Here are the videos of the Conversion, Covenant, Hope and the Human Future hosted by the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem 13-14th Feb 2011. I appear in session 4 at 21.08. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the power behind this project, appears in session 3, beginning 50 minutes in.

Conversion, Covenant and Hope in the human future: New Frontiers in Jewish and Christian Thought

Van Leer Institute Jerusalem 13-14 February 2011

Is it desirable for gentiles to convert to Judaism? Is there a place for Christianity and Christians in the covenant between God and the Jewish people? On what basis can Jews and Christians hope for a better future between them and for the world?

This International Conference is co-sponsored by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the Institute for Theological Inquiry (ITI) of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) in Efrat. It centers around the original research project of ITI scholars on the topics of ?Covenant, Mission and Relation to the Other? and ?Hope and Responsibility for the Human Future.? As the capital of the Jewish people, the birthplace of Christianity and the locus of so much international religious conflict, Jerusalem is the ideal venue for discussions of conversion, interreligious relations and hope for the future of civilization.

Apparently we are going to be live-streamed to the world. So if you have any questions about civilisation or about the human future, just ask.

The Tyndale Kirby Laing Institute of Christian Ethics is co-hosting two day conferences Responding to Secularism: Christian Witness in a Dogmatic Public Culture 24 April 2009, Tyndale House, Cambridge - a day conference on mission and contemporary culture with the Gospel and Our Culture Network

Dr Dominic Erdozain (King’s College, London) on the growth of secularity in modern British culture Prof John Stackhouse (Regent College, Vancouver) on public engagement in a secularised culture Rev Dr Andrew Kirk (formerly University of Birmingham) on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age Dr Elaine Storkey (TEAR Fund) on responding to the secularist worldview

and Justice: Rights and Wrongs. A Colloquium with Prof Nicholas Wolterstorff May 21-22 2009 Christ Church, Oxford with the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life

Prof Onora O’Neill (British Academy; Philosophy) Prof Roger Crisp (Oxford; Philosophy) Prof Timothy Endicott (Oxford; Law) Prof Julian Rivers (Bristol, Law) (former KLICE Advisory Council Chair) Dr Bernd Wannenwetsch (McDonald Centre; Theology) Dr John Perry (McDonald Centre; Theology)

Fertility and Faith - A day conference, with talks, Q&A and panel discussion, on fertility, infertility, marriage and love Saturday 21st February from 10am in the Catholic Chaplaincy, Oxford

Fertility and Faith: An introduction - Fr Tim Finigan (Founder, Association of Priests for the Gospel of Life) Marriage and Meaning - Anthony McCarthy (Research Fellow, Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics) Natural Fertility: Practical Approaches - Ira Winter (Life FertilityCare Coordinator)

The Battle for Truth, God and the Universe, Stories of Evolution, Body and Soul Four Public Dialogues in St Paul’s Cathedral Tuesday 7, 14, 21, 28 October 6.30 – 8.00pm

Nancy Cartwright Nicholas Lash John Milbank Roger Trigg David Burrell Frances Young Steve Jones Alister McGrath John Polkinghorne Keith Ward Robert Winston

I might pop along to hear David Burrell - he might have something to say about truth, mystery and human identity.

Third Annual National Theology of the Body conference - in Dublin

For Theology of the Body in the UK, it is off to London Colney (25-26 October) with Faith and Family.

Resources for Natural Family Planning Awareness Week are available from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Our own Robert Colquhoun offers some resources of his own. Meanwhile we wait for St Patrick's Soho to announce its term card.

The Society for the Study of Christian Ethics 2008 2008 Annual Conference is 5th-7th September at Westcott House, Cambridge. The conference theme is The Sermon on the Mount

Rt Hon John Battle - MP, Leeds, Former Faith Advisor to the Prime Minister

Richard Bauckham - Professor Emeritus of New Testament, University of St Andrews

Carolyn Muessig - Senior Lecturer in Medieval Theology, University of Bristol

Oliver O'Donovan - Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology, Edinburgh University

Susan Parsons - President, Society Study of Christian Ethics, Editor, Studies in Christian Ethics

Glen Stassen - Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary

Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics Annual Book Colloquium

3-4 September 2008 Tyndale House, Cambridge

A one-day colloquium on Brian Brock’s Singing the Ethos of God: On the Place of Christian Ethics in Scripture

Bernd Wannenwetsch Gordon Wenham Hans Reinders Brian Brock

It was Brian who showed me Augustine's theology of the Whole Christ

International Society for MacIntyrean Philosophy - Revolutionary Aristotelianism, Thomism, Virtue Theory, Social Theory, and Politics Theory, Practice, and Tradition: Human Rationality in Pursuit of the Good Life July 30 through August 3, 2008 St. Meinrad, Indiana, USA

You know Alasdair MacIntyre is a Brit? We'll have him back when you have finished with him.

