The Revd Dr Keith Eyeons

MA, MA (Nottingham), PhD

College Chaplaincy 
My main responsibility is running the college Chapel with its daily services and excellent Choir, which you can read more about on the Chapel Choir webpage. I am best known in Downing for running Keith’s Café on Wednesday afternoons on the Chapel steps, where we serve free doughnuts, coffees and other refreshments to members of College, attracting a large crowd of students. As Chaplain, I am here to offer pastoral care and support for all members of Downing College, whether they are religious or not. I am also delighted to discuss issues of faith and spirituality with those who have questions, and I can assist any who are interested in being baptised or confirmed. Members of College are very welcome to book times to talk to me. My other interests include astronomy, so I occasionally set up a large telescope outside the Chapel to provide members of Downing with an excellent view of the moon and the planets.

My current research is on the potential interactions between physics and theology, especially the ontological significance of quantum field theory and general relativity, and the fine-tuning of the cosmos. There are important aspects of well-established physics and its descriptions of the fundamental nature of reality which physicists are usually incapable of talking about intelligibly in words, and which are very different from what most people might imagine them to be. These ideas seem to me to be highly significant for anyone pondering the nature of our existence, but theologians and philosophers tend not to access this territory due to it being expressed in very challenging mathematics. Quantum field theorists tend to want to do calculations without talking about their meaning, while many theologians feel more at home in reinterpreting medieval views of ancient Greek philosophy. I am working towards writing my third book, which I hope will help to bridge this divide.