The Regius Professorship of Moral and Pastoral Theology, together with the Regius Professorship of Ecclesiastical History, was founded at the University of Oxford by an act of Parliament in 1840, and first filled in 1842. The act attached the chair to the fourth canonry at Christ Church from the next vacancy, which occurred in 1849: as such, the holder must be an Anglican priest or a priest of a church in communion with the Church of England. The initial title, Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology, was expanded for the appointment of K. E. Kirk in 1933. The professor is a member of the Chapter of Christ Church.
List of Regius Professors 1842–1873: Charles Atmore Ogilvie 1873–1885: Edward King 1885–1892: Francis Paget 1892–1903: Robert Campbell Moberly 1903–1933: Robert Lawrence Ottley 1933–1938: Kenneth Kirk 1938–1944: Leonard Hodgson 1945–1948: Robert Mortimer 1949–1971: V. A. Demant 1972–1980: Peter Baelz 1982–2006: Oliver O'Donovan 2007–2022: Nigel Biggar 2025–present: Luke Bretherton
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