Derek Keefe joined the School of Divinity in 2020, having written a doctoral thesis at St Andrews under the supervision of Prof. Judith Wolfe on C. S. Lewis’s early (1929 – 1945) theoretical reflections upon the nature and operation of literature using a question from Plato’s Phaedrus about the capacity of logos to lead the soul as a framing device, on the premise that Lewis’s full word about literature and its operation in human experience can be heard only by attending to the myriad ways that psyche or ​‘soul’ is caught up in the making and receiving of literature.

Before coming to St Andrews, Derek worked as an editor in religious and academic media and publishing, serving such organisations as Christianity Today International, Baker Academic and Brazos Press, Duke Divinity School, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Prior to that, he completed an undergraduate degree in history and psychology and masters degrees in theology and the history of Christianity, respectively, and served as research assistant for a peace and reconciliation NGO in Northern Ireland.