Fergus Kerr

The Reverend Fergus Kerr OP FRSE
Born	(1931-07-16) 16 July 1931
Nationality	Scottish
Known for	His work on Ludwig Wittgenstein and Thomas Aquinas
Academic work
Institutions	Blackfriars, Oxford University of Edinburgh

Fergus Gordon Thomson Kerr OP FRSE (born 16 July 1931) is a Scottish Roman Catholic priest of the English Dominican province. He has published significantly on a wide range of subjects, but is famous particularly for his work on Ludwig Wittgenstein and Thomas Aquinas.

Biography

Following his education at Banff Academy and his service in the RAF (1953–1955), Kerr entered the Order of Preachers in 1956. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1962. Kerr studied in Aberdeen, Paris, Munich, and Oxford. He was a student of Donald M. MacKinnon, John Holloway, and Cornelius Ernst. From 1966 to 1986 he taught philosophy and theology at the University of Oxford.

In service to the English Dominican province, Kerr was Prior at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford from 1969 to 1978. From 1992 to 1998 he served as Prior at Blackfriars, Edinburgh. In 1998, he returned to Blackfriars, Oxford, where he served as Regent until 2004. Kerr served as the Director of the Aquinas Institute, Blackfriars, Oxford and is the editor of New Blackfriars, the bimonthly journal of the English Dominicans (1995–present).

Currently, Kerr is affiliated with Blackfriars, Edinburgh, where he lives and works. He holds an honorary fellowship in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh and has a role in the university's Catholic chaplaincy team. He is also an Honorary Professor of St. Andrews University, a distinction he has held since 2005. Kerr belongs to the Catholic Theological Society of Great Britain, of which he was president from 1992 to 1994.

A festschrift was prepared in Kerr's honor entitled Faithful Reading.

Kerr was awarded an Honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Edinburgh in December 2019.

Selected publications

• Kerr, Fergus Gordon (1986). Theology After Wittgenstein. Oxford ; New York: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-14688-9. OCLC 13003858.
• ———; Nicholls, David, eds. (1991). John Henry Newman : reason, rhetoric, and romanticism. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-1758-5. OCLC 22909941.
• ——— (1997). Immortal Longings: versions of transcending humanity. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 978-0-2680-1180-2. OCLC 36407666.
• ——— (2002). After Aquinas: versions of Thomism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 978-0-631-21312-3. OCLC 49743625.
• ——— (2007). Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians: from neoscholasticism to nuptial mysticism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 978-1-405-12083-8. OCLC 64098440.
• ——— (2007). Contemplating Aquinas: On the Varieties of Interpretation. London: SCM Press. ISBN 978-0-334-02922-9. OCLC 54715171.
• ——— (2008). "Work on Oneself": Wittgenstein's Philosophical Psychology. Institute for the Psychological Sciences monograph series. Vol. 1. Arlington, VA: Institute for the Psychological Sciences Press. ISBN 978-0-9773-1031-9. OCLC 174138810.
• ——— (2009). Thomas Aquinas : a very short introduction. Very short introductions. Vol. 214. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1995-5664-9. OCLC 430497008.