Dr Samuel Tranter

Sam is Academic Dean at Cranmer Hall. In this role, he serves within the senior leadership team and is responsible for overseeing the three academic programmes (BA in Theology, Ministry, and Mission, MA in Theology and Ministry, and Doctor of Theology and Ministry). Sam also serves as co-director of the Doctor of Theology and Ministry programme, run in partnership with Durham’s Department of Theology and Religion. Sam’s research, supervision, and teaching are in the areas of doctrinal, moral/political, spiritual, and practical/pastoral theology – often as they inform each other.

In terms of background, Sam comes from a mission and ministry family and grew up in Asia and in different places around the UK, mostly in Lancashire. Sam studied for his first degrees in theology in Aberdeen, where he also met his wife, Alex McKay, who at that time discovered a vocation in work with adults with learning disabilities. Sam and Alex have two daughters. In 2015, Sam came to Durham to undertake AHRC-funded doctoral research, published as Oliver O’Donovan’s Moral Theology: Tensions and Triumphs (London/New York: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2020).

Sam has taught at Lindisfarne College of Theology and St Hild College, Yorkshire, and with his family spent a year in Southeast Asia, where he served at an Anglican/ecumenical theological college. He joined the team at Cranmer in 2020 and started as Academic Dean in 2024. Sam is an active lay Anglican who preaches and teaches in the local church.

You can find out more about Sam’s academic work on his academia.edu page. His current research and writing focuses on three main areas: (1) the different aspects of Christian hope; (2) the question of the nature of consolation – and dangers of false consolation; and (3) a contemporary rendering of the fruit of the Spirit, as compelling forms of freedom.

Sam is an Honorary Fellow of Durham’s Department of Theology and Religion and a member of Durham’s Michael Ramsey Centre for Anglican Studies. From 2019–21 he served on the Committee of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics, as Conference Secretary. He is a member of the Society for the Study of Theology, and a peer reviewer for a number of journals. Sam is currently studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, which will lead to Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

He can be contacted at samuel.tranter@durham.ac.uk