New College Bulletin 2009 Theology in the Public Square in Post-Devolution

This is the title of a two-year research programme in the Centre for Theology and Public Issues, funded by the Binks Trust and headed by Rev Dr Graham K. Blount, who for the previous 10 years was the Scottish Churches Parliament Officer. Dr Blount writes:

This project aims to resource the Christian Churches in Scotland by providing focused research in the area of Public Theology. In practice, it will have two main strands:

• to review and reflect upon the perspectives and strategies of Christian engagement in Scottish public debate since devolution; and • to identify, in consultation with the churches, policy areas where there is need for theological resourcing and to develop – in partnership with the churches and others – theological perspectives on the issues. Continued on Page 2

Inside Bulletin ‘My grandfather was a minister…’ 02 | The Head of School’s Message 03 Marcella Althaus Reid 06 | Africa In Scotland, Scotland In Africa 10 ‘The wilderness shall rejoice’ 11 | Publish and Be Blessed 12 Human & Humane 14 From Page 1 Having started on this project in January 2009, I feel it is well-timed, as post- devolution Scotland celebrates its tenth anniversary. The challenge is to show the added value which a theological perspective can bring to discussion of public issues. I believe that the move towards more holistic approaches to problems and issues opens up the possibilities of new dimensions in the debate – including a theological dimension – which will resonate widely.

Both strands of the project are well under way. I hope soon to have a paper available reviewing public debate around criminal justice, and how the churches have engaged with that; this will pilot a method for reviewing, across key topics, what the churches have brought to public debate and how they have engaged with ‘My grandfather was a minister…’ the devolved structures. Student information at New College listed, who came from all over the world For the second strand of the project, to study at New College, . The the aim is that both the process and the New College Librarian, entries have been augmented with brief outcome will be valuable to the churches. Christine Love-Rodgers writes: biographical information (where available) A starter paper was widely circulated, drawn chiefly from the Annals of the Free and 25 church representatives met for At New College Library we frequently , but also the Annals a roundtable discussion in April. receive enquiries from family historians, of the United Free Church of Scotland and from the Presbyterian church family 1900-1929 and the Fasti Ecclesiae From that conversation, a programme worldwide, asking about ministers who Scoticanae, subject to data protection of working with grassroots and national studied at New College. While New guidelines. The data entry work was groups, and partnerships with bodies like College Library does not keep transcripts generously funded by a grant from the the Centre for Research on Families and of students’ academic records, we were Church of Scotland. Relationships and Scotland’s Poverty able to provide some details to answer Truth Commission, will explore (between these enquiries using typewritten lists of New College Library also maintains now and summer 2010) a range of topics, matriculated New College students and a New College Archive which contains from responding to the recession to the the printed reference resources in New class photographs, student magazines future of the family. In the latter half of College Library. We were keen to make and information relating to New College 2010, we will look at weaving the this information more easily accessible student societies. If you are interested outcomes of these discussions around to the world, and in partnership with in consulting this archive collection, we cross-cutting themes, such as home/ Edinburgh University Archives have would encourage you to visit the library identity/community/security. produced an online database of in person, as the collection has an outline information about New College students index only and you may need to browse Let me know if you are interested in being from 1843 to 1943. This is freely available through the collections. It is not generally part of one of the groups associated with on the Internet at http:///www.archives.lib. possible to search the collection by the project, and I’ll send further details, ed.ac.uk/students/ names of individual students. or if you’d like to be kept in touch with future developments and events. The data is a combination of two different For more information about historic lists drawn up by J. Robb and . Edinburgh University records, please Rev Dr Graham K Blount Together they provide the master list of see the guide produced by the University Centre for Theology and Public Issues students who matriculated at New College Archives at http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/ [email protected] for the first 100 years of its existence. resources/collections/specdivision/ 0131 650 7912 Nearly 5000 men (and a few women) are euaguide1.shtml

02 | New College Bulletin 2009 Welcome

The Head of School’s Message

The School of Divinity (New College) programmes with universities and continues to thrive, and the academic theological colleges in several countries. year 2008-9 was for us busy and But we continue to explore further successful. In the late summer 2008, international contacts. One of the most Professor Jane Dawson received news of exciting opportunities I’ve had as Head the success of a £300,000 research grant of School was to travel to Beijing, Hong application to the UK Arts and Humanities Kong and Singapore this Spring. Research Council for a project on ‘The Wode Psalter’. Professor Dawson leads My visit to Singapore was at the invitation an international collaboration involving of Trinity Theological College, to give the museums and universities in the UK, Chen Su Lan lectures there. This visit also Ireland, and the USA. afforded the opportunity to discuss future collaboration options with colleagues of When the results of the latest UK Trinity Theological College. My time in Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) Singapore also included a lunch-meeting were announced in December 2008, our with key colleagues in the National standing as one of the top departments University of Singapore to discuss future outlook, in the study of theology and of Theology & Religious Studies in the UK collaboration with the School of Divinity. religion in general and of Christianity was reconfirmed. In overall results, we tied One of our alumni, Professor Alastair in particular. I hope that we will now be for third place in the UK, and have the Campbell, is founding Director of the able to follow up on my initial visit and highest percentage of top-rated research Centre for Bio-Medical Ethics in the develop ongoing relationships with in Scotland. (Indeed, we have won 42% National University of Singapore, and it Chinese colleagues. of the total Scottish research funding in was a pleasure to make his acquaintance Theology and Religious Studies on the and get an orientation to the research Alumni from around the world visit New basis of our RAE performance.) Likewise, conducted in this Centre. College, whether informally or for an in the most recent university league extended time of study and research. tables, we continue to be regarded as In Hong Kong, I was the guest of the We value our alumni and we know that among the best places to study Theology China Graduate School of Theology, they value their time here. The newly & Religious Studies in the UK. another important contact for us in Asia. opened Alan Robinson Garden of New President Carver Yu was a gracious host, College (described more fully in this issue But it was not all good news this year. and I trust that we will be able to pursue of the Bulletin) is a tangible expression of For we were all saddened at the death further contacts in coming years. In the fondness of one alumnus for New of our colleague, Professor Marcella Hong Kong, I also visited the Institute College, the major enhancement of the Althaus-Reid. She had acquired a wide for Sino-Christian Theology, and learned garden paid for out of the £25,000 left to international recognition as a provocative about their impressive efforts in translation New College in his will. But gifts great and theological voice, and it is now difficult of Western theological works, and in small are most welcome, and are invited to think that we shall not again have her promoting academic contacts between especially toward our endowments to lively presence in New College. Western scholars and colleagues in provide scholarships for students from all Chinese universities. over the world. Please do get in touch with One of the current emphases of the me if you are interested in making a gift. University is ‘internationalisation’, But the most exciting part of the trip encouraging contacts, collaboration, staff/ was Beijing, where I met with key The vital part which the study of theology student exchanges, and overseas student representatives of Peking University and and religion makes to education as a recruitment, and in this the School of Renmin University, and found in both a whole is discussed elsewhere in this issue Divinity is already well positioned. For very welcome response and readiness of the Bulletin. We in New College are example, we have a far-reaching to develop further contacts with New proud of our part in it. international profile, with some two-thirds College. Indeed, I was astonished at of our postgraduate students from non-EU the high level of interest in Chinese Professor countries. Also, we have exchange universities, among scholars of Marxist

