Matthew Vogel

Paula Soans O'Brian Scholarship

Joining us from: United States

DPhil in Theology and Religion (Christian ethics) (2025)

My academic interests largely center around political and moral theology and law. My thesis focuses on the late US Episcopalian lawyer and theologian William Stringfellow. Stringfellow saw many US social structures and institutions – including the law – as quite literally forces of death in people’s lives, understood them theologically as the biblical principalities and powers, and urged Christians to resist them. Nevertheless, he was engaged in the law throughout his entire adult life. My work examines his life in the law to understand what such resistance might look like and how it is Christians ought to understand, relate to, work wisely with and within, and at times resist, social systems and institutions.

For the past dozen years or so, I have practiced law in New Orleans, first as a public defender representing people who could not afford an attorney in their criminal cases, ranging from minor misdemeanors, such as shoplifting, to capital murder. Most recently, I practiced immigrant rights law, mostly litigating and consulting in the detention and enforcement contexts and at the intersection of immigration law and criminal law. Consequently, I bring my own experiences with the law and its institutions to my research.

Here at Oxford, I am able to work with some of the world’s leading theologians on this project, and that simply would not be possible without the support of St Cross and the Clarendon program. To be able to pursue this research here at Oxford is truly a gift. Moreover, St Cross has proved to be a wonderful home, intellectually and socially, for me and my work. I could not be more grateful.

When I am not in the library working, I enjoy exploring Oxford with my spouse, our three children, and our dog.