A conference on the theology of John Owen Westminster College Cambridge, UK 19–22 August 2008

Willem van Asselt Utrecht University, Holland

Stephen R Holmes St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, UK

Michael S Horton Westminster Seminary, California, USA

George Hunsinger Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, USA

Kelly M Kapic Covenant College, Georgia, USA

Suzanne MacDonald Calvin College, Grand Rapids, USA

Sebastian Rehnman Johannelunds Theological Seminary, Sweden

Alan Spence United Reformed Church, London, UK

Carl R Trueman Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, USA

Further details at John Owen Today and a booking forms from johnowentoday@aol.com

Reconciliation in Christ? Atonement and Sacrifice Touchstones of disunity or the pathway to communion? Saturday 14 June 2008 10.30 - 3pm Cheyneygates, Dean’s Yard Westminster Abbey, London SW1

Canon Nicholas Sagovsky Westminster Abbey

Douglas Knight Theologian and Author

The doctrine of the atonement has been controversial within Anglican thinking in recent years, marking the different principles held by evangelical, Anglican Catholic and those in the liberal traditions. In 2005 too, the Evangelical Alliance’s stakeholders looked closely at the differing emphases and positions among its members.

The concepts of sacrifice and atonement also go to the heart of catholicity in the Roman Catholic tradition and the nature and purpose of the Church in other Churches and Communions, as well as in relation between them. The centrality of Christ’s sacrifice is common to many of the Churches’ celebration of the Eucharist – yet it is the very point on which they have most disagreed.

What of the Jewish origins of our concept of sacrifice, and our relation with contemporary Judaism? And seeing that self-sacrifice and martyrdom are at the core of Christian’s common faith in Christ, how does that reflect on our understanding of Islam in the contemporary world where similar ideas remain potent?

Nicholas Sagovsky, Douglas Knight and other distinguished thinkers from across the Church help us to understand where unity can be found and how we might reach it.

I have copied out the flier before me, without comment. Make up your own jokes, but kindly book via ecumenicalstudies@btinternet.com. The day promises to end well - Evensong is at 3pm. I shall hang everything I say on the prospect of Evensong, and the privilege of being able to raise our voices to God in song. Come along, and if you have any idea how to answer any of these questions, mail me.

The Pope and Jesus of Nazareth

19th and 20th June 2008 Nottingham

The publication of the book Jesus of Nazareth on 16 April 2007 was an unprecedented event: never before had a reigning Pope published personal reflections on Jesus.

The book engages not just with New Testament scholarship but also with fundamental methodological questions related to historical criticism. Moreover, it resonates with wider questions of scriptural reading, Christology, ecclesiology and relations with Judaism and Islam. This conference is the first extended theological discussion in the UK on Joseph Ratzinger’s book.

John Milbank Markus Bockmuehl Geza Vermes Archbishop Martínez Fergus Kerr OP Walter Moberly Olivier-Thomas Venard OP Mona Siddiqui

This may really be the first time any work of Pope Benedict is examined by academics in Britain. There is plenty on Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth and other books over at the B16 fanclub and Ignatius Insight.

Saint Paul's Journeys into Philosophy:An International Conference Vancouver School of Theology at the University of British Columbia Vancouver June 4-6, 2008

Join us for a conference which explores the critical appropriations of Saint Paul by recent and contemporary Continental philosophers, including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Benjamin, Jacob Taubes, Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben, Slavoj Zizek, and others. An international group of philosophers, theologians, biblical scholars and literary theorists will present papers on a wide range of themes arising from this recent philosophical appropriation of Saint Paul. Plenary speakers include Stephen Fowl, Paul Griffiths, Travis Kroeker and J. Louis Martyn. There will also be presentations by Creston Davis, Neil Elliott, Paul Gooch, Douglas Harink, Chris Huebner, Mark Reasoner, Jeffrey Robbins, Gordon Zerbe, Jens Zimmerman and others.

Paul Griffiths and Lou Martyn are certainly worth going to hear.

The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Fall conference 2008 is on

The Family: Searching for Fairest Love

Only the truth will prepare you for a love which can be called â??fairest love.â?? Pope John Paul II Letter to Families

We are mindful of the fundamental role played by the family in civil society, in the political order, and in the life of the Church. The conference will celebrate the anniversaries of two papal documents, Mulieris Dignitatem and Humanae Vitae.

Curious that theology, that is, the Christian doctrine of God, does not appear in the list of possible topics for papers. I presume there is room for some actual theology of the body, and not all by Angelo Scola ?

On the same subject, have you seen Robert George's remarkable Law and Moral Purpose?

Bodily union is thus personal union, and comprehensive personal unionâ??marital unionâ??is founded on bodily union. What is unique about marriage is that it truly is a comprehensive sharing of life, a sharing founded on the bodily union made uniquely possible by the sexual complementarity of man and womanâ??a complementarity that makes it possible for two human beings to become, in the language of the Bible, â??one flesh,â?? and for this one-flesh union to be the foundation of a relationship in which it is intelligible for two persons to bind themselves to each other in pledges of permanence, monogamy, and fidelity.

So, then, how should we understand what marriage is? Marriage, considered not as a mere legal convention or cultural artifact, is a one-flesh communion of persons that is consummated and actualized by acts that are procreative in type, whether or not they are procreative in effect. It is an intrinsic human good, and, precisely as such, it provides a more than merely instrumental reason for choice and action.