New College Bulletin 2009 | 03 The Principal’s Message

Since my induction as Principal, I have appreciated the extent to which New ‘For me, a highlight College continues to blend aspects of its tradition with new developments and of the past year shifts in its profile. We are a larger, more ecumenical and diverse community than was the study tour at any stage of our history with successful degrees in Religious Studies and Divinity to Jerusalem and now significantly outstripping recruitment to the traditional BD degree and attracting other parts of Israel/ large cohorts of school leavers from around the UK. Yet we have sought to Palestine under maintain our commitment to ministerial formation, our close contacts with the leadership churches and other faith groups in Improving Scotland, and the expansion of of Graeme and postgraduate students from across the Three visible improvements have been: world. The BD continues to attract a Sylvia Auld.’ • rebirth of the Garden welcome number of ordinands, our current cohort being the largest in Theology in Scotland. We hope to run • installation of a hoist on the top Scotland. All this is achieved only with a further event this autumn as part of floor for disabled access to Lecture much goodwill and cooperation, and the Calvin quincentenary celebrations. Room 1 no doubt some tensions also. But New • new and brighter lighting in the College is a place that continues to Attendances at the weekly communion approaches to the Rainy Hall command the loyalty and affection of service have been healthy throughout the its students, and for this we are grateful. session and much enriched by the input A less visible but great enhancement of our choir. Earlier in the year, we took was a generous £10,000 gift from For me, a highlight of the past year was part in the Radio 4 service for Advent the Church of Scotland for books the study tour to Jerusalem and other Sunday which was broadcast live for the Library. parts of Israel/Palestine under the throughout the UK. Now visible in a different way is a leadership of Graeme and Sylvia Auld. short video – and even shorter trailer Around 20 church candidates and several I have been grateful for the support of – to assist recruitment of new students. members of staff spent eight days of many colleagues and students during To see and hear them go to: intensive travel and visits to sites around this last year, not least Karoline McLean http://www.youtube.com/ the Holy Land. We returned not only with in the School Office and Alison Jack, watch?v=8ZNhup24AEk and a heightened awareness of the history who as Assistant Principal, has taken http://www.youtube.com/ and geography of Scripture, but also responsibility for the organisation of watch?v=k4pOTaSOuRQ a chastened sense of the profound many of our activities. difficulties facing those who live in that part of the world today. The triennial Professor David Fergusson cycle of study tours for church candidates continues with a visit to Rome this summer.

We remain committed to the housing of day conferences for our wider constituency and this year’s event in honour of T. F. Torrance attracted a full house. The proceedings of the conference will be published later this year by

04 | New College Bulletin 2009 In Memoriam

a 4th edition of AB Davidson’s classic The Reverend Hebrew Syntax (3rd edition, 1901).

Professor John Clark Through-and-through scholar though he was, he was also a teacher, preacher and Love Gibson writer of popular appeal. So it was no surprise that he was asked to complement ‘A scholar minister of humour and passion’ William Barclay’s best-selling Daily Study who ‘spent most of his working life in the Bible (on the New Testament) with an Old , but for whom the Testament one. He recruited a dozen wellbeing of the Scottish Kirk and nation, other scholars to help him produce the 22 and proper education for its ministers, volumes, and he himself contributed two had a high claim on his attention.’ volumes on Genesis and one on Job.

