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Oxford University Theology Summer School Course Information Department for Continuing Education www.conted.ox.ac.uk OXFORD UNIVERSITY THEOLOGY SUMMER SCHOOL 31 July – 13 August 2016 at Christ Church, Oxford COURSE INFORMATION CONTENTS COURSE INFORMATION Week 1: 31 July-6 August 2016 MORNING SEMINARS CHRISTIANS AND OTHER ANIMALS Professor David Clough 1 HEALING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Fr Nicholas King SJ 3 THE PLACE OF COMPASSION The Revd Canon Professor Jane Shaw 4 AFTERNOON SEMINARS REDEEMING EVIL Professor Keith Ward 6 SACRAMENTS: THE MEDICINE OF THE GOSPEL? The Revd Dr Keith Riglin 8 THEOLOGY AFTER THE CRASH: MONEY, DEBT The Revd Dr James Walters 9 AND JUSTICE IN THE 21ST CENTURY Week 2: 7-13 August 2016 MORNING SEMINARS CREATION AND SALVATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH The Revd Professor Frances Young 11 HEALING THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH The Revd Dr Keith Clements 13 THE MONASTIC MEDICINE: PRAYER, STUDY, WORK The Revd Dr Shaun Henson 15 AFTERNOON SEMINARS A BRIEF HISTORY OF SIN The Revd Angela Tilby 17 GOD AND SUFFERING IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY The Revd Dr Peter Groves 19 LAUDATO SI: POPE FRANCIS'S VISION The Revd Canon Dr Robin Gibbons 21 FOR THE WORLD Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information within this document, which was assumed to be correct in March 2016, OUDCE cannot accept liability for any inaccuracies The information in this document is available in other formats on request Theology Summer School Week 1: 31 July-6 August 2016 - Morning CHRISTIANS AND OTHER ANIMALS Professor David Clough Description This course introduces students to a theological understanding of the place of non-human animals in Christian doctrine and ethics. It asks new and fundamental questions about where other animals belong in God’s purposes, and what this means for how Christians should treat them. The first three sessions explore where animals belong under the major doctrinal topics of creation, reconciliation, and redemption. The first session asks about God’s purpose in creation as it relates to human and non-human animals. The second session explores the implications of the Christian doctrines of incarnation and atonement for animals. The third session addresses the question of non-human animals in Christian visions of the new creation. The final two sessions turn from Christian doctrine to ethics, asking how Christian beliefs about other animals impact on pressing practical questions of our relations to them. The fourth session focuses on our use of other animals for food: the human use of animals that accounts for the vast majority of all our dealings with them. The final session extends this ethical reflection to ask about other human uses of animals: as experimental subjects, sources of medicinal products, workers in various contexts, participants in sport, companion animals, captives in zoos, and so on. By the end of the course, students should have an understanding of the place of non-human animals in Christian theology, and the tools to develop an ethical framework that allows a theologically informed approach to human uses of other animals, with practical implications. Course content Session 1 Creation: what it means to be an animal creature (Monday) What is God’s purpose in creation as it relates to human and non-human animals? Is creation all about human beings, or do God’s creative purposes extend to other creatures, too? What does it mean to be an animal creature of God (human or non-human), and how should theology should discuss differences between animal creatures? Session 2 Reconciliation: where animals belong in doctrines of the incarnation and atonement (Tuesday) What are the implications of the Christian doctrines of incarnation and atonement for animals? Does God’s decision to become incarnate in a human being, and die and be raised up to overcome sin mean that other creatures are of no account, or should we consider a larger view of God’s work in Jesus Christ? Is sin itself a category that is restricted to humans, or might reconciliation have meaning beyond the human realm? Session 3 Redemption: the place of animals in the new creation (Wednesday) What is the place of non-human animals in Christian visions of the new creation? Is life beyond this one only for human beings, or for all things God has made? If the new creation is a more than human reality, what does that mean for the future lives of lions and lambs? Session 4 The ethics of consuming animals in a Christian context (Thursday) How do we apply a Christian view of animal life to ethical questions? Should Christians make use of animals for food? If so, what does a Christian view of animals mean for how they should be raised and slaughtered? Session 5 Other human use of other animals (Friday) Is research experimentation on other animals legitimate? Should non-human animals be used for sport? Should they be kept as companion animals, or in zoos? 1 Reading list