Dr Christopher Blakey

Theomousikos Coordinator

PhD, MA, BA (Dunelm)
Email: christopher.blakey@wycliffe.ox.ac.uk

Dr Christopher Blakey is Theomousikos Coordinator at Wycliffe Hall. His research and teaching focus on the relationship between music and theology, particularly the history of theological discourse on music, theological analysis of music, and the intersection of these with the natural sciences.

Dr Blakey studied music at Durham University, earning a BA in 2017 and an MA in 2018. He continued his research at Durham, completing an AHRC-funded PhD in 2023 on natural theology and the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Whilst at Durham, Dr Blakey taught extensively on music and theology, music analysis and music theory. He also leads the development of the International Network for Music Theology, a global research collaboration founded in Durham and Oxford, dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary scholarship in music and theology.

An accomplished instrumentalist, singer, and composer, Dr Blakey has served as Director of Music at St. John’s College and Cranmer Hall (interim), and has also served as a worship leader and musician in church communities for over twenty years. He is also a keen amateur naturalist and wildlife photographer.

Research Interests

Music and Theology
Music Theory and Analysis
Natural Theology
History of Science

Select publications

Chapter: 2026. ‘Music Analysis’. In The Oxford Handbook of Music and Christian Theology. Ed. Bennett Zon and Steve Guthrie. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Book Review: 2025. ‘Miriam Piilonen, Theorizing Music Evolution: Darwin, Spencer, and the Limits of the Human Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. Pp. 168. ISBN 978-0-19-769528-9. £59.00 (Hardback).’ in The British Journal for the History of Science, 2025, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087425100976.