The bodily union of spouses in marital acts is the biological matrix of their marriage as a comprehensive, multilevel sharing of life: a relationship that unites the spouses at all levels of their being. Marriage is naturally ordered to the good of procreation (and is, indeed, uniquely apt for the nurturing and education of children) as well as to the good of spousal unity. At the same time, it is not a mere instrumental good whose purpose is the generating and rearing of children. ­Marriage, considered as a one-flesh union, is intrinsically valuable.

The Centre of Theology and Philosophy

presents

The Grandeur of Reason: Religion, Tradition and Universalism 1-4 September 2008 Rome

The Popeâ??s argument for an enlarged sense of reason is an argument for a re-hellenization of reason. In this context the universalism of Christianity has a concrete role to play as that particular cultural exemplar of the symphonic synthesis of the spirit of rational human inquiry with faith in divine revelation. Therein Christianityâ??s universalism is a universalism grounded in a cultural tradition that cherishes at once the â??grandeurâ?? of human reason and the personal revelation of the One God.

Oliver O'Donovan Robert Spaemann David Schindler Bentley Hart van Inwagen Fergus Kerr Hauerwas Agamben Zizek

A mix of saints and rascals, and a bit short on talent from the Catholic hierarchy. Still, â??guests of honourâ?? - I wonder who they can have in mind?

We are interested in papers that cover any topic relevant to the conference theme, but are especially interested in questions of religion and empire, Christianity and Islam, humanism and universalism, the reunification of the Apostolic Churches, and Scripture and Metaphysics.

The Tyndale Fellowship groups - OT, NT, Biblical Theology, Doctrine and more - meet in Cambridge in July.

'Political Theology' is the theme for the Ethics and Social Theology group. Papers include

Jonathan Chaplin The Bible, the State and Religious Diversity: Theological Foundations for ‘Principled Pluralism’

David McIlroy The Right Reason for Caesar to Confess Christ as Lord: O’Donovan and Arguments for a Christian State

Douglas Knight The Church, the State and the Archbishop: the Fretful Audiences of Rowan Williams

All Saints St Margaret Street School of Worship 2007-8

THE LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST Peace and Preparation of the Table Wednesday 12 March 7pm

Giving Thanks - The Eucharistic Prayer Wednesday 9 April 7pm

Breaking of the Bread and Holy Communion Wednesday 7 May 7pm

Blessing and Dismissal Wednesday 11 June 7pm

St Margaret's goes large in Oxford Street

Professor Walter Moberly of Durham University

Like any other book? How should the bible be read? The Ethel M Wood Lecture

6th March 5.30pm The Council Room, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS

Fulcrum Conference - Conflict and Covenant

Saturday 12 April 2008, 10am to 4pm

Dr Tom Wright Bishop of Durham and Member of the Lambeth Commission which prepared The Windsor Report

Dr Andrew Goddard Editor of Anvil, Member of the Faith and Order Advisory Group

Union Chapel, Upper Street, Islington, London

A conference on the theology of John Owen

Westminster College Cambridge, UK 19–22 August 2008 An increasing number of scholars from a wide range of disciplines are finding the thought of John Owen to be a fertile field for study. Nine of them will be presenting papers on his work at Westminster College, home to the original copy of the Westminster Confession.

Willem van Asselt Utrecht University, Holland

Stephen R Holmes St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, UK

Michael S Horton Westminster Seminary, California, USA

George Hunsinger Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, USA

Kelly M Kapic Covenant College, Georgia, USA

Suzanne MacDonald Calvin College, Grand Rapids, USA

Sebastian Rehnman Johannelunds Theological Seminary, Sweden

Alan Spence United Reformed Church, London, UK

Carl R Trueman Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, USA

For further details and a booking form - johnowentoday@aol.com A John Owen blog gives links to some of the speakers. Learn more and more about Owen.

Well done Alan (and Terry and Andy).

Society for the Study of Theology

Theology and Politics - 2008 conference

St John's College, Durham 31 March – 3 April 2008

Oliver O'Donovan John Milbank Charles Mathewes (A Theology of Public Life and Evil and the Augustinian Tradition)

and there's the Spring Harvest Christian Eschatology and Contemporary Culture day conference

Saturday 26th January Kings College London

Beyond Paley: Renewing the Vision for Natural Theology Conference on Natural Theology, Oxford 23-25th June 2008

Keith Ward Richard Swinburne Christopher Rowland Jeremy Begbie John Haught Alister McGrath Peter Harrison

The Lawyers Christian Fellowship and Christian Concern for our Nation are holding a day conference on 28th January

The legal challenges faced by Islam: How should the church respond?

Democracy in the UK and worldwide is being challenged by a new force - that of militant Islam. This conference will look at some of the issues involved in how national and international law can confront this issue, as well as what the appropriate response of the church should be.

Speakers include:

Baroness Caroline Cox - president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide

Dr Sam Solomon - Global expert on Islam and sharia law.