Key text – to be read in advance of summer school and brought to class in Oxford Clough, David, On Animals, Volume I: Systematic Theology (London: T & T Clark, 2013) Other recommended reading – texts not required in class in Oxford Gilmour, Michael, Eden’s Other Residents: The Bible and Animals (Eugene, US: Cascade Books, 2014) Lymbery, Philip, Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat (London: Bloomsbury, 2014) Tutor Dr David Clough is Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chester and the President of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics. He has published on the ethics of Karl Barth (Ethics in Crisis: Interpreting Barth’s Ethics; Ashgate, 2007) and the ethics of war (Faith and Force: A Christian Debate about War; with Brian Stiltner, Georgetown University Press, 2009). His current research concerns the place of non-human animals in Christian doctrine and ethics, focused on a two-volume monograph On Animals, Volume I: Systematic Theology (T & T Clark, 2012); Volume II: Theological Ethics (forthcoming, 2016). 2 Theology Summer School Week 1: 31 July-6 August 2016 - Morning HEALING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Fr Nicholas King SJ Description Healing was an eye-catching symbol of the newness of the kingdom inaugurated by Jesus. This course will approach the theme of healing by way of a detailed examination of the key New Testament texts on the matter, namely the letters of Paul, the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles (which is understood here as a fifth gospel). In Acts and the Pauline corpus there is not much by way of a theology of healing; but both assume that healing is a normal part of being ‘in Christ’. Mark’s Gospel is rather different. From the very beginning extraordinary things are happening, signaling the newness of the kingdom that Jesus sees himself as sent to inaugurate. Matthew’s gospel places the healings in an orderly way (silently chiding Mark for his disorder), and perhaps sees healing as subordinate to teaching. In contrast, Luke is in some ways the gospel of healing. It is not surprising that there is an ancient tradition of linking ‘Luke the Doctor’ in Colossians to the author of the third gospel. In John’s Gospel there is not an enormous amount of healing, in contrast to what we find in the other three gospels, but what there is, with the discourses added, takes us deeper into the mystery of who Jesus is. The surprising thing about the wonderful works chronicled in the New Testament is that they are always narrated without drama, and never seem to function as any kind of evidence. Healing is simply taken for granted. It happens when and where Jesus is present. Contemporary readers need to ask themselves what they think about healing in the present age; it is not self-evident that the only intellectually respectable response to any suggestion of healing is headlong flight. Course content Session 1 Paul and Acts: not much focus on healing, but in both the Pauline corpus and Acts the assumption is (Monday) made that healing is a normal part of being ‘in Christ’ Session 2 From the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, extraordinary things happen, indicating the newness of the (Tuesday) Kingdom of Heaven; Jesus demonstrates effortless authority Session 3 Healing in Matthew: more teaching than healing? What has Matthew done with what he found in (Wednesday) Mark? Session 4 Luke: Is this the gospel of healing? We shall follow this gifted raconteur from the first manifesto of (Thursday) Jesus’ mission to the last earlobe Session 5 Healing in John’s Gospel; there is not much of it, but what there is takes us deeper into the mystery (Friday) of who Jesus is Reading list Key text – to be read in advance of summer school and brought to class in Oxford The New Testament - any edition is acceptable Other recommended reading – texts not required in class in Oxford Cotter, Wendy, Miracles in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook for the Study of New Testament Miracle Stories (London: Routledge, 1999) Eve, Eric, The Healer from Nazareth: Jesus’ Miracles in Historical Context (London: SPCK, 2009) Read all, especially Chapters 3 & 7-8 Twelftree, Graham, Jesus the Miracle Worker (Westmont, US: InterVarsity Press, 1999) Tutor Fr Nicholas King is a Jesuit priest who taught New Testament and Greek for many years in South Africa and then in the Theology Faculty at Oxford University. He is currently Academic Director, Theology at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. He recently published a translation of the entire Greek Bible (Kevin Mayhew, 2014), and The Helplessness of God: Biblical Models of Leadership (Keven Mayhew, 2015). 3 Theology Summer School Week 1: 31 July-6 August 2016 - Morning THE PLACE OF COMPASSION The Revd Professor Jane Shaw Description In the core text for this course, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, the author Karen Armstrong suggests that compassion is at the heart of all religions.
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