Public Lectures 2003
Topics in Christian theology for everyday
Note: This programme of lectures has now finished. Latest lecture programme.
A very warm invitation to join us on Thursday evenings at 1945 and four Lent Lectures on Wednesday lunchtimes in March and April. All lectures will be held at the church.
The great success of our annual Lent Lectures has encouraged us in 2003 to widen our range of public lectures on Christian themes, particularly towards topics in science, the arts, or social issues, of interest in everyday living in this increasingly complex modern multi-faith age of medical advances, artistic license and family problems. These lectures will be given on Thursday evenings. We also look forward to the 7th series of mid-week Lent Lectures over the Easter period.
Each of the lectures is self-contained. Although the Thursday and Wednesday Lent Lectures are listed separately, the two sequences have been linked in March by the common theme of Christian Images.
Car Parking - please note there is no space in the day for parking cars at the Church, but limited parking is available in the evenings at the Church (entry from St Peters Street). There is meter parking around the Church during the day.
Lecture coordinators : Professor Ron Burge, Mrs Caroline Ainger.
Thursday Evening Lectures
Each Thursday lecture will be given at the church at 1945 and is planned to occupy 45 to 50 minutes. This will be followed by questions to the speaker from the audience. There will be an opportunity, with light refreshments, for informal discussion after the lecture.
We have been pleased to gain the support of highly distinguished speakers and the details of the lectures, to be given at the Church at 1945 are given below:
Cloning - Can we Play God?
16th January
Sir Brian Heap, Master of St Edmund's College, Cambridge
The reason will be examined why scientists became interested in cloning animals and how mammals such as the Dolly the sheep can be cloned. New scientific questions arising will be discussed, eg the importance of stem cells, the distinction between reproductive and therapeutic cloning, and the ethical repercussions and legal implications. A brief historical analysis will follow of when human life begins (at fertilization or later), with finally a discussion of the public perception of cloning and the importance of regulating new techniques. <\p>
Coming Alive in Cyberspace - Ethics and the Ethernet
13th February
Dr Lavinia Byrne, Writer and Broadcaster, Westcott College, Cambridge
The world wide web has provided us with a new image of time and space. It gives us a new metaphor for understanding God and the work of God in holding our world in being, cradling it in a web of communications. For God is not "in" any named time or space in the sense that God is not subject to the same laws as atoms. The cyber-revolution demonstrates that the work of God in underpinning our reality may be just as powerful and omnipresent to the eye of faith. There is an ethic of trust to be discovered here and a theological underpinning to sustain us as we become cyber-travellers.
The Church and the Artist
20th March
Rev David Caink, Art correspondent to Methodist Recorder
This lecture will draw upon The Methodist Collection of Modern Christian Art. Many will be surprised that the Methodists have an art collection at all. Most of the paintings in the collection were completed after the second world war. The collection is a distinguished one and focuses on episodes in the life of Christ. It invites the viewer to look beyond the images to God himself. Some of the artists whose work is represented are Elisabeth Frink, Mark Cazalet, Edward Burra and Graham Sutherland.
David's talk will provide an introduction to the four Lent Lectures and we are grateful for the help of the Trustees in providing images from the distinguished and fascinating Methodist Collection of Modern Art.
Biblical Perspectives on Cosmic Evil
15th May
Professor Ronald Clements, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament Studies, King's College London
The increasing powerlessness of the ordinary person to influence the world around him or her in the face of evils felt locally or right across the "global village" like, for example, 9/11 and the Bali bomb, brings into focus the comfort and stability that can be gained from, for example, the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Romans (Revised English Bible, Rom. 8-39), "For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in…,in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths -nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Wednesday Lunchtime Lent Lectures
Christian Images and Symbols
The Lent Lectures are given at the Church from 1250 to 1330 on Wednesday lunchtimes. They are preceded by a light lunch in the Church Hall from 1200 to which everyone is cordially invited. At 1330 there is a short break to allow those who must to leave and then the speaker will answer questions from the audience.
There will be an organ recital from 1230 to 1250 before each Lent Lecture. The organists will be George Speed, David Warham, Ernest Norman and Peter Burge respectively.
We are very grateful once again to distinguished lecturers, and home and visiting organists, for their kindness in sharing their scholarship and expertise with us. The programme for the Lent Lectures, three of which will be illustrated, with brief summaries of the talks is as follows:
Holy Images
26th March
Dr Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity, University of Cambridge
Despite the Christian church's Jewish origins, and the Old Testament polemic against idols, sacred images have played a key role in Christian worship and devotion for more than a millennium and a half. Images of the Crucified or of the Virgin and Child have helped shape Christian understanding of and response to God. But images have also been a source of conflict and division within Christianity. This lecture will consider the history of sacred images in Christianity, and their role in theology and devotion.
Church and Image
2nd April
Dr Colin Cunningham, Lately Reader in Art History, now Senior Research Fellow, Open University
This talk will begin with a brief exploration of the nature and power of symbols. Christian symbolism involves a consideration of the relationship between representation and symbolism; attention is drawn to the notion of the church structure as itself symbolic. The main focus of the lecture is, however, the examination of several key images of Christianity, i.e. depicting God, the Crucifixion, Evangelists, saints and angels, and the exploration of some of the ways these have changed over time and in different places. Finally, we shall consider the ways images have been disposed in the service of a liturgy, making reference to the wider range of imagery that artists and architects have drawn upon in building places of worship.
See Dr Cunningham's book, Stones of Witness: Church Architecture and Function, Sutton, 1999.
The Quest for the True Cross on which Jesus was Crucified
9th April
Mr Matthew d'Ancona, Deputy Editor, Sunday Telegraph
This is a talk about a symbol, the Cross of Christ, that has become the most powerful symbol for Christians in the history of the world. It concerns specifically the Titulus Crucis, the True Cross on which Christ died and represents a joint study made by Professor Carsten Thiede, Professor of New Testament History, Basle, Switzerland, and Matthew d'Ancona. Two principal questions are considered: Did the Empress Helena, when she came to Jerusalem in AD326, find bona fide surviving fragments of the True Cross, and, particularly, part of the headboard bearing the inscription carved at Christ's crucifixion (ca. AD30) on the orders of Pontius Pilate? From what date in history was the Cross the subject of veneration by Christians? The talk contributes to the debate about the significance to Christians of a relic currently preserved in the Church of Santa Croce, Rome.
See The Quest for the True Cross by Thiede and d'Ancona, Phoenix, 2000.
The Human Power of Symbols
16th April
Revd Dr Fraser Watts, Starbridge Lecturer in Theology and Natural Science, Cambridge
Symbols have a unique capacity to move and inspire people. Their open texture and broad connotations allow key issues to be explored. Religious symbols are among the most important in Western civilisation, though as Jung has pointed out, they have largely lost their human resonance. However, they have the potential both to provide a guide to the meaning of life, and to facilitate people's life journeys. Rich symbolic thinking may now be less instinctive than it used to be, but it remains a capacity that can be cultivated. The symbolic character of religious thought and practice urgently needs to be rediscovered.