2008 Study Groups
Old Testament Study Group
Wednesday 9 July
2-4 pm Registration
4.00 pm Coffee
5.00 pm Session 1: Hugh Williamson, Recent Issues in the Study of the Book of Isaiah
7.00 pm Session 2: Tyndale Biblical Archaeology Lecture: Alan Millard
Thursday 10 July
9.00 am Prayers
9.30 am Session 3: Nathan MacDonald – Isaiah and Monotheism
Richard Schultz – Universalism and Nationalism in Isaiah
11.00 am Coffee
11.20 am Session 4: Philip Johnston – Faith in Isaiah
David Reimer – Isaiah and Politics
4.00 pm Coffee
5.15 pm Session 5: Lindsay Wilson – Isaiah and Wisdom
News and Planning for future meetings
6.30 pm Supper
8.00 pm Session 6: Tyndale OT Lecture: Doug Ingram, Educating Readers: Qohelet as Teacher (with a sideways glance at Jesus)
Friday 11 July
9.00 am Prayers
9.30 am Session 7: Paul Wegner – What’s New in Isaiah 9:1-6?
S. D. Snyman – An exegetical investigation of the first Servant Song in Deutero-Isaiah
Jake Stromberg – Interpreting Isaiah 61
11.00 am Coffee
11.30 am Session 8: Torsten Uhlig – Hardening Motif in Isaiah
Dwight Swanson – Textual Traditions in Isaiah
2008: Philosophy of Religion Study Group
Tyndale Philosophy of Religion Lecture 2008: Patrick Richmond, Religious Experience and Scientific Atheism
Leading philosophers of religion such as Alvin Plantinga and Richard Swinburne have appealed to religious experience in defending religious belief. There are various philosophical challenges to such strategies, but recently books such as Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell have popularised more scientific objections which might suggest that religious experience is an illusion resulting from natural psychological faculties, such as Justin Barett's Hyperactive Agent Detection Device (HADD), which makes us prone to ascribe agency and intentions to what are in fact inanimate physical processes. On the one hand, scientific theories suggesting that humans have a natural tendency to something like theistic belief might confirm religious ideas about e.g. a sensus divinitatis that were previously held without scientific support. On the other hand, if such tendencies result from unreliable faculties or from faculties whose proper function is other than producing true beliefs then this might induce doubt about religious experience as a source or ground of true beliefs. I discuss how such objections might best be interpreted and met, noting connections to wider theological and atheological strategies.
Wednesday 9th July
3.30pm registration
4.00 pm Welcome Reception hosted by Dr Peter Williams, Warden, Tyndale House
(Readers Lounge, Tyndale House)
5.00 pm Tony Garood: ‘A comparison of Duns Scotus and Daniel Hill’s ideas of God in ‘God and Creatures’ and ‘Divinity and Maximal Greatness’’
8.00 pm Paul Helm: ‘Eternity and Vision: Boethius and Augustine on Divine Timelessness.’
Thursday 10th July
9.30 am Lydia Jaeger: ‘Descartes on God’
11.30 am Tyndale Philosophy of Religion Lecture: Patrick Richmond, ‘Religious Experience and Scientific Atheism’
5.00 pm Tyndale EST Lecture: Jonathan Chaplin, ‘The Bible, the State and Religious Diversity: Theological Foundations for ‘Principled Pluralism’’
8.00 pm Harry Bunting: ‘Love, Resentment and Indignation: a Christian Defence of the Retributive Emotions.’
Friday 11th July
9.30 am Puran Arawal: ‘ Reason & Rationality: some reflections’
11.30 am Alan Russell: ‘Aspects of the Religion/Science debate’
12.30 Philosophy of Religion Committee meeting
2.00pm Study Group ends
2008: Ethics & Social Theology with Religion, Culture & Communication Study Groups
The theme this year is 'Political Theology'. Paper proposals are invited on any aspect of the field, which should be construed broadly to include 'public theology', 'religion and public life', 'mission and public life', ' the role of the church in public life', and 'religious pluralism and the state' (the theme originally announced). The Tyndale Lecture (by Jonathan Chaplin) will address the latter topic, as will other papers. Proposals should be sent as soon as possible to Jonathan Chaplin at jc538@cam.ac.uk. Offers from postgraduate students are welcome.
