New College Bulletin 2016 Our students and programmes: An overview New College Alumni news Research New Books news update page 03 page 10 page 14 page 16 Foreword Contents New College news In this year’s New College Bulletin New College News .................................................... 03 For more on the following and other news items about staff activities and New College events, go to the web site our focus is on our students. of the School of Divinity: www.ed.ac.uk/divinity/news-events. So, we feature brief overviews Our Students and Programmes ................................ 08 of our undergraduate students Alumni news .............................................................. 10 Rooms named in honour of two and programmes (by Dr. Alison New Staff .................................................................... 12 remarkable female academics Jack) and our postgraduate students and programmes (by In memoriam .............................................................. 13 In coming months, two teaching rooms will Professor Susan Hardman Moore). be renamed in honour of former members Major research projects update ................................ 14 of staff Marcella Althaus Reid and Elisabeth As you will see from their comments, Reading matter: staff publications ............................ 16 Templeton. New College continues to thrive, with Scholarships update.................................................. 18 a robust number of applicants each Marcella Althaus Reid (1952–2009) was the year at all levels. We also continue Upcoming events ....................................................... 20 first woman to hold a Professorial Chair in New to draw our postgraduate students College. Since her untimely death, her work on from a wide variety of countries. contextual theology has continued to be studied Recent reviews of our operation have and discussed across the world. Room 1.07 produced commendations. But the Lifelong (which was formerly the Student Common Room) reviews that mean the most to us are will be renamed the Marcella Althaus Reid Room from our students and our alumni! community: where a portrait of Marcella will be displayed. In this Bulletin we also feature a Lecture Room 1 (the largest lecture theatre in variety of news about academic staff New College) will be redesignated the Elizabeth (including new appointments), recent stay in touch! Templeton Room in honour of the first woman books published by them, examples to hold a full-time lectureship in the Faculty of Divinity. She passed away in 2015. A photograph of major research projects led by Keep us posted! academic staff, major contributions of Elizabeth (shown here) is being enlarged and Please let us know when you move home or change email address so we to our scholarship funds, a couple of framed for display in the lecture theatre. can keep you informed with what’s happening at the School of Divinity the current postgraduate scholarship and across the University. By keeping your contact details up to date recipients, an unusual find in the New you’ll receive our publications, and you can also make the most of your College Library, and other items. exclusive alumni benefits and services package, which includes careers Sabbath in the Glen receives a full restoration Among coming events, I want to support and ongoing access to many University facilities, often at a and is now in display in the New College Library draw attention to the New College special rate. Alumni Reunion on 4th June. You will This impressive painting, held in A significant period piece, this work The character of the heads of this To find out more about how you can keep in touch and get involved, please find more information on this special storage for many years at New depicts Thomas Guthrie preaching typically Scottish audience, intent visit www.ed.ac.uk/alumni or email [email protected] event on page 20. College, was recently restored and to a congregation which included on the words of the preacher, are is currently displayed in the central many women and children who admirably depicted; Harvey is here We also encourage our former Connect with us hall of the library above the Funk would probably have been known at his best.’ students to visit our website, which You can also find us on: Reading Room. to the artist. One critic has written includes news about events and of Harvey’s painting: ‘The varied developments throughout the year: The large scale painting, created in www.tinyurl.com/edalumni grouping of the numerous company, www.ed.ac.uk/divinity. And we want 1858 by the distinguished Victorian /SchoolOfDivinityEdinburgh seated or recumbent on the heathery to hear from you too. So, let us know artist Sir George Harvey (1806–1876), and /edalumni slope, shows a finer sense of developments