Paul Diamond and Charlotte Thorneycroft

The Sermon on the Mount and Christian Ethics - a conference 5th-7th September, Wescott House, Cambridge

Presenters include:

Oliver O’Donovan Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology Edinburgh University

Glen Stassen Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics Fuller Theological Seminary

Susan Parsons President, Society Study of Christian Ethics Editor, Studies in Christian Ethics

Carolyn Muessig Senior Lecturer in Medieval Theology University of Bristol

Richard Bauckham Professor Emeritus of New Testament University of St Andrews

The conference committee invite short papers related to the theme of the event and more general outlines of work in progress

For further details and booking arrangements will appear at: www.ssce.org.uk

Conference on Bible and Justice 29 May - 1 June, 2008

Stanley Hauerwas Timothy Gorringe John Rogerson

The 2008 Conference on Bible and Justice will bring together scholars from around the world to explore how the ancient texts of the Bible can play an active role in addressing twenty-first century social concerns. The purpose of the conference is to foster discussion about the relevance of the Bible to modern social issues, and promote bridges between the academic field of biblical studies and the various endeavours for a just world.

And cut out the many centuries of the Church's experience on this subject, I suppose? Don't we need the Church to open the bible up to us? Is biblical studies premised on denial of this?

Philosophy and Liturgy: Ritual, Practice, and Embodied Wisdom

May 20-22, 2008 at Calvin College

This conference brings together leading scholars in philosophy and theology to investigate key themes in worship with the tools of philosophy, with the ultimate goal of informing Christian practice. There is also the reciprocal goal of letting Christian liturgical practice become a fund for philosophical reflection on classic questions and themes.

The Triune God in the Theology of Colin E Gunton

A Day Conference at Spurgeon’s College, London

Monday 10 September 2007 10.30 am – 4.45 pm

Professor Robert W Jenson

**

Dr Stephen R Holmes

Dr John E Colwell

**

Dr Douglas H Knight

For details and a booking form, please email guntonconference@hotmail.co.uk. The closing date is imminent.

Pluralism, Politics and God? - An International Symposium on Religion and Public Reason 13-15 September 2007

In his controversial Regensburg lecture of 12 September 2006, Pope Benedict XVI sought to re-frame the interaction of religious traditions on the principle that ‘not to act reasonably is contrary to the nature of God’. He also called on the universities, and on all partners in the dialogue of cultures, to rediscover this principle by engaging ‘the whole breadth of reason’ – appreciating its grandeur and repudiating reductionist approaches to reason.

This unabashedly hellenistic emphasis raises important questions about the relation between faith and reason, and about the role of religion in the exercise of public reason. Is religion necessary to sustain reason? Do different religions represent competing claims about reason and rationality as well as about revelation? Does religious diversity mean that public decision-making, even as regards moral or ethical matters or human rights, should seek to bracket the God-question? Or is that not possible without undermining the rational basis for deciding and acting?

Scholars from around the world will gather at McGill on the anniversary of the Regensburg lecture to consider such timely questions and to present papers. Debates will be held on 'Religion, Rights and the State', 'Reasonable Accommodation', 'Religion, Sex and the City', 'Beyond the Clash of Civilizations' and other topics, with distinguished panelists including Gregory Baum, David Blankenhorn, the Hon. David Brown, the Hon. Michael Ignatieff, the Hon. Jason Kenney, Margaret Somerville, Janice Stein, Katherine Young, and other well-known public intellectuals from inside and outside McGill. John Witte Jr will deliver a Beatty Memorial Lecture and Nicholas Adams a Claude Ryan Memorial Lecture. On the eve of the symposium Fr Raymond DeSouza will speak on the Regensburg theme.

There are more details at the Newman Centre

The project director is Douglas Farrow, editor of Recognizing Religion in a Secular Society: Essays in Pluralism, Religion and Public Policy, who should be well known for the incomparable Ascension and Ecclesia a rich source for PhD theses. Ex-King's, of course.

The Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics is giving a

One-day colloquium on Professor Oliver O’Donovan’s Ways of Judgment

Tyndale House, Cambridge 3-4 July 2007

Professor Oliver O’Donovan, Edinburgh University

Professor Nigel Biggar, Trinity College, Dublin

Dr. Ben Quash, Peterhouse, Cambridge

Dr. Jonathan Chaplin, Director, KLICE

The Gospel and our culture network presents

Mission in Christian Soil? Cultural awareness and personal conversion - A day conference with Elaine Storkey Saturday 15th Sept 2007 Carr Lane Church Centre Birmingham

St Paul's Theological Centre Annual Lecture

Professor Jeremy Begbie The Emotional Power of Music in Worship: Have We Anything to Fear? 14th June 2007, 7.30pm at Holy Trinity Brompton, London

Jeremy Begbie is Honorary Professor of Theology at the University of St Andrews and Associate Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge. Jeremy is a professionally trained musician and one of his passions is the renewal of music in worship. He is the author of many books including ‘Voicing Creation’s Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts’ (T & T Clark). The lecture will include a performance at the piano, recorded music and worship. Entry is free.

Communicating Bible to Babel - Exploring and shaping the debate on Christian language and communication in the public square

Liverpool Hope University Friday 28 – Saturday 29 September 2007

For a long time religious discourse has had limited access and impact in politics. In the UK, it is generally acknowledged that Christian political discourse has not been effective in speaking truth with grace in our contemporary mediascape. However, given the growing number of challenges to secularism, it is clear that God is very much back on the political agenda. In this new context, it is important to explore the themes and issues that define language and communication of a Christian worldview in the public square.

