)

is Lecturer and Programme Coordinator of the Reconciliation Studies programme at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College in Dublin. He attended the Union Theological Seminary in New York, was visiting Lecturer at the University of Surrey Roehampton and holds an educational Certificate from the University of Birmingham. His Ph.D. thesis was written on Unspeakable Violence: Reading the Crucifixion in the Light of the Truth Commission Reports for El Salvador and Guatemala. He was awarded with the Research Travel Grant by the British Academy, Arts and Humanities Research Board and was an accompanying researcher of the Reconciliation processes in South Africa and Latin America. His current research focuses on theological debates around forgiveness, social healing, truth-telling, and Reconciliation; truth commission research; and gender issues in political violence. Tombs is an expert in political and contextual Christian theologies, especially liberation theologies and theologies of reconciliation, and the social and political challenge of reconciliation in post-conflict societies. His works include: Explorations in Reconciliation: New Directions for Theology (Ashgate 2006, co-edited with J. Liechty); Latin American Liberation Theology (Boston and Leiden 2002); Truth and Memory: The Church and Human Rights in El Salvador and Guatemala (co-edited with M.A.Hayles, Leominster 2001); The Future of Liberation Theology in Latin America,; World Christianity: Theology, Politics and Dialogues(forthcoming); Anti-Sexism and Teaching Islam, in: British Journal of Religious Education (1990).