LECtures
Our various lecture series, including our
Recollection Lectures: Recalling the major themes and thinkers of Christian history.
Our lectures are free to attend and all are welcome.
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Abstract: The 19th century witnessed a revolution in higher education with the rise of the modern research university and the establishment of the first secular colleges and universities. In a growing number of institutions, theology was not only dethroned as ‘queen of the sciences’ but was marginalized or, indeed, excluded altogether.
With these developments, theologians found themselves confronted anew by old questions–Is theology a ‘science’? For that matter, what qualifies any subject as a ‘science’?–with dramatically raised stakes. Now these were questions about whether theology is a subject suitable for serious study within the modern university at all.
This lecture will…
29 April 2026
First Week
Recollection
Abstract: To understand Eric Mascall’s doctrine of the Incarnation, we must look at the ontological account he develops in his natural theology of the relationship between God as Creator and the human creature. For Mascall, an ontologically informed doctrine of the Incarnation is not only faithful to Chalcedon's definition of the Incarnation, but also provides the necessary theological foundation for a Christian understanding of humanity and its purpose, upon which a Christian Sociology can be developed. How Mascall’s Christology provides a Christian vision of humanity and its purpose, and how that vision can be advanced by the Church in the Eucharist,…
6 May 2026
Second Week
Recollection
Abstract: Can the modern world be reconciled to the world of the liturgy? What can the liturgy offer to the existential and ethical concerns of modern people? By embodying and communicating the Christian story, liturgy can challenge and reshape the often-impoverished modern narratives through which we understand human identity and ethics. I situate my discussion within the framework of liturgical social imagery, which understands the world as created, fallen, redeemed in Christ, and directed toward its final eschatological fulfilment in the Kingdom of God. Within this vision, the transformation of worldviews and cultures occurs primarily through the embodied and narrative reconfiguration…
20 May 2026
Fourth Week
Recollection
Abstract:
'The reports of my death are an exaggeration'. So wrote a disgruntled Mark Twain to an editor when he was, twice, accused of being dead by the American press. It is a quote that naturally comes to mind when considering the Book of Common Prayer. Despite efforts to suppress and sideline its use, it has emerged into the Twenty First century stronger than anyone in the middle of the 20th could have thought. Its survival and revival has mirrored that of Christianity more generally. There appears to be considerably more anecdotal and statistical evidence for Christianity's growth in this…
27 May 2026
Fifth Week
Recollection
Abstract:
Several hymns of the fourth- and fifth-century Spanish poet Prudentius are often sung from the New English Hymnal, and he seems comfortably familiar. ‘Bethlehem of noblest cities’ or ‘Of the Father’s heart begotten’ do not confront us with theological difficulties, but appear to sit contentedly among the Renaissance and Victorian classics of the Christmas season. Yet Prudentius wrote in a politically, aesthetically, and religiously unsettled time, when neither the Nicene consensus nor the rules of Latin poetry were stable. His oeuvre, which ranges from hymns for the daily hours to a versification of Genesis or an attack on pa…
3 June 2026
Sixth Week
Recollection