Following Bible Society Discourse Process events at political party conferences and a Parliamentary symposium, the colloquium will provide for a more detailed theological and philosophical exploration. With an interdisciplinary approach, it will offer a forum to facilitate discussion about the development of Christian political discourse.

Bishop of Liverpool, Rt Revd James Jones Dr Jolyon Mitchell, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh Nick Spencer, Theos – the public theology think tank Professor John Sullivan, Centre for Christian Education

Building on themes and issues raised in the earlier events, the colloquium facilitates a more sophisticated theological and philosophical exploration of the language and communication of Christians in the public square. On the basis of what we understand and experience about the challenges and opportunities for ‘Doing God’ in contemporary political discourse, this event develops thinking about the necessary connections between worldview and discourse in public theology.

The Career and Prospects of Providence in Modern Theology

An international conference 7-9 January 2008 King's College, University of Aberdeen

Sarah Coakley David Bentley Hart Nicholas J. Healey Alister E. McGrath Charles Mathewes Francesca Murphy Cyril O’Regan Katherine Sonderegger John Webster Philip G. Ziegler and others

This conference aims to break fresh ground in the analysis of divine providence by exploring a range of current proposals concerning its form, significance and viability within contemporary thought.

The character and interrelation of divine and human agency lies at the contested heart of modern theology. Since the Enlightenment, the classical doctrine of providence has been aggressively criticised within both theology and philosophy. Following on the cross-fertilization of early-modern eschatologies and the doctrine of providence, the idea of providence did not so much go into decline as migrate into secularized forms. In light of the divergence of such humanistic approaches from classical theological conceptions of providence, contemporary restatements of the idea require careful consideration: what exactly is to be recovered? A metaphysical account of the doctrine grounded in divine omnipotence? A thoroughly historicized notion of providence? Or, perhaps something altogether different?

By inviting scholars to examine the development of the idea of providence within intellectual history, the axial role of providence in modern systematic theologies, and the reformulation of the classical idea of providence after Hegel, we hope to advance the frontiers of investigation of the doctrine of providence at the present juncture.

'Following on the cross-fertilization of early-modern eschatologies and the doctrine of providence, the idea of providence did not so much go into decline as migrate into secularized forms'

'Eschatologies migrate into secularized forms'? Now that is an interesting remark. I wonder who could say more on this subject?

- and thanks to Andy Goodliff, always first with the news

THE CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW AND THE ACADEMY A conference sponsored by the Aquinas Institute, Athletes in Action, the Baptist Student Fellowship, Christian Leadership Ministries, Manna Christian Fellowship, Princeton Evangelical Fellowship, Princeton Faith and Action, and the Witherspoon Institute. Princeton, New Jersey November 9-11, 2007

Contrary to the perception of certain intellectual circles, no oil-and-water dynamic need exist between academic excellence and Christian faith. History instructs us in this, as so much of the Western intellectual inheritance rests on the work of great Christian figures like Augustine, John Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas, Anselm, Erasmus, John Calvin, and Jonathan Witherspoon. And yet, Christian students today are told via explicit arguments and subtle denigration that their positions on many issues lack rational foundations. Not only are Christian beliefs and practices under attack, but moral norms of sexual ethics and human dignity are increasingly challenged or even dismissed. The Christian Worldview conference will bring together thinkers from both inside and outside the academy to address several issues:

1. The nature of Christian truth and how we can know it. 1. Secularism and the Challenges of Faith 2. The Authenticity and Historicity of Scripture

2. The relationship between, and compatibility of, Christianity and science. 1. The rejection of scientific materialism as a philosophy 2. The nature of the universe as a designed system

3. The Christian and the Polis: where and how Christian and natural law principles influence public policy, with subsections on: 1. Bioethics 2. Sex and Marriage

The proposed topics of the Christian Worldview conference reflect the worries that students regularly confide to their priests and pastors, as these clergy have related to the Witherspoon Institute. Far from being a pep talk, however, the conference aims instead to explore how orthodox Christianity shapes one’s approach to scholarship and to engagement with the secular and academic worlds.

Amongst the stars are Robert P. George and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus.

I know what the Witherspoon Institute is, and am impressed. I have even discovered The Institute on Religion and Democracy. Am I becoming a theocon? Stop me someone.

Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius

Fellowship Conference 2007: Scripture in the Church 13 - 17 August 2007 All Saints Pastoral Centre, London Colney (near St Albans), England

Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy The Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus, Ohio 20-23 September 2007

St Andrew's Institute for Theology, Imagination & the Arts is holding a conference on

THE OFFENCE OF BEAUTY - What can a theological perspective on beauty offer to the arts today? 3-5 September, 2007

Speakers include:

Bernard Beatty (Liverpool) Professor Jeremy Begbie (St Andrews) Dr Carol Harrison (Durham) Professor Trevor Hart (St Andrews) Professor Robert Jenson (Princeton) Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff (Yale)

The colloquium takes place at a time of considerable and growing interest in the intersections of theology, beauty and the arts. Its particular concern is with the concept of beauty, and what a Christian theological perspective on beauty might have to offer to the arts today.

