Can a novel be Christian even though the author is not? What makes us consider Pilgrim's Progress and The Brothers Karamazov to be Christian novels? Is it because the authors profess certain beliefs or because the novels possess certain features of form or content? Is a novel Christian because it presents morality and mortality in a particular way? Should we accept Alastair MacIntyre's suggestion in After Virtue that Jane Austen and Dante wrote comedies precisely because of their Christian faith? Could a novel ever be truly Christian if its story is a tragedy?

This colloquium will gather an ecumenical array of speakers to consider some of the challenges and contemporary issues that are being faced today in the ministry of hearing confessions.

Presented in partnership with the Danube Institute, this conference will gather some of the leading voices in this emerging renewal to ask: · What form is this Christian re-enchantment taking? · How should faith engage political life in a disenchanted world? · What does it mean to be Christian after secularism? · Can the Christian tradition not only criticise but also lead?

'I seriously believe that Christianity is the only founda­tion of Socialism, and that a true Socialism is the necessary result of a sound Christianity.' -- F.D. Maurice, Tracts on Christian Socialism, No. 1.

This afternoon mini-colloquium will consider the following questions: What is 'post-liberalism'? What is the origin of this idea? And how can we better understand our own political moment by grasping the genealogy of this idea?

This Conference marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. It will examine the Council as a key moment in the Christianisation of the Roman Empire and as a major crucible in the development of orthodox Christian doctrine.