Profile
Nicola is a theologian based in Auckland, and specialising in the interface between evolutionary theory and systematic theology, with broad interests also in all issues of public and contextual theology and ecology. For seven years she chaired TANSA (Theology and the Natural Sciences in Aotearoa). Her recent book, Animal Suffering and the Problem of Evil (OUP, 2013), examined theodicy given the reality of long aeons of animal suffering before humans arrived. It interacts with the challenges that systematic theology faces in light of evolution, but also examines some of the changes in evolutionary thinking in the last few decades. She is working now on the problem of free will in dialogue with the sciences. She was a part of the Human Nature Project at CTI in Princeton, 2012-2013, and the Human Distinctiveness Project at Notre Dame 2015-2016. Nicola has taught theology in the US and NZ. Her doctorate is in theology, but her original training was in mathematics and biology.