in your life. You can /edinburghalumni depicts an idealised account of a composition and a more learned email to me: [email protected]. Free Church service in the open air @SchoolofDiv and subordination of details to the /EdinburghAlumni somewhere in the Scottish highlands. Emeritus Professor Larry Hurtado @EdinburghAlumni masses than do the earlier pictures. College Bulletin Editor 2 | New College Bulletin 2016 | 3 Professor Mona Siddiqui contributed Our PhD student, Jaeho Jang, received Dr Joshua Ralston’s op-ed on Islam to panel on multicultural societies Professor Timothy Lim a prestigious award Dr Joshua Ralston has written an op-ed analysis gives lectures at the Professor Mona Siddiqui took part in a panel discussion Congratulations to Jaeho Jang (PhD student), who was awarded the 2015 of Christian understanding of Islam prompted by a Chinese University of on Britain’s religious complexion: Who Cares if Britain Peacock Prize for his essay on evolutionary theodicy in Christian theology and recent controversy in Wheaton College and other Isn’t a Christian Country? sponsored by the British Hong Kong Daoism. This prize is awarded by the Science and Religion Forum every year in developments in the online resource Religion and Academy, 28 January. honour of Arthur Peacocke, and recognises the best student piece of work in Ethics, published by the Australian Broadcasting Professor Timothy Lim gave the science and religion field submitted that year. Corporation: The Same God, or the One God? On She has also recently been invited to join the Franco-British the 2016 Chuen King Biblical the Limitations and Implications of the Wheaton Council, created as a joint initiative of President Georges Lectures in the Chinese Affair. He gave the 2016 Duerr Lectures, 21-23 Pompidou and Prime Minister Edward Heath, when Britain University of Hong Kong, 24-28 February, Bearing Witness: Reframing Christian- joined the European Community. February 2016, on the topic: Muslim Encounters, Houston, Texas, the series The Canon of Jewish Scriptures. Its aim is to promote better understanding between Britain co-sponsored by St. Philip Presbyterian Church and France and to contribute to the development of joint and the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance, action through meetings of leading representatives of the Rice University. worlds of culture, science, education, politics and business in the context of a developing Europe and of an increasingly globalised community. Emeritus Professor Larry Our PhD Student, Laura Mair, awarded the Hope Trust Hurtado lectured in the Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2016-18 Keeping up with Professor Jolyon Mitchell University of Calgary and Laura Mair has been awarded Marquette University Back in February 15, Professor Jolyon Mitchell gave a TEDx talk entitled the Hope Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2016-18. She will Swords into Ploughshares: Arms into Art to an audience of over 500, as Emeritus Professor Larry Hurtado be undertaking research on part of the TEDx University of Edinburgh Conference in February 2015. gave the 2016 Craigie Memorial the educational significance of Lecture in the University of Calgary, Professor Mitchell’s illustrated presentation explored how the arts can Dr Thomas Guthrie’s ragged 12 January: A Bookish Religion: contribute to building peace. This was followed up by a show in the Edinburgh school in Victorian Edinburgh. Reading, Writing, Copying, and Festival’s Fringe with Dr Lesley Orr, again on the topic of the use of arts Disseminating Texts in Early in peace building. Both Dr Lesley Orr and Professor Mitchell also spoke Her research on the subject has Christianity. He gave the Pere at Scotland’s History Festival in November 2015. Dr Orr on: The Women already contributed to inform an Marquette Lecture in Marquette Who Widnae Haud Their Wheesht – Scotswomen who fought for equality, important exhibition in the Victoria University, 10 April: Why on Earth did Professor Mitchell on his recent book: Martyrdom: A Very Short Introduction and Albert Museum under the name, Anyone Become a Christian in the (Oxford University Press). On their own: The story of Britain’s First Three Centuries. child migrants told for the very first More recently. Professor Mitchell also served on the International Ecumenical time. The exhibition, focused on His book, Destroyer of the gods: Early Film Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2015. The Jury’s prize was exploring the experiences of British Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman awarded to Mia Madre (directed by Nanni Moretti). For more about the 2015 child migrants in the 19th and 20th World (Baylor University Press) will festival, other awards and some of the most memorable films screened there