Colin Gunton grew up in Nottingham, England. He first studied the "Greats" (or 'Classics') at Hertford College Oxford and graduated with a BA in 1966, the same year he was married. He then began his study of theology, and a year later received an MA from Mansfield College Oxford. After completing his MA, Gunton began his doctoral work under the direction of Robert Jenson. This degree took six years, understandably due to the fact that he began teaching only two years into his doctoral program as he became Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at King's College London in 1969. His dissertation was a study of the doctrine of God in the thought of Charles Harshorne and Karl Barth, which was completed in 1973. Gunton later became an Associate Minister of the Brentwood United Reformed Church in 19