Wednesday 9 July
5.00 pm Session 1: Douglas Knight: The Church, the State and the Archbishop: the Fretful Audiences of Rowan Williams
6.30 pm Supper
8.00 pm Session 2: Calvin Smith: Sons of Abraham: The Politics of Christian Faith in Israel and the Palestinian Territories
Thursday 10 July
9.00 am Prayers
9.30 am Session 3: Joshua Hordern: Affections and Institutions in Theo-Political Social Life
11.00 am Coffee
11.20 am Session 4: Jonathan Burnside: Passover and Asylum: the Relationship Between Narrative, Law and National Identity (provisionally scheduled as joint session with Biblical Theology Group)
1.00 pm Lunch
Afternoon free
4.00 pm Coffee
5.15 pm Session 5: Tyndale EST Lecture: Jonathan Chaplin, The Bible, the State and Religious Diversity: Theological Foundations for ‘Principled Pluralism’
6.30 pm Supper
8.00 pm Session 6: This session provisionally kept free for Tyndale OT Lecture: Doug Ingram, Educating Readers: Qohelet as Teacher (with a sideways glance at Jesus)
Friday 11 July
9.00 am Prayers
9.30 am Session 7: David McIlroy, The Right Reason for Caesar to Confess Christ as Lord: O’Donovan and Arguments for a Christian State
11.00 am Coffee
11.30 am Session 8: Stephen Backhouse, A Kierkegaardian Critique of Christian Nationalism
2008: Christian Doctrine Study Group
DARWIN, SIN AND THE FALL
7th-9th July
Tyndale House, Cambridge
Monday, 7th July
5.00 pm T.A. Noble: ‘Original Sin and the Fall: Definitions and a Proposal’
8.00 pm A.N.S. Lane: ‘Irenaeus on the Fall and Original Sin’
Tuesday, 8th July
8.30 a.m. Prayer
9.00 a.m. Ruben Angelici: ‘Sin and the Fall in the Thought of Augustine’
11.00 a.m. R.J. (Sam) Berry: ‘Dethroning Humans: Theological Reactions to
Darwin’
Afternoon free
5.00 p.m. Discussion of the 2009 Study Group (2009 will be the 450th anniversary of final edition of Calvin’s Institutes)
8.00 pm Tyndale Christian Doctrine Lecture: Dr David Rainey: ‘The Established Church and Evangelical Theology: John Wesley’s Ecclesiology’
Wednesday, 9th July
8.30 a.m. Prayer
9.00 a.m. Richard Mortimer: ‘Blocher, Original Sin and Evolution’
11.00 a.m. Christopher Morton: ‘Barth and Pannenberg on Sin and the Fall – A Comparison’
2008: New Testament Study Group
July 7 - 9 Theme: Perspectives on Peter - Peter and Petrine Writings in History, Tradition, and Theology
Introduction:
This study group is open to all aspects of "Peter" within the New Testament (and early Christianity). Potential topics include the portrayal of Peter in the Gospels, Acts, Pauline corpus; historical issues concerned with Peter (in Acts, behind Mark, Antioch Incident etc.); any aspect of 1 and 2 Peter; issues relating to the reception of Mark as Peter's memoirs, the canonical reception of 1 & 2 Peter, etc.
