Pattison was Dean of the Chapel of
King's College, Cambridge (1991–2001), and then an
associate professor at the
University of Århus (2002–03). In 2004, Pattison succeeded
John Webster as
Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at the
University of Oxford. He was also a Canon of
Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford from 2004 to 2013. Pattison became
1640 Chair of Divinity at the
University of Glasgow in 2013, succeeding
Werner Jeanrond who then became Master of
St Benet's Hall at the
University of Oxford in 2012. In 2017, Pattison gave the
Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford; the series was titled "A Phenomenology of the Devout Life". These have now been published as first of a three part "Philosophy of Christian Life" under the same title. Parts 2 and 3 are entitled "A Rhetorics of the Word" and "A Metaphysics of Love". Pattison's works range from historical, theological and philosophical engagement with the critical reception of German Idealism in such figures as
Søren Kierkegaard,
Martin Heidegger and
Fyodor Dostoyevsky to
theological studies of the aesthetics of film and the visual arts. His latest work has used existential phenomenology to explore themes of
ontology,
language,
love and the meaning of
God. ==Selected works==