don furnaloni

Yesterday, CNN ran an article entitled: How Obama’s favorite theologian shaped his first year in office.

Read more about Niebuhr here.

So, it’s one thing if theology has influenced a particular politician. But one has to also ask, what is theology for? Ben Myers has some great thoughts for us about that:

“the whole purpose of theological education: not simply to make students cleverer, but to help them learn better ways to speak to God in prayer, and to one another in witness.

Who is this God who comes to us and meets us in Jesus Christ? That is the basic theological question. Answering this question requires broad knowledge, sharp thinking, scholarly discipline, and a good dose of intellectual creativity. But it also demands much more than that: if we’re really to grapple with the significance of God’s self-witness in Christ, we’ll also need to respond to that witness.”

CALL FOR PAPERS:
FROM WORLD MISSION TO INTERRELIGIOUS WITNESS
VISIONING ECUMENICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
JUNE 16-18, 2010
TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN (DUBLIN, IRELAND)

CONFERENCE THEME
The Irish School of Ecumenics and the theological journal Concilium are pleased to announce a call to papers for the international conference: ‘From World Mission to Interreligious Witness: Visioning Ecumenics in the 21st Century’ (cf. Programme Description).
The conference seeks to explore and examine the following three-fold trajectory:
1) From World Mission to World Christianity and Beyond
2) Cultures of Faith and Public Theology: Ecumenical Witness
3) Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Witness

ABSTRACTS FORMAT
Titled abstracts of 200-300 words should address the following—and related— conference themes: interreligious witness and religious pluralism; ecumenical witness in the 21st century; the hopes and limits of public theology; theological dissent, freedom and creativity; mission and the ‘other’; intercultural theology and religious identity(ies); ‘mission’ in a secular context; local and global contexts of World Christianity and other faiths; and the next 100 years of ecumenism.
The format of the parallel paper sessions will be 20 minute presentations followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Parallel sessions will take place on Thursday, June 17th from 16:30-18:00. Co-authored papers are welcome.
Send your abstracts by February 1, 2010 to:
Dr. Peter Admirand at Dublinecumenics2010@tcd.ie (Irish School of Ecumenics, Dublin) or to
Pramila Rajan at: concilium.madras@gmail.com (Concilium, Madras).

LOCATION, CONFERENCE FEES, AND OTHER PRACTICALITIES
The conference will take place in the Arts building of Trinity College Dublin, ideally located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. In addition to accommodation and meal possibilities at Trinity College, the many cultural attractions, restaurants, pubs, and hotels of Dublin are all in walking distance.
Conference Fee: 100 Euro [50 Euro for students / unwaged] by April 1, 2010. 120/60 Euro after.
Questions can be directed to Dr. Peter Admirand (ISE) at Dublinecumenics2010@tcd.ie.

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
For further information on the Conference Organizers, please visit:
Academic Staff, ISE Ecumenics Programme http://www.tcd.ie/ise/
Steering Committee Concilium Board http://www.concilium.in/

For more info: website

This past week, I’ve been thinking more about health care reform in the U.S. I’ve been thinking about it for several reasons: 1) The ongoing debate in the U.S. 2) The State of the Union Address 3) April has been sick with a cold and went to the doctor today and my fourth reason comes from my friend Byron’s blog:

Byron makes some interesting points:

“Notice that the much maligned NHS in the UK spends about 40% of what the US does per person and yet the UK has a higher average life-expectancy by more than a year. Portugal spends less than 30% of the US level and also has a higher life-expectancy. The country with the greatest longevity, Japan, spends about 35% per person of what the US spends. And this massive US spending is not just absolute, but also relative to GDP. The other salient feature of this graph is noting that the only industrialised nation without universal health care is the US.”

It would be nice if we could get on the ball. But before you’re tempted to get overly optimistic about tides of change, watch the Republicans in action as they try and sink the ’socialist’ flagship that is the Obama administration:

Lewis Ayres has just posted his take on The Centre for Catholic Studies’ colloquium about the future of Trinitarian theology. It was a great day and also a great opportunity to hear both David Burrell and David Tracy.

Have a look at the blog and see if you can recognize any familiar faces.

Hopefully they will be posting the audio for this session soon.

A few days ago, Archbishop Rowan Williams accepted the literary Campion award. You can read about it here. Make sure to listen to his acceptance speech here.

Also, there is an unfavourable article in The Times about his recent call to repentance for Wall Street.