In recent decades, among those who practise, think and write about the arts, the notion of beauty has often come under deep suspicion. For many who have not dismissed it as irrelevant, it has even become a matter of offence.

For some, beauty is an offence against truth, a lie in the midst of a world that is so obviously not beautiful. The quest for beauty in the arts is the quest for an illusory consolation, signalling a primal human urge for order in a world we cannot bear to admit is destined for futility.

The pursuit of beauty has also been seen as an offence against goodness. In the hands of the comfortable and powerful, the love of beauty – in the arts as much as anywhere else – is a luxury that can easily muffle the howl of those who know little or no beauty, distracting us from our obligations to those in need. Or, from the other side, beauty dulls the oppressed to the injustice of their predicament.

Beauty is also distrusted insofar as it is assumed to ‘harmonise away’ the evilness of evil. In particular, there has been a distrust of theories of beauty in which the notions of balance, symmetry and equivalence predominate, where evil’s irrational, intrusive quality is suppressed, where it is subsumed into a harmonious metaphysics of necessity and seen as part of the necessary balance of things. Art, it is said, must never collude with such schemes.

Undoubtedly, the Church and Christian theologians have been as responsible as any others for generating and encouraging these suspicions. The question arises, however: can there be a theological perspective on beauty that takes these suspicions seriously, while at the same time refusing to set aside the notion of beauty altogether? More particularly: in what ways can attending to the triune God of Jesus Christ, and this God’s gracious, reconciling, self-revealing activity in and for the world, inform and transform our conceptions of beauty? In this light, are there ways in which it might be quite legitimate to speak of the ‘offence’ of beauty – especially in relation to the ‘scandal’ at the heart of the Christian faith, the vindication of the crucified Jesus? And – the focused concern of this colloquium – what might such theological construals of beauty imply about the way we practise, interpret and enjoy the arts in the twenty-first century?

The person of Christ The Twelfth Edinburgh Conference in Christian Dogmatics

Monday 27th to Thursday 30 August 2007

Speakers include:

John Webster Richard Bauckham Henri Blocher Bruce McCormack Stephen Holmes - all the greats

Rutherford House holds these conferences every other year. They are small, which means there is a good chance of some real discussion, and they are Scottish, which is nice.

But we need a nationwide forum for some real Christian dogmatics in the UK. So Rutherford House might think of widening participation and making this an annual conference. I wonder whether there should be a national organisation, perhaps with the words 'evangelical' and 'theology' in its title. On second thoughts, let's stick with the word 'Dogmatics' - it is better than 'evangelical'.

Professor Paul Bradshaw has very kindly offered to host a new series of three Deep Church ecclesiology seminars. These will continue to explore the resources of the whole Christian tradition for contemporary church worship and life

Friday 16 February, Friday 30 March, and Friday 11 May, 3-5pm at Notre Dame’s London Centre

16 February Alan Brown – ‘Orthodox and Evangelical?’ Alan is on the management team of the Cambridge Orthodox Institute. He is author of ‘The Intellectual Debate between Pagans and Christians in the Fourth to Seventh Centuries’ (Cambridge Histories) and is presently writing on the relationship between Christian theology and Christian spirituality.

30 March Bernd Wannenwetsch – ‘Worship as public and political act’ Bernd is lecturer in Christian ethics at Harris Manchester College Oxford, and is author of ‘Political Worship: Ethics for Christian Citizens’ and ‘Liturgy as Politics – Politics as Liturgy’.

11 May David Hilborn – ‘Why should evangelicals be Anglican?’ David is Director of Studies and acting Principal of the North Thames Ministerial Training Course. Previously he was the Evangelical Alliance’s Theologian, convenor of the Alliance Commission on Unity and Truth among Evangelicals, and editor of ‘Evangelicalism and the Orthodox Church’.

These seminars are open to anyone in Christian ministry or theological study in London. If you would like to come to any one of these please email using the address in 'About Us'

The Book of the Series – We hope to launch ‘Remembering our Future: Explorations in Deep Church’, edited by Luke Bretherton and Andrew Walker, the collected papers from the last Deep Church series, at one of these seminars.

Fulcrum Conference Islington London Friday 27 April 2007, 2:00pm to 9:00pm

Being Disciples

Conference Speakers:

Dr Rowan Williams Archbishop of Canterbury

Dr Elaine Storkey Senior Research Fellow, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, Chair of Fulcrum and President of Tearfund

I wonder who gave them that title? Disciples and discipleship is just what is required when attempting a little Christian theology in London

The Annual Conference of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology June 10-12, 2007 St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

Freedom and Authority in the Christian Life The assumption of our culture is that authority and freedom are a zero-sum game: some decry the loss of authority in an age of freedom and others lament the persistent oppression of freedom by various authorities. For the Christian, however, this assumption cannot be so, for it is the truth, the authoritative truth of Christ's gospel, that sets us free (John 8:32). Unfortunately, how authority and freedom are realized in Christian life has been a point at which Christians and churches have sharply disagreed.

The conference will focus on how authority and freedom come together in the life of the Church and the Christian: our freedom under the authority of Scripture; the authority of holiness in the saints, the liturgy, and sacraments; the authority of the pastoral (including magisterial) office. If true freedom requires true authority (and vice versa!), what is the nature of evangelical authority and evangelical freedom? How are they fostered in our churches?

