Paul Dafydd Jones is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Born and raised in the United Kingdom, he was educated at Oriel College, Oxford University (MA), Harvard Divinity School (MDiv), Heidelberg University (as a DAAD Graduate Research Scholar in the Wissenschaftlich-Theologisches Seminar), and Harvard University (Committee on the Study of Religion; AM, PhD).
Jones teaches a variety of courses in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. His undergraduate classes focus on Christian thought and western philosophy of religion, religion and public life, and themes and topics in the study of religion. His graduate classes engage major Protestant thinkers (especially John Calvin, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Karl Barth), central issues in Christian theology and western philosophy of religion (especially Christology, atonement, freedom, and materialism), religion in the context of late modernity, and theories and methods in the study of religion.
He has published widely in the field of Christian thought, with particular interests in Protestant theology, political and liberationist theology, and constructive theology. In addition to numerous academic articles and chapters, as well as a sizeable number of reviews, encyclopedia entries, and public-facing pieces, he is the author of The Humanity of Christ: Christology in Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics and Patience: A Theological Exploration—Part 1, From Creation to Christ. He is also the coeditor of the Oxford Handbook of Karl Barth (with Paul T. Nimmo) and Karl Barth and Liberation Theology (with Kaitlyn Dugan).
With Paul T. Nimmo, he is the coeditor of the book series, Explorations in Reformed Theology. With Charles Mathewes, he is co-director of a major research initiative, funded by the Luce Foundation, Religion and its Publics.