Great Mystics Address the Contemporary World

Saturday, 6 March 2010

Symposium Venue:
Lecture Theatre 2, School of Humanities, 11 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB

10.00 -10.30 Coffee & Registration

10.30 – 11.30

Keynote Speaker:
Prof. Emeritus Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago):
Great Mystics address the contemporary world

11.30 – 12.15 Prof. Oliver Davies (King’s College, London): ‘Negative Theology’ and the Excess of History

LUNCH (12.15-13.55)

14.00 -1 4.45 Dr Joseph Milne (University of Kent, Canterbury): Mystical Aspects of Christian Cosmology

14.45 – 15.30 Dr. Edward Howells (Heythrop College, London): ‘“O Guiding Night!”: Darkness as the Way to God in John of the Cross’ Mysticism’

TEA/COFFEE (15.30 – 16.00)

16.00 – 16.45 Prof. Tina Beattie (Roehampton): BLOODY WOMEN – Luce and Catherine answer back, but who has the last word?

16.45 – 17.30 Dom Aidan Bellenger (Abbot of Downside): ‘Benedictine Opening up and the Mystical Tradition.’

17.40 – 18.15 Roundtable discussion , including ‘question and answer’ session

The event is followed by dinner – please see registration form for details.

Cost (including lunch and coffee): £25 (when registering before 1 February 2010).
Reduced student rates are available.

To download the registration form, please visit www.bris.ac.uk/arts/birtha/greatmystics

Email: bppa.2010@durham.ac.uk
Web: www.dur.ac.uk/bppa.2010
Date: 16-18 July 2010
Venue: St. John’s College, University of Durham.

About the conference
The British Postgraduate Philosophy Conference, now in its twelfth successful year, is the largest and most prestigious postgraduate philosophy conference in the United Kingdom and regularly attracts delegates from across the world.

We invite papers from postgraduate researchers across all philosophical disciplines and traditions, including but not limited to ethics and moral philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy of science and medicine, metaphysics, epistemology, environmental philosophy, philosophical logic, philosophy of language and linguistics, ancient philosophy, philosophy of mind and psychiatry, and the history of philosophy.

Pursuant to the BPPAs remit, we welcome all submissions in either the Western or Continental traditions which reflect the philosophical standards of rigour and clarity. We can provide bursarial support for speakers whose papers pertain to aesthetics, ethical theory, the history of philosophy, and the philosophy of science, thanks to the kind support of the British Societies for Aesthetics, Ethical Theory, History of Philosophy, and Philosophy of Science.

Submissions and deadlines
Papers of no more than 3000 words should be emailed to bppa.2010@durham.ac.uk by 15 May 2010. All submissions will be peer-reviewed and should be suitable for blind review.

Proceedings will be published. We expect to have sixteen postgraduate speakers, and two keynote addresses, by Professor Wayne Martin (University of Essex) and Professor Jonathan Lowe (Durham University), as well as two professional development workshops, hosted by the Philosophy and Religious Studies Subject Centre of the University of Leeds.

Sponsors
We are grateful for the generous support of the following organisations and departments: the Department of Philosophy (Durham University), British Society for Aesthetics (BSA), British Society for Ethical Theory (BSET), British Society for the History of Philosophy (BSHP), British Society for Philosophy of Science (BSPS), Cambridge University Press, the Analysis Trust, the Mind Association, and the Philosophy and Religious Studies Subject Centre (University of Leeds).

Organising committee
Ian James Kidd (conference chair)
Alex Carruth
Arlette Frederik
Claire Graham
Duncan Proctor

Messages to the list are archived at http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html. Prolonged discussions should be moved to chora: enrol via http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/chora.html. Other philosophical resources on the Web can be found at http://www.liv.ac.uk/pal.

Theology and Ethics Seminars

Department of Theology and Religion, University of Durham

Epiphany Term 2010

Seminars are on Wednesdays 11.30am-1pm, in Seminar Room B, Department of Theology and Religion, Abbey House, Palace Green (unless otherwise stated).

27th January ‘St Paul and Ecumenism: Justification and All That’.

Professor Paul Murray (University of Durham)

10th February ‘Aemilia Lanyer’s Brides of Christ: Rhetorical Strategy, Christian Formation and Sexual Politics’.

Dr Hilary Elder (University of Durham)

24th February ‘In the Society of God: some principles of ecclesiology’

Professor John Webster (University of Aberdeen)

10th March* ‘Creation’s Ends: Teleology, Ethics and the Natural’

Dr Simon Oliver (University of Nottingham)

*To be held in the Dun Cow Cottage Seminar Room.

For further information, please contact Dr Chris Insole (christopher.insole@durham.ac.uk).

If you have the chance, you should go to see The Sacred Made Real exhibition at the National Gallery in London, it is getting loads of praise.

Also, Catholic Studies Professor Tina Beattie just gave a lecture recently at the National Gallery entitled ‘Conceiving Mary: gender theology, and sanctity in Marian art’. She has posted it for you to read on her website.

I’m very pleased to know that Patty Griffin is at it again. This time she’s recorded a gospel album in her home church in Nashville. The new album, Downtown Church, can be heard on NPR until its release on Jan. 26th.

Take it easy today, and let Patty sing to you.

Click here to start your listening pleasure.