So wrote Professor Graeme Auld about It is significant that his last publication, The Reverend Professor John Clark Love Language and Imagery in the Old Gibson who died on 17 November 2008, Testament, was dedicated, as he himself in Edinburgh, aged 78. was, to his students in New College. Professor Graeme Auld, in an obituary, Although he regretted the end of recalls what John wrote, in his introduction Born on 28 May 1930 in the manse of compulsory Hebrew and Greek, he to the Book of Job, in which he found Whifflet in Coatbridge. John Gibson devoted himself for 30 years to ‘incomparable glories’: graduated twice at Glasgow University, communicating the allure of Hebrew to as MA with a 1st in Semitic Languages those with little or no knowledge of it, as “When we reach the end of this unique in 1953 and BD with distinction in 1956. well as the vitality of the scriptures written and scarifying and excoriating book, we Following a DPhil of Oxford, where he had in it. In response students enjoyed the will know that we have had an exceedingly researched with the Hebraist Sir Godfrey encounters with him in the class room uncomfortable and tempestuous ride. No Driver, he was minister of New Machar, Aberdeen for three years. The rest of his working life, from 1962 to 1994, was at ‘He was widely recognised as a leading New College, first as Lecturer in Hebrew and Semitic Languages, then as Reader scholar of the nature and early history of (1973) and finally as Professor (1987). the Hebrew language, but his linguistic He was widely recognised as a leading scholar of the nature and early history of expertise also included Arabic, Accadian, the Hebrew language, but his linguistic expertise also included Arabic, Accadian, and Ugaritic, as well as general linguistics.’ and Ugaritic, as well as general linguistics. As a participant in a living scholarly as well as the golf course – and not book before or since has so remorselessly tradition he inherited projects and put his least with his many different and equally peeled away the layers of piety and own mark on them. A notable example in flamboyant hats. hypocrisy, of self-pity and self-deceit, the 1970s was his replacement in three of meretricious grovelling and heaven- volumes of George A Cooke’s 1903 His last project, sadly frustrated by defying arrogance with which, down the Textbook of North-Semitic Inscriptions, and chronic and debilitating illness, was to ages, humankind has tried to cover over his complete revision of Godfrey Driver’s commission and edit a translation into the truth about itself.” Canaanite Myths and Legends – important Scots of the Old Testament, to fresh studies of 2nd millennium BCE texts complement WK Lorimer’s The New from the northern coast of Syria, whose Testament in Scots, published in 1983. discovery has illumined the eastern Mediterranean world that cradled both After lengthy hospitalisation he died last the Hebrew Bible and classical Greece. November, leaving behind Nancy, his wife Returning in the 1990s to the Hebrew for over 50 years and their four sons and language, John Gibson again inherited one daughter. and refreshed an earlier piece of work, in

New College Bulletin 2009 | 05 In Memoriam

issued in invitations to lecture on the Professor Marcella Pedagogy of Liberation in both Dundee College of Education and here in New Maria Althaus Reid College, where with the initial help of a Quaker fellowship in 1994 she began a who in 2006 became the first ever woman series of contracts over 5 years, until in professor of theology in the University of 1999 she became Course Director of the Edinburgh sadly died in 2009. Masters in Theology and Development, moving later to the Theology and Ethics Born in Rosario, Argentina in 1952, subject area. In 2006 she was awarded Marcella Althaus first worked as a primary a Personal Chair in Contextual Theology. school teacher and private tutor, at a time when her country was suffering from a It was in 2000 that Marcella was repressive military regime. Always an avid ‘catapulted’ into international recognition, reader, she worked her way through much with the publication of her first major literature, philosophy, religion and book Indecent Theology: Theological sociology, as well as architecture and Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics. The President of ISEDET once said of her: stage design. In Buenos Aires she Her identification with the marginalised became part of a circle of artists, had always gone beyond their need for “Her religious and personal history is photographers and musicians, some of justice to their capacity for creative bound to a permanent search for the truth whom were gay or bisexual. Inheriting the theology. She shared this with other and a significant degree of spirituality traditional Catholicism of her grandmother, ‘liberation’, ‘postcolonial’ and ‘feminist’ which sometimes reaches characteristics she moved in her 20s to the Methodist theologians. But now she went beyond nearly mystic.” Church, without losing the embodied quality of her inherited Catholic piety. In the 1980s she went on to study theology ‘Her identification with the marginalised at ISEDET, the Protestant University Institute, Buenos Aires, with the intention had always gone beyond their need for of Methodist ordination. While there she engaged in pastoral work in a poor justice to their capacity for creative district. In 1984 she was sent to a World Student Christian Federation leadership theology.’ course of several months in Hardanger, Norway, where she met her future husband, Gordon Reid. In 1985 the two the theological voice of the poor, the Colleagues have spoken of her ‘ready engaged in study travel in the Netherlands colonised and women to that of another smile’, ‘unfailing kindness’, ‘outlandish and West and East Germany, and then group on the edge, the sexually ‘indecent’. sense of humour’, ‘quiet assistance to attended both the Student Christian Thereafter she received numerous those in need’, ‘sense of beauty’, and Movement conference in Edinburgh which invitations to lecture all around the world, of a life lived ‘against the odds’ and marked the 75th anniversary of the World and she devoted herself to extensive with ‘courage, determination, dignity, Missionary Conference of 1910 and the writing. Her publications included: The compassion and intellectual honesty’. Methodist World Peace Conference in Queer God, 2003; From Feminist Theology London. After graduating BTh at ISEDET to Indecent Theology, 2004; The Sexual in 1986, she returned to Scotland to marry Theologian (with Lisa Isherwood), 2005; Gordon. She worked for Tayside Council Liberation and Sexuality, 2006. At the same in Community Education in housing time she was heavily involved in both schemes in Dundee and Perth. At this teaching and administration in New time she added Quakerism to her College, and latterly she was struggling membership of the church ecumenical. with the onset of serious and chronic Her encounter with multiple deprivation, illness in the form of sarcoma, as result combined with her searching intellect, of which on 20 February 2009 (using her led her also to undertake research at own image) ‘the gently opening curtain St Andrew’s University into Liberation opened fully’. Theology, leading in 1993 to a PhD. This

06 | New College Bulletin 2009 Retirals

Ethics and Philosophy of Religion at Dr John C McDowell Monkfield Theological College, and Head of Religious Studies, Head of Philosophy, Last December after eight and a half Co-ordinator of Sports, IT Tutor and years we said farewell to Dr John C English as a Foreign Language Tutor McDowell as he and his family emigrated at Cambridge Arts and Sciences to Australia where he is now Morpeth Independent Sixth Form College, Professor Of Theology, The University Cambridge, until he came here in 2000. Of Newcastle, New South Wales Having focused in his doctorate on the John McDowell was Meldrum Lecturer in work of Karl Barth, he wrote Hope in Systematic Theology, and latterly Senior Barth’s Eschatology: interrogations and Lecturer, from 2000 to 2008, as well as transformations beyond tragedy (Ashgate, Director of Undergraduate Studies for 2000) and with Mike Higton edited the last two and a half of those years. Conversing with Barth (Ashgate, 2007). Less predictably, except to those who With a BD Hons (1993) of the University knew him, he wrote The Gospel According of Aberdeen and a PhD (1998) of the to Star Wars: Faith, Hope and the Force University of Cambridge, he became (Westminster Journals, 2007). a lively member of the community will be successively Undergraduate Tutor in greatly missed, and good wishes go with Systematic Theology at the University of His substantial contribution as teacher, him for his future in the Antipodes. Aberdeen, Lecturer in Christian Doctrine, supervisor, adviser and colleague and as

