Tobias studied at the Australian National University and originally worked in commerce and information technology before turning to academic theology. He took his third bachelor’s degree at Charles Sturt University, and his postgraduate degrees in Oxford, first as an Ertegun Scholar and MPhil student at Harris Manchester, and then as a DPhil student and holder of the Arthur Peacocke Graduate Studentship in Science and Religion at Exeter College. He held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge (2017 – 2018), and from 2018-2022 was Lecturer in Theology at Ripon College Cuddesdon.
Tobias’ research examines systematic theology in dialogue with the emerging area of cognitive science known as ‘embodied cognition’. Embodied cognition considers how factors beyond the brain—such as emotional body states, perceptual interactions or engagement with material culture—participate in our cognitive processes. His work probes how findings in this area relate to liturgical theology, theological concepts, and the principle of divine accommodation.
Publications
Tanton, Tobias, Corporeal Theology: Accommodating Theological Understanding to Embodied Thinkers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2023.
Tanton, Tobias. "Accommodating Embodied Thinkers." Modern Theology, no. 37 (2021): 316-35.
Tan, Tobias. "William James and Embodied Religious Belief." Contemporary Pragmatism 15, no. 3 (2018): 366-86.
Tan, Tobias. ‘The Corporeality of Religious Experience: Embodied Cognition in Religious Practices.’ In Experience or Expression? Religious Experience Revisited, edited by Thomas Hardke, Ulrich Schmiedel and Tobias Tan. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
