Lent Lectures 2002

Visions of God and of Life after Death

Note: This programme of lectures has now finished. Latest lecture programme

The end of all our exploring; Paths from Science towards God?

March 6

Speaker: Revd Canon Arthur Peacocke

Templeton Prize winner 2001, lately Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for the Study of Science and Religion, University of Oxford.

The contemporary challenges of science to religious beliefs will be focussed in an account of "Genesis for the 21st century". An exploration towards God will be outlined from the accounts of the world given by the sciences. The conclusions drawn include that God is the only super-natural entity or being, and that natural processes, characterised by the laws and regularities discovered by the natural sciences, are themselves actions of the being of God that includes and penetrates- all-that-is.

See Dr Peacocke's book Paths from Science towards God, Oneworld Publications, Oxford, 2001.

The Book of Revelation: a Book for our times?

March 13

Speaker: Revd Professor Christopher Rowland Dean

Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of the Holy Scripture, University of Oxford

The Book of Revelation, from within a setting dominated by the power of first-century Rome, projects a wide picture of the nature and coming of the Kingdom of God. John reveals "what must soon take place" expressing the destiny of the world as guided by "the One that is and who was and is to come". The Book's vision of the world follows from its presentation of a serious and sophisticated understanding of God. The heart of the lecture will be to show the relevance of the vision of Christ's Kingdom in today's world. Consideration will be given to the history of the Apocalypse i.e. how the Book has affected theologians, poets and writers through the centuries.

See, for example, Professor Rowland's article, The Book of Revelation, Introduction, Commentary and Reflections, Vol.12 of New Interpreters Bible, pp 501-736, 1998.

What's really possible after death?

March 20

Speaker: The Very Revd Dr David L Edwards

Lately Provost of Suffolk Cathedral

Will anything of us survive after death? This is a central question when we ask what life means.

Age-old questions are still being asked. Can we come back in reincarnation? Is the soul detached from the body? Could the body be resurrected in any form? If eternal life "with" or "in" God is possible, can our personalities survive? At a time when many people do not believe in any kind of life after death, Christian faith needs to answer.

See, for example, Dr Edward's book After Death? Past beliefs and real possibilities, Continuum Press, London, 2001.

God's character, Jesus's face : necessary suffering, the hope of heaven

March 27

Speaker: The Venerable John Beer

Archdeacon of Ely

If each generation tends to redefine God to some extent in the language of its own context, how do our ways of seeing God differ from those of previous generations? To what extent is our understanding of what it is to be human reflected in the way we speak of the divine and human nature in Jesus? In the 19th century, it was popular to speak of Jesus as having an attractive personality which accounts for his appeal as our Saviour. The language of "personality" raises many questions for us as we think about who Jesus really was. Does God suffer? Can we speak of God as one who suffers? As we approach Good Friday we consider how our doctrines of God, suffering, and fairness, are linked, leading on to life after death, heaven, and the culmination in the second coming of Christ.

This is derived in part from a series of lectures Ven. Beer is giving to the Focus Christian Institute in Cambridge during Feb/March 2002.