seconded to work in this country, Dr T Jack working from 1983 to 1993 at the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, as Assistant Thompson Director and then Director of the Centre for New Religious Movements and later as Also last December after fifteen and a Lecturer in Mission. In 1993 he came here, half years we said farewell to Dr T Jack first as Lecturer in Mission, becoming in Thompson on his retiral. 2000 Senior Lecturer in the History of World Christianity and in 2005 Director of Jack Thompson studied first at Queen’s the Centre for the Study of Non-Western University in his home town of Belfast, Christianity, in succession to Professor gaining a Certificate in Biblical Studies David Kerr. in 1963 and a BA (Honours) in Modern History in 1965. After teaching History A highly regarded historian (a Fellow and Religious Studies in Regent House of the Royal Historical Society), he has he was made a member of the royal clan Grammar School in Newtonards for five concentrated on the history of African of the Ngoni people. It was also fitting that years, he gained a Certificate in Mission Christianity, with a particular emphasis he was asked to edit From Colonialism to Studies in 1970 and became a Missionary on the indigenous influences that have Cabinet Crisis: a Political History of Malawi, of the Overseas Board of the Presbyterian contributed to its distinctive patterns the posthumous book of the late Andrew Church in Ireland, serving in different of belief, ritual, and social and political Ross, whose inspiring influence on him he capacities and in a long-range and action. His South/North ‘double vision’ cherished. His own influence as a teacher long-term ‘commute’ between Malawi has led him to two further and rather and scholar and as Centre Director is and this country. From 1970 to 1977 he different specialisms: new religious similarly cherished by students from many was Head of the History Department of movements in Britain, and the impact of nations. We wish him well in his active Livingstonia Secondary School. From missionary photography on European and retirement, which includes at present a 1977 to 1980 he studied here for a PhD in especially Scottish stereotypes of Africa. spell in Malawi to further the Scotland- African Church History. From 1980 to 1983 Malawi Partnership, the intergovernmental he was Director of Theological Education His great contribution to Malawi, including project, in the creation of which he played by Extension in Malawi. He was then its history, was recognised last year when a leading role.

New College Bulletin 2009 | 07 welcome to new staff

Church History, Mission Studies and Professor World Christianity to an increasingly rich ecumenical mix of theological students, Brian Stanley Baptist, Anglican, Methodist, Reformed, Catholic and Orthodox. In January 2009 Brian Stanley became our new Professor of World Christianity Believing that Christianity is essentially and new Director of our Centre for the a universal and therefore missionary faith, Study of World Christianity. A historian being good news for everyone, Professor ‘by training and basic conviction’, whose Stanley explores the question why it is undergraduate and postgraduate studies often not perceived to be so. This leads were at the University of Cambridge, he him into a set of historical, cultural and specialised in Victorian social history and contextual issues, including, as part of developed a particular focus on the the baggage of the past, the confusion relation between imperial and missionary of mission with domination, whether in enthusiasms. His doctorate on the perception or in reality. domestic base of early Victorian foreign without neglecting the very specific past missionary movements was followed by He believes that an essential skill for and present African, Asian, Pacific and his first book, ‘The Bible and the Flag’ both the historian and the missionary is Latin American embodiments of Christian on Protestant missions and British cross-cultural empathy. If, in L P Hartley’s faith. A balance is kept between showing imperialism. His subsequent career has words, ‘the past is another country’ in the contributions of the regional specifics been mainly in theological institutions. which ‘they do things differently’, so also to the global and paying close attention As a Christian of Baptist background he is another culture, present as well as past. to the contextual specifics of each region. has found this congenial, one of his main This means that both historian and And this is reflected in the Centre’s concerns being to apply theological missionary must try to understand why division of labour between Brian Stanley perspectives to history and historical those to whom they attend think and act with his global perspective and Elizabeth perspectives to theology. His appointments as they do. It also means that historians Koepping and Afe Adogame with their respective Asian and African ones.

‘He believes that an essential skill for The new Professor and Director hopes for a similar healthy balance between the both the historian and the missionary Centre’s specific identity and the overall integration of New College. He also plans is cross-cultural empathy.’ to strengthen the wider interdisciplinary cooperation between the Centre and a have been successively at Spurgeon’s studying past missionaries need to do range of academics such as historians, College in London, Trinity College in this better than some do! sociologists, anthropologists, economists, Bristol and most recently in Cambridge literary scholars and the University’s where he has been engaged in both Professor Stanley is pleased that the regional centres. research and teaching. He developed Centre now shares with his professorial and directed a research project in the chair the title ‘World Christianity’. A As Edinburgh 2010 approaches, he has University of Cambridge Divinity Faculty, problem with the former title ‘Christianity just had published a book which is likely first on the History of the Missionary in the Non-Western World’ was that to become authoritative, The World Movement and then on Currents in World Christianity outside Europe seemed to be Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910 Christianity, the latter having more of a defined by what it was not, implying that (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2009). It is the latest focus on the 20th century and on the the Western was the norm. It also needs in the series Studies in the History of world beyond Europe and North America. to be recognised that we are now in a Christian Missions which he has co-edited From 2001 to 2008 he was the director fluid and globalised world, in which the from its inception and to which he has of the Henry Martyn Centre for the Study Christianities of Africa and Asia are also contributed substantially. of Mission and World Christianity, located present in urban Europe and North at Westminster College, Cambridge. America. So the Centre’s work now Throughout all these appointments, addresses the multidirectional flows of including the research-centred ones in migration and the increasing fluidity and Cambridge, he has taught courses in integration of religious movements,

