Keith Ward

Keith Ward (b. 1938) is a British philosopher of religion, Anglican priest, and theologian. He held chairs at King's College London (History and Philosophy of Religion) and at Oxford, where he was Regius Professor of Divinity (1991–2004). Trained in analytic philosophy at Oxford and Cardiff, Ward moved from an early sympathy with logical positivism toward a robust philosophical theism, ordained in the Church of England in 1972.

Ward is best known for his four-volume comparative theology series (Religion and Revelation, Religion and Creation, Religion and Human Nature, Religion and Community, 1994–2000), which engages Christianity in dialogue with Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Islamic thought. He defends a rational, evolutionary, and personalist conception of God, arguing that classical theism must be revised in light of modern science and process metaphysics. He has been a prominent critic of the New Atheism, particularly Richard Dawkins, in works such as Why There Almost Certainly Is a God (2008) and The God Conclusion (2009).

His positions—an idealist-leaning theism, openness to divine temporality, and pluralist-inclusivist theology of religions—have drawn criticism both from conservative theologians (for departing from classical impassibility) and from naturalists (for relying on contested metaphysical premises). Ward remains a major voice in Anglophone philosophical theology, distinguished by breadth across analytic philosophy, comparative religion, and science-and-religion dialogue.