Speakers will include:

Gilbert Meilaender Margaret O'Gara Ephraim Radner Michael Root

I have found another place I want to be next summer.

A Day for the Lord: A Sign of Contradiction? June 11 - 13, 2007 at the University of Notre Dame

The thirty-fifth annual conference of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy will address the relationship between cult and culture by considering what it means to keep a "day holy to the Lord." What does it mean to take seriously the obligation to keep the Lord's Day?

Toward that end, our plenary addresses will draw on the five dimensions of the Lord's Day described in John Paul II's 1998 apostolic letter, Dies Domini. Each of these headings can be treated as a starting point for considering how keeping the Lord's Day implies a stance vis-a-vis elements of contemporary culture.

Session titles

1. Dies Domini - The Celebration of the Creator's Work Hindy Najmann, University of Toronto

2. Dies Christi - The Day of the Risen Lord and the Gift of the Holy Spirit Rev. Hieromonk Dr. Calinic Berger, Holy Cross Church & St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary

3. Dies Ecclesiae - The Eucharistic Assembly: Heart of Sunday Owen Cummings, Mt. Angel Seminary

4. Dies Hominis - Sunday: Day of Joy, Rest and Solidarity Frederick Bauerschmidt, Loyola College in Maryland

5. Dies Dierum - Sunday: The Primordial Feast, Revealing the Meaning of Time Larry Cunningham, University of Notre Dame

And as if that wasn't enough, Notre Dame Campus ministry says:

One thing is for sure at Notre Dame: we know how to pray, and we do it well!

Well! I have been looking for someone in London to teach me to pray. No more. I'm off to Indiana.

The Theology of the Body lectures continue on Friday evenings St. Patrickâ??s Soho Square, London. The lectures are going through the theological teaching on marriage given by Pope John Paul II in his general audiences (GA)

II. Blessed are the Pure of Heart Jan 12 Rod Isaacs: â??The Heart â?? A Battlefield between Love & Lust.â?? (GA July 23rd 1980) Jan 26 Matthew Nichols: â??Establishing the Ethical Sense.â?? (GA Oct 1st 1980) Feb 2 Fr. Mark Withoos: â??The Human Body, Subject of Works of Artâ?? (General Audience April 15th 1981)

III. The Theology of Marriage & Celibacy Feb 23 Robert Colquhoun â??To be Imitators of God & to Walk in Loveâ?? (GA Aug 4th 1982) Mar 2 Fr. Mark Withoos: â??Virginity or Celibacy for the sake of the Kingdomâ?? (G A. March 10th 1982) March 23 Jane Deegan: â??Love is Victorious in the Struggle between Good and Evilâ?? (GA June 27th 1984)

IV. Reflections on Humanae Vitae April 27 Edmund Adamus: â?? The Churchâ??s Position on the Transmission of Lifeâ?? (GA August 22nd 1984) May 11 Dan & Anne Hill: â??A Discipline that Ennobles Human Love.â?? (GA Aug 28th 1984) May 25 Alison Gray â??The dignity and vocation of woman and her role in the Churchâ?? June 8 Love and Responsibility â?? Theology of the Body

Pope John Paul II Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body

Meanwhile, from the basement of that very same St Patrick's in Soho, London, Nicole Syed provides advice on Natural Fertility Management. Nicole says this:

Through the content of the course and a lot of my own reading of John Paul IIâ??s Theology of the Body, I found the holistic way of life that I had been looking for, integrating every aspect of our lives, physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual. I realised that promoting this message was what I wanted to do to help transform the lives of those around me. It became increasingly clear to me from a health perspective, that the contraceptive industry had manipulated the way people think about fertility, treating it as an illness that needs to be suppressed and controlled at all costs. Because of my nursing background I could see how the pill and most other artificial contraceptives were physically destructive to the body, but as I studied more of the theology, I could also see how contraception was spiritually and relationally damaging to couples on a totally different level â?? one that was subtle and often undetected.

Many young couples who are interested in NFP, tell me itâ??s really difficult to find out about it now, because most priests are too embarrassed or afraid to mention it, and it seems it is rarely talked about on marriage preparation courses any more. Itâ??s just assumed that if people are interested they will find out about it themselves, but often they donâ??t know where to look, so they just end up using artificial means because thatâ??s all they know about and no one has explained to them what the Church teaches and why. The contraceptive industry is a massive money making industry and its propoganda has really formed the way our whole society thinks about this issue, so if we are going to challenge this, the Church really needs to get its act together.

And see the Couple to Couple League or Couple to Couple League (UK). Don't say I don't provide you with a service.

Second Aquinas Colloquium - Blackfriars Oxford

We are pleased to reveal that the principal speaker at the 2nd annual colloquium on St Thomas will be Professor John O'Callaghan, Director of Maritain Centre at the University of Notre Dame. Prof. O'Callaghan, author of Thomist realism and the linguistic turn (2003) will be reflecting on the concept of the soul in Aquinas.

He will be joined by two further speakers, Fr Fergus Kerr OP, Director of the Aquinas Institute at Blackfriars, and Fr Vivian Boland OP, lecturer at Blackfriars and Strawberry Hill.