08 | New College Bulletin 2009 NEWS

Dr Paul T Nimmo IT & e-learning

Paul Nimmo, the new Meldrum Lecturer, Students of earlier generations would describes himself primarily as a systematic probably be amazed at the large place theologian, with a special focus on the of online methods in present-day study. Reformed tradition. Born in Edinburgh, Under the leadership of our IT and he studied Engineering and Management E-learning Advisor, Dr Jessie Paterson, Studies in Cambridge, worked for two the School continues to be a pioneer years in finance, then turned to theology, in the educational use of digital gaining a BD here in 2000, a ThM from technology. Recent or current Princeton in 2001 and a PhD here in 2005, projects include: having interleaved his research here with study in Tübingen and several summers • developing a digital tool (wiki) of parish work. He was then appointed as for postgraduates who tutor a Research Assistant in the Faculty of undergraduates to help them share Divinity of the University of Cambridge, dedicating themselves to closing this gap. with each other their resources, working with Professor David Ford, before Happy to be at New College, he hopes to ideas and experience an online returning three years later to succeed contribute to continuing its good reputation handbook for those tutors John McDowell as Meldrum Lecturer. and its friendly ethos. • an online course on research methods for postgraduates His research into the Reformed tradition, The University’s staff ‘Bulletin’ has recently though initially focused on Barth, especially taken note of the fact that, in a ceremony • a wiki to encourage student the relation between his ontology and his at the University of Heidelberg in May, collaborative work in one ethics, has also included work on Calvin, Paul received a 2009 John Templeton undergraduate course, produced Schleiermacher, McLeod Campbell and Award for Theological Promise, which under supervision by the students Torrance. He is now exploring Reformed took particular note of his book, Being in themselves sacramentology, investigating a particular Action: The Theological Shape of Barth’s • research into how elearning tools trajectory, from Zwingli to Barth, which Ethical Vision (London: T&T Clark which have been developed for one concentrates on the ethical understanding Continuum, 2007). This Bulletin is happy course could help the development of sacraments. to echo that Bulletin in its comment that of similar tools for other courses this award signified recognition ‘as one His passion is to make theology relevant of the most promising theologians on • a pilot on online essay-marking, to a world that is not so much opposed the world’. which has proved popular with to God as oblivious to God, with a students because they get fuller consequent loss of awareness of the (and more legible!) feedback relevance of theology. With the academy • and for prospective students, both distancing itself from the church, the an informative DVD (also available church has also been distancing itself online) and an online taster of what from the academy and losing sight of the study here is like. vital importance of theology for its life. Paul is one of several theologians working within the bounds of the church who are ‘His passion is to make theology relevant to a world that is not so much opposed to God as oblivious to God, with a consequent loss of awareness of the relevance of theology.’

New College Bulletin 2009 | 09 NEWS

‘The World Of Africa In Scotland, Reformation Britain As Seen And Heard Scotland In Africa In The Wode Psalter’

This 3-year project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and organised by an international project team led by Professor Jane Dawson, involves multidisciplinary research, musical concerts, an international exhibition and permanent collections of recorded music, online images and other material.

The Wode or St Andrews Psalter, a collection of illustrated manuscript musical part books of the Psalter, containing 106 metrical psalms, was copied and compiled between 1562 and 1592 by Thomas Wode, vicar of St Andrews. It is preserved in 8 books, 5 belonging to the University of It was fitting that a conference with this Over 100 participants – academics, policy Edinburgh Library. title took place in this University this year; makers and others – came from Africa, for it is exactly 150 years since, in 1859, North and Latin America, and Europe. It became the ‘gold standard’ for the first African to study at a British Themes of the 4 keynote addresses and post-Reformation devotion and University graduated MD here – and 38 papers included: History, Commerce worship in Scotland. Together with David Livingstone went on his Zambezi and Politics; Religion and Mission; Wode’s own copious annotations, Expedition. Migration and Diaspora; Health; NGOs it constitutes an audiovisual ‘diary’ of and Development; Arts; Epistemology, the world of Reformation Britain in the Dr Afe Adogame, Lecturer in World Politics and Race. (For more information, second half of the 16th century. This Christianity, convened this big event from see www.cas.ed.ac.uk/events/annual project will make it once again audible 29 April to 1 May, which was the annual conference/2009 or contact Dr Afe and visible to many. international conference of the University’s Adogame 0044 (0) 131 650 8928 Afe. Centre of African Studies. It was a [email protected]). scholarly and interdisciplinary forum with great practical import. It examined the The conference was opened by the New Alumni mutually influential and determining nature Scottish Culture Minister, Mike Russell of relations between Scotland and Africa, MSP; it was addressed by the former Welcome to a new alumnus, past and present. Scotland has long had First Minister of Scotland and High Archbishop involvement with Africa, and now there is Commissioner Designate to Malawi, Desmond Tutu, also a significant diaspora of Africans who Jack McConnell MSP, and it listened to who in May have migrated to Scotland. On the basis the Royal African Society Lecture given received the of greater historical and contemporary by the former UK Minister for International Honorary Degree understanding, the conference explored Development and former Leader of the of Doctor of ways of strengthening the ties between House of Lords, the Rt. Hon. Baroness Divinity. Scotland and Africa, of creating new Valerie Amos. channels of understanding and cooperation, and of clarifying both the role of the African diaspora in Scotland and what Scotland can learn from Africa.