4.30 pm Welcome David Wenham
5.00 pm Session 1: Mark Keown (Bible College of New Zealand): “Proclamation of the Gospel in 1 Peter”
Rob van Houwelingen (Theological Uni of the Reformed Churches): “The authenticity of 2 Peter: Problems and Possible Solutions”
6.30 pm Supper
8.00 pm Session 2: Mark D. Mathews (Durham University): “The Literary Relationship of 2 Peter and Jude Examined Against and Analogy of the Synoptic Gospels”
Nijay K. Gupta (Durham University): “A Spiritual House of Royal Priests, Chosen and Honoured: The Presence and Function of Cultic Imagery in 1 Peter”
Tuesday - 8 July
9.00 am Prayers
9.30 am Session 3: Richard Bauckham (Cambridge): "Jesus and the Eyewitnesses Revisited: Mark and Peter”
11.00 am Coffee
11.20 am Session 4: Tomas Bokedal (Aberdeen University): “Canonical Reception of 2 Peter”
Armin D. Baum (FTA Gießen / ETF Leuven): “Were the New Testament Pseudepigrapha (including 1 and 2 Peter) Written with a Deceptive Intent?”
1.00 pm Lunch
4.00 pm Coffee
5.15 pm Session 5: Tyndale New Testament Lecture: Michael Bird (Highland Theological College) “New Testament Theology Re-loaded”
8.00 pm Session 6: Patrick Egan (St. Andrews University): “Petrine Hermeneutics in 1 Peter 1:10-12”
Kelly Liebengood (St. Andrews University): “Messianic Woes in 1 Peter? Whoa! Reassessing 1 Peter's theology of suffering”
Wednesday - 9 July
9.00 am Prayers
9.30 am Session 7: TBA
11.00 am Coffee
11.30 am Session 8: News and Planning; Seminar Discussion – ‘A Jewish Audience for 1 Peter?’
2008: Biblical Theology Study Group
July 9-11: Theme: The Significance of Exodus Themes for Biblical Theology
Introduction:
As the second book of the Bible, Exodus contains a rich variety of concepts and themes that contribute towards the shaping of ancient Israel and the NT church. From the Passover, with its emphasis upon redemption, atonement, purification and sanctification, to the tabernacle which underlines the earthly presence and holiness of God, the book of Exodus introduces ideas that enrich the whole corpus of Scripture. From the divine deliverance of the enslaved Israelites to their acknowledgement of God as their sole sovereign, the book of Exodus provides in micro-story a paradigm of God’s salvific activity that mirrors the macro-story of the whole Bible.
Wednesday 9 July
5.00 pm Session 1: Willam Ford: A Responsive God Seeking Response? YHWH and humanity in the Exodus Plagues Narrative and the wider Bible
Nick Lunn, Bondage and Deliverance in the Samson Cycle (Judges 13-16): Parallels with the Mosaic Exodus
8.00 pm Session 2: Tyndale Biblical Theology Lecture: Keith Hacking, The Journey Theme and New Testament Spirituality: A Biblical and Contemporary Model.
Thursday 10 July
9.30 am Session 3: David Morgan: Multiple Views of Exodus Imagery for a New People in the Book of the Twelve
11.00 am Coffee
11.20 am Session 4: Jonathan Burnside: Passover and Asylum: the Relationship Between Narrative, Law and National Identity (scheduled as joint session with EST-RCC Group)
4.45 pm Session 5: Ro Mody, The Resurrection in Exodus? Jesus's Use of Exodus 3:6 in the Synoptic Gospels
Paul Hoskins, Freedom from Slavery to Sin and the Devil: John 8:31-47 and the Passover Theme of the Gospel of John
8.00 pm Session 6: This session provisionally kept free for Tyndale OT Lecture: Doug Ingram:Educating Readers: Qohelet as Teacher (with a sideways glance at Jesus)
Friday 11 July
9.00 am Prayers
9.30 am Session 7: Tom Holland: A case of mistaken identity? The paidagwgo.j and his mission. Galatians 3.24 in a New Exodus context.
Planning session
11.00 am Coffee
11.30 am Session 8: Martin Pohlmann: The victory song of Moses in Christological perspective within the Apocalypse of John