Fergus Kerr will be looking at what St Augustine, St Thomas, and Wittgenstein say about our knowledge of other people's thoughts.

Vivian Boland will be reflecting on virtue ethics in St Thomas.

Here is the punch-line: Attendance at the colloquium is by invitation only.

Enough said?

The hunt goes on. Exciting isn't it?

All the stars will be coming out at the

First International Conference on the

Orthodox Readings of Augustine at Fordham, NY 14-16 June 2007

Andrew Louth Lewis Ayres John Behr David Bradshaw Brian Daley, S.J. Elizabeth Fisher Carol Harrison David Hart Joseph Lienhard, S.J. Jean-Luc Marion John McGuckin John Milbank David Tracy

I most admire the work of Brian Daley and Andrew Louth. I am chauvinistically proud of the English at the top of their game, Andrew Louth again, John Behr and John Milbank of course. But why isn't conference organiser Aristotle Papanikolaou giving a paper?

I am always ready to talk up any theological discussion going on in the UK, so I'm keeping an eye on Statford Caldecott’s Second Spring which is offering

Theology of the Body - London day conference Give Me Sensible Reasons To Believe: the true teaching of the Catholic Church about SEX SEX and the reasons WHY

A one-day conference for young adults Saturday 24th February 2007 at Westminster Cathedral Hall Ambrosden Avenue London SW1P 1QH

'The speakers are all young committed Catholics who are living in the real world. These issues are a part of their lives as they are of yours.' - Just right for the youth group, then.

Plus - Theology of the Body Explored - lecture course 2006-7 continues into the spring at St. Patrick’s, Soho Square, London

Society for the Study of Christian Ethics conference 2007

The Ideology of Managerialism in Church, Politics and Society

7th-9th September, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, UK

Presenters include Professor Michael L. Budde, Chair of the Department of Political Science, DePaul University

Professor John Milbank, Professor in Religion, Politics & Ethics, Nottingham University

Professor Allen Verhey, Professor of Christian Ethics, Duke Divinity School

Dr. Bernd Wannenwetsch, Lecturer in Ethics, Oxford University

Call for papers - The conference committee invite short papers related to the theme of the event and more general outlines of work in progress

* * *

Day Conference on Hans G. Ulrich The day before the SSCE conference the Society will be holding a Symposium on Hans G. Ulrich's (Erlangen) major work on theological ethics, Wie Geschöpfe leben:Konturen evangelischer Ethik (LIT Verlag, 2005) at Harris Manchester College (6th-7th September 2007).

Those responding to Prof Ulrich’s work include: Dr. Markus Bockmuehl (St Andrews); Professor Oliver O’Donovan (New College, Edinburgh); Professor Wolfgang Palaver (Innsbrück); Dr Susan Parsons (Nottingham); Revd Dr Bernd Wannenwetsch (Harris Manchester, Oxford); and Professor John Webster (Aberdeen).

This is an open symposium to which all are invited to attend.

Hans Ulrich, one of Germany's very finest, is scarcely known outside Germany, so this day conference will be quite an opportunity. Ulrich was Docktorvater to Reinhard Hütter whose Suffering Divine Things and (the rather more accessible) Bound to be Free: Evangelical Catholic Engagements in Ecclesiology, Ethics, and Ecumenism have impressed me almost more than any other books in the last three years, and of Oxford's Bernd Wannenwetsch whose Political Worship: Ethics for Christian Citizens is the chunkiest and most exciting piece of theology I have seen recently.

How about a Cosmic Liturgy retreat-and-conference at Oxford next Easter?

Cosmic Liturgy

Over Easter 2007 we are offering an educational and spiritual retreat in the heart of Oxford to study the meaning of the Liturgy, drawing on Pope Benedict’s book The Spirit of the Liturgy. The intention is to promote a deeper personal engagement with the Easter Liturgy in dialogue with the Orthodox. The retreat will help us rediscover or better appreciate the following things:

·The vertical dimension of the Liturgy (and the Church herself) as containing at its heart the sacrifice of the Cross, joining earth to heaven.

·The sacrificial dimension of the sacred Liturgy, tied to a greater sense of the meaning of Holy Eucharist, the Christian priesthood, etc.

·The eschatological dimension of the Liturgy, as a making present of eternity in time, an actual drawing up of the mundane into the realm of the divine.

·The relationship of the external forms of the Liturgy to catechesis, to interior formation and disposition. The place of beauty, structure, symbol, cosmic orientation, language and music in divine worship.

·The Liturgy as something received, something objective, and not something we are can engineer. The essential role of tradition as a vehicle for the Holy Spirit and the organic development of liturgy and community.

·The intrinsic relationship of contemplation to action, of love for God to love for neighbour, in the Liturgy itself. The nuptial anthropology that makes Mass the consummation of a wedding between divine and human nature.

Out of this course, with the experience of a beautiful Easter Liturgy, and some training in the use of the Divine Office and Gregorian Chant, will come refreshment of spirit and a renewed energy to serve God in the world.

See more at Second Spring. Try 'Mystagogy' and their Noticeboard-Chatroom. Second Spring, I am impressed.