10 | New College Bulletin 2009 ‘The wilderness shall rejoice’

The garden of New College may not have became Principal Lecturer in Theology left much impression on students in the and Religious Studies in the Derbyshire past. It was not very noticeable or inviting, College of Higher Education (now part of being somewhat overgrown. This has all the University of Derby). He wrote changed. Through the initiative of the theological books and articles, as well as Head of School and the generosity of a poetry and children’s books. The following deceased alumnus, it has been titles show his range of work: ‘Process transformed into a beautiful and sociable Analysis Applied to the Early Traditions of place. On 3 July, after the Graduation Tea Israel’, Clouds of Glory; Tongues of in the Rainy Hall and in the presence of Angels; The Treasures of St Paul: Selected the Principal of the University, another Themes from Paul’s Theology and Ethics; alumnus, the Lord Provost of the City of Jesus according to John: The Sayings of Edinburgh, the Rt. Hon. George Grubb, Jesus in the Fourth Gospel; The Mystic opened the ‘Alan Robinson Garden’. Alan Rose; The Hidden Christ; Time and Tide, Robinson, who was born in 1929 and died The Apostles’ Creed: God’s Special in 2004, had graduated BD in 1992 and Revelation; The Gate of Heaven: A Study PhD in 1994, supervised by the late in Christian Ethics. Professor George Anderson. An Old Testament specialist, his doctoral thesis It would be appreciated if alumni who was on ‘The Zion conception in the knew Alan Robinson would share their Psalms and Deutero-Isaiah’. He later memories with us.

The Usual and the Unusual

It is good if institutions, like people, beginning and of the session, organised One of the biggest events was are not too predictable. New College by the postgraduate students. • a Day Conference on 29 October in in session 2008-9 had a mixture of memory of the late Professor Tom more and less familiar events. Special events were: Torrance, which was attended by around 120 alumni. Personal memories Among the familiar – and very • the induction of Professor David were combined with expositions of his successful – ones were: Fergusson by the Presbytery of thought – on Christology, worship, the Edinburgh on 17 September as • the Opening Day Event on 18 nature of knowledge and the relation the new Principal of New College September, when alumni met for lunch between science and religion. and Professor James Cox gave his • a Radio 4 broadcast service on Inaugural Lecture on ‘Dressing Up 30 November, in cooperation with an African God in Christian Clothing’ Greenbank Church, at which Professor Fergusson preached and the New • the Burns Supper on 26 January College choir took a leading part • the Spring Ball on 17 February • a presentation to Professor Barbara • the now Annual Alumni Dinner on 1 May, McHaffie and Professor Fraser McHaffie this time with special, but not exclusive, on 14 May in recognition of their years of focus on the pre-1970 alumni service as our alumni agents in the USA, who among other things distributed this • the Alumni Lunch on 22 May, which was Bulletin there; this presentation was in the newly refurbished Garden. coupled with a Gunning Lecture of Not so familiar but likely to become so Barbara McHaffie on ‘Women, were the barbecues in the Garden, at the Scholarship and Christian Tradition’.

New College Bulletin 2009 | 11 Publish and Be Blessed Staff publications continue to be hard to keep up with. Here are the ones spotted.

Afe Adogame, with Roswith Gerloff and COMING IN SEPTEMBER Klaus Hock (eds.), Christianity in Africa 2009 and the African Diaspora: The Appropriation of a Scattered Heritage David Fergusson, Faith and Its Critics (London & New York: Continuum, 2008) (Oxford: OUP, 2009) – based on the Glasgow 2008 Gifford Lectures Afe Adogame, with Magnus Echtler & Ulf Vierke (eds.), Unpacking the New: Duncan Forrester and Douglas Gay Critical Perspectives on Cultural (eds.) Worship and Liturgy in Context: Syncretization in Africa and Beyond Studies and Case Studies in Theology (Zürich & Münster: Lit Verlag, 2008) and Practice (London: SCM, 2009) – with a Scottish focus and with many Stewart J Brown, with Christopher A New College contributors Whatley (eds.), The Union of 1707: New Dimensions (Edinburgh: EUP, 2008) PUBLICATIONS Paul Foster (ed.), The Non-Canonical ASSOCIATED WITH THE Gospels (London: Continuum, 2008) CENTRE FOR THEOLOGY – an edited collection AND PUBLIC ISSUES (CTPI)

Paul Foster, The Apocryphal Gospels: Johnston McKay (ed.), Christian Faith A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: OUP, and the Welfare of the City (Edinburgh: 2009) CTPI, 2008) – a collection of essays in honour of the CTPI Associate Director, Paul Foster, with John Kloppenborg, Dr on her 60th birthday Joseph Verheyden & Andrew Gregory, New Studies in the Synoptic Problem Alison Elliot & Heidi Poon (eds.), (Leuven: Peeters, 2009) Growing Citizens: an interdisciplinary reflection on citizenship education Christian Lange, Justice, Punishment (Edinburgh: St Andrew Press, 2009) and the Medieval Muslim Imagination – based on a CTPI project (Cambridge: CUP, 2008)

Christian Lange, with Maribel Fierro POSTHUMOUSLY (eds.), Public Violence in Islamic Societies: PUBLISHED AND EDITED Power, Discipline and the Construction of BY JACK THOMPSON the Public Sphere, 7th-19th Centuries CE (Edinburgh: EUP, 2009) Andrew Ross, From Colonialism to Cabinet Crisis: A Political History of Malawi Brian Stanley, The World Missionary (Malawi: Kachere, 2009) Conference: Edinburgh, 1910 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009)

Nicolas Wyatt, The Archaeology of Myth: Papers on Old Testament Tradition (London: Equinox, 2009)

12 | New College Bulletin 2009 NEWS

Where now are the two New College alumni who in recent years became University of Edinburth Alumni of the Year?

