Biography
Roger is Senior Research Associate in natural hazard related disasters. He has carried out projects in Haiti, following the devastating earthquake in 2010, which explored how survivors’ religious beliefs influenced their response to and recovery from that catastrophic event. From 2015 to 2019 he worked on projects in New Orleans, the Philippines, and in Somerset, exploring the influence of faith beliefs on survivors’ relationships with God, with their community, and with the natural environment. Since 2020 to date his has been conducting a project around the impacts of fear, anger, trust and hope on Christians during the pandemic. Following over thirty years of pastoral experience, Roger gained his Ph.D. in a practical theology of disaster response, from the University of Wales, Trinity & St. David. He has taught on the pastoral response to trauma, has run a consultancy on pastoral care of trauma, and has been an active responder to traumatic incidents in the UK since 1989. He is a member of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theologians, The Society for the Study of Theology, and The Society for the Study of Christian Ethics.
Selected Publications
Abbott, R.P & White, R. S. (2020). What Good is God, Lion Hudson, 208 pp., ISBN: 9780857219664
Abbott, Roger Philip. (2020). “An evangelical practical theology of providence in the light of traumatic incidents.” In Tragedies and Christian Congregations: The Practical Theology of Trauma. Edited by Megan Warner, Christopher Southgate, Carla A. Grosch-Miller and Hilary Ison, 92-105. New York: Routledge.
Abbott, Roger Philip. (2019). “‘Providence’ or ‘religious fatalism’? A distinction without a difference in disasters research?” Practical Theology (22/07/2019). doi: 10.1080/1756073X.2019.1639307. https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2019.1639307
Abbott, Roger Philip and Robert. S. White. (2019). Narratives of Faith from the Haitian Earthquake: Religion, Natural Hazards, and Disaster Response. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9780429026287. ISBN: 9780429026287
Abbott, Roger Philip. (2019). “ ‘I Will Show You My Faith by My Works’: Addressing the Nexus between Philosophical Theodicy and Human Suffering and Loss in Contexts of ‘Natural’ Disaster.’ Religions 10, 213. DOI: 10.3390/rel10030213.
Abbott, Roger Philip. Hello? Is Anyone There? Pastoral Reflection on the Struggle with ‘Unanswered Prayer’. Eugene, Or: Wipf & Stock, 2014.
“Sit On Our Hands, or Stand On Our Feet?” Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2013.
“Trauma, Compassion, and Community: Reconciling Opposites in the Interests of Post-traumatic Growth.” Practical Theology. 5.1 (2012): 31-46. doi: 10.1558/prth.v5i1.31