Ruth Patterson, first woman minister in Bob Faris, after a period lecturing in Murdoch Mackenzie, former Ecumenical the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, is still Mozambique and then coordinating the Bishop of Milton Keynes, has recently working at reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Canadian Churches’ Forum for Global been assisting in the Graduate School Ministries, now directs the Churches’ of Ecumenical Studies at Chateau de Duncan MacLaren, who was Secretary Council on Theological Education in Bossey near Geneva. General of Caritas Internationalis, is now Canada. at the Australian Catholic University in Gordon Mole, who has degrees in Sydney, coordinating their education Graham Hutchins, having ministered in Development Planning as well as programme in Liberal Studies and in English-speaking congregations in East Religious Studies, has worked for the Theology for refugees from camps on Asia, Latin America, Africa – and the USA, Cross River Partnership in central London the Thai-Burma border. and having taught philosophy, literature, and now manages a construction and ethics and religion in several universities employment training scheme, ‘Building and colleges, is now much engaged in London, Creating Futures’. And other alumni? poetry and photography. David Nussbaum, who was formerly Here is an almost random sample Miles Jupp continues to be a well-known Chief Executive of Transparency stand-up comedian and actor. International, is now Chief Executive Helen Blackburn, having lectured in of the World Wildlife Fund – UK. Health and Social Care in a Edinburgh became in May 2007 college, became qualified as both a the first woman minister in the Church of Timothy Tennent, who has been teacher and a manager, and is now Scotland to be elected Moderator of its Professor of World Mission and Indian Centre Manager in a Salvation Army General Assembly. Studies at Gordon-Cornwell Theological homeless hostel. Seminary, is becoming President of Katrine Lygren has recently entered the Asbery Theological Seminary. Alastair Brown has just moved from contemplative Benedictine monastery on Oxfordshire to become President of the Isle of Wight. Northern Seminary in Chicago.

Congratulations Deaths

to Dr Susan Hardman Moore, We were saddened by the recent deaths of: who at a ceremony on 8 January in the Tower of London was declared Ian Baillie, who in memory of his father, runner up for the annual History Today Professor John Baillie, for many years Book of the Year award for her book provided for an annual Baillie Lecture within Pilgrims: New World Settlers and the the Centre for Theology and Public Issues. Call of Home (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2007) and to Penelope Carter, a member of our Dr Jeanne Openshaw, who received Alumni Committee, who after graduation the Rabindranath Tagore Memorial here became a librarian and was latterly Award from the West Bengal Librarian of the National Gallery of Scotland equivalent of the Academie Française for her work on Bengali language, John Howard, a former New College literature and culture. Librarian, who was in University Library service for 30 years from 1965 to 1995.

New College Bulletin 2009 | 13 Human & Humane

This University used to If one turns the noun ‘Humanities’ into an the human race. ‘Religion’ covers a wide adjective coupled with the noun ‘Studies’, variety of things, some of them completely be divided into Faculties, a question arises; is it ‘Human Studies’ incommensurable with one another. one of which was Divinity. or ‘Humane Studies’? ‘Religions’ can be powerful forces for good, motivating people to act selflessly; However, for the last few This indicates a fairly fundamental but ‘religions’ can also serve as years it has been organised ambiguity about human beings. It is legitimisations for the most shocking highlighted not only by this distinction cruelty, oppression and downright evil. in Schools within three between ‘human’ and ‘humane’ but also So, it is all the more important that Colleges, Divinity being by two contradictory uses of ‘human’. ‘religion’ and religious beliefs be engaged One is complimentary, as in ‘she is very with the seriousness that they deserve. a School within the human’; the other is uncomplimentary, If universities are to be places College of Humanities as in ‘he is all too human’. Therein lies a where all important aspects of life are big issue for philosophical or theological studied, then undeniably religion must be and Social Science. anthropology; but that is beyond this included. A recent visit to Beijing revealed journal. What follows is less high flown that theology and religion are the focus of and possibly of more immediate interest. intense interest among scholars of Marxist It is a set of reflections by some of those background and orientation. These who teach in New College on: colleagues recognise that human cultures are shaped by religious ideas, traditions THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY and values, and that we cannot OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGION TO understand ourselves or others without ‘HUMANE’ EDUCATION profound understanding of these matters. Academic study of theology and Viewpoint 1 religion does not require any particular Part of the relevance of the academic religious commitment, or any religious study of theology/religion in a public- commitment at all. But religious funded university in a pluralised modern commitment and high-quality academic society is the persistence of religions (of study of religion/theology are perfectly various hues and kinds) in characterising compatible, and the one is in no way an

14 | New College Bulletin 2009 impediment to the other. Students and liberal education as integral to its historic traditions. In their activity in this domain, staff of New College, for example, reflect mission and identity. universities have a major contribution a variety of stances on religious matters, to make, not only to the education of and that only contributes further to its rich Viewpoint 3 individual students who pass through and stimulating atmosphere. Departments of Theology and Religious their halls, but also to the flourishing of the Studies play an indispensable role in the societies and of the nations of which they Viewpoint 2 modern university because they remind form a vital constituent part. I tend to speak of ‘liberal education’. us that human wellbeing is not determined By ‘education’ I mean ‘a process of by economic or technological criteria Viewpoint 5 cultivation i.e. training the mind for a alone, and that for the vast majority of A new member of the teaching staff, lifetime of growth through openness to humankind throughout history and today, Dr Carys Moseley gives a rather more new influences’, and by ‘liberal’ I mean human existence cannot be fully described specific illustration of the wider relevance ‘open-minded, tolerant, generous, or adequately explained without resort to of theological study. A native of Cardiff, benevolent and concerned for others’. questions of ultimate truth. What is with a University of Cambridge BA (1998) Thus the person shaped by a liberal distinctive about this School is that, unlike in Classics, University of Oxford BA (2001) education is open to the ideas and beliefs so many other departments of theology and MST (2002) in Theology, she gained of others, wishes to study other languages and religious studies, it treats Christianity her PhD here in 2007, and was appointed and other ways of thinking and acting, as a world religion and not simply a here in 2008 as a British Academy and is not quick to judge or dismiss. He European faith. Thus the false dichotomy post-doctoral research fellow. She writes: or she reads, not to accept or reject the between theology as the study of ideas encountered, but rather to weigh European Christian tradition and religious The importance of theological and consider the thoughts of others, not studies as the study of what the rest of work on religion, nationhood to praise or condemn, but to comprehend the world believes is largely eliminated. and nationalism in modern and empathise. Such education prepares European and American Christian people for a lifetime of learning and Viewpoint 4 and Jewish thought growth in which they gain a sense of The vast majority of nations in the world perspective through an understanding of today are not simply secular, but nor My work focuses on theological- the human condition that will strengthen are they simply religious; in the words ethical engagement with the social them against the adversity and suffering of Professor David Ford of Cambridge, sciences and political theory, concerning that touch all. They become more they are in truth ‘complexly religious and the fields of religion, nationalism and concerned for the welfare and comfort secular’. Given this fact, and the evident gender. Nationhood as a concept is firstly of others than with their own wants or national and geopolitical importance which Jewish and then Christian, deriving from interests, knowing that the greatest pertains to it, two consequences for higher the ongoing interpretation of the Bible. happiness comes through working for education seem to follow. First, it would Understanding this properly is key to the happiness of others. They value seem greatly desirable that contemporary understanding international religious humanity in all its variety and cultivate academic institutions actively support the and political issues today. Jewish loss mutual respect through good manners study of religion, not only with a view to and recovery of statehood in Israel can and civil discourse. the way in which religious texts and be read theologically as witnessing to There is perhaps no better traditions have informed our past recognition and preservation of other description of this than by the great histories, but also with the appreciation stateless nations through ancestral nineteenth century Christian intellectual, of how religions continue to shape our religious formation (witnessed even in John Henry Newman in his account of present circumstances. Second, it would secular movements). The thinkers that ‘humane discourse’ in his classic study, seem eminently appropriate that such I read for my work include Karl Barth, The Idea of a University. studies are allowed and indeed Reinhold Niebuhr, Anthony D Smith, In a world deeply divided by encouraged to proceed in diverse ways Adrian Hastings, Hannah Arendt, religious beliefs, ethnic identities and which do justice to the complexity of their David Novak, Michael Wyschogrod, ideological convictions we need people of subject matter: in particular, in ways which and Margaret Mead. I aim to promote a such open and magnanimous minds, who accommodate the perspectives both of dialogue between European protestant seek understanding, mutual respect and those who are practising members of theology, modern Jewish thought and reconciliation, and have an abiding sense faith traditions and those who are not. American protestant thought that of the human potential for good. This The public forum of the university offers illuminates their commonalities and School of Divinity, which historically has a unique and privileged space for this sort differences in a manner conducive to represented a belief in the eternal value of multi-dimensional enquiry which alone public engagement. of each individual, rightly regards such a can do justice to the nature of religious

New College Bulletin 2009 | 15 LOOKING AHEAD 2010 marks 450 years since TO SESSION 2009-2010 the Scottish Reformation FACEBOOK Some postgraduate students and alumni have set up a Facebook called Four September events There will be a Cunningham Lecture ‘New College, Edinburgh’ and invite series on five Thursdays at 5.15 participation. Thursday 17 September. between November and January Opening Day of Session 19 November, Martin Hall SSSSSSSSSSS 12.30 ALUMNI LUNCH THE KIRK AND THE 2.00 INAUGURAL LECTURE REFORMATION Keep up to date with New College in Professor Jane Dawson Professor Jane Dawson two ways, by regularly checking the ‘SINGING THE REFORMATION: website www.div.ed.ac.uk and by THE SCOTTISH EXPERIENCE’ 26 November, Martin Hall registering for the email circulations REFORMED THEOLOGY through [email protected] Tuesday 22 September, 4.30 IN SCOTLAND LAUNCH OF THE NEWLY Professor Donald McLeod SSSSSSSSSSS RENAMED CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF WORLD 3 December, Martin Hall There is a new New College silk tie CHRISTIANITY AND THE REFORMATION AND costing £17 contact Andrew.Morton@ OF TWO BOOKS ON POLITICAL THOUGHT IN ed.ac.uk. There are plans for a silk EDINBURGH 1910 EARLY MODERN SCOTLAND scarf and a sweatshirt. Brian Stanley, The World Missionary Professor Roger Mason Conference: Edinburgh 1910 & Kenneth Ross & David Kerr (eds.), Edinburgh 21 January, Assembly Hall 2010 marks 100 years 2010: Mission Then and Now THE KIRK AND LITERATURE Professor Susan Manning since the World Missionary Thursday, 24 September, 4.00 Conference here in LAUNCH OF A BOOK BASED 28 January, Assembly Hall ON THE 2008 GLASGOW THE KIRK AND MUSIC June 1910 GIFFORD LECTURES Dr Noel O’Regan and the David Fergusson, Faith and Its Critics: Renaissance Singers The events will be worldwide, a Conversation SSSSSSSSSSSS but with a certain focus here. Tuesday 29 September, 4.00 – 6.00 In June 2010 there will be a major For Your 2010 Diary conference at the Pollock Halls of LAUNCH OF A NEW BOOK Residence culminating in a ON WORSHIP NEW COLLEGE ANNUAL celebration in the Assembly Hall. Duncan Forrester & Douglas Gay, Worship ALUMNI DINNER New College has had several other and Liturgy in Context: Studies and Case FRIDAY 30 APRIL 2010 special links, including: Studies in Theology and Practice open to all alumni (100 maximum places) contact [email protected] • its International Director, Dr Daryl Balia being based here on the New College staff Qualifications • one of the many global Study Types of qualification offered in the General (3 Years) Groups, holding its second School of Divinity include: BD General conference here this June on 6 Honours Degrees, 3 General Degrees BA Divinity ‘Christian Communities in 3 Postgraduate Degrees BA Religious Studies Contemporary Global Contexts’ Honours (4 Years) Postgraduate • and, as already noted, the new BD Honours (if second degree, 3 years) MTh – by research Professor of World Christianity, MA Divinity MTh – taught Professor Brian Stanley having MA Religious Studies PhD just published a major history MA Philosophy and Theology of the 1910 conference. MA Divinity and Classics MA Religious Studies and English/Scottish Literature DESIGN FREIGHT 0141 552 5303