Rowan Williams: A Cambridge Celebration
This conference will bring together scholars, many of whom have studied under Lord Rowan Williams or have worked closely with or alongside him, to honour his contributions as a writer, scholar, and churchman to contemporary thought. Papers will take inspiration from his work to explore the manifold ways he has inspired generations of students, and to pursue further the new directions his work has opened up on theology, philosophy, spirituality, art, literature, poetry, politics, culture, society, ecumenism, and last but not least, comparative literature and culture.
Rowan Williams has had a long and close association with the University of Cambridge and the Faculty of Divinity. As an undergraduate, he read theology at Christ’s College. After his doctoral work on Vladimir Lossky at Oxford, he returned to Cambridge initially for ordination at Westcott House, followed by his appointment as University Lecturer in Divinity and later Dean of Clare College. This conference will therefore be a fitting tribute to mark the retirement of Lord Williams as Master of Magdalene College and Professor in Contemporary Christian Thought at the University.
Registration: we expect to open registration for the conference around early June 2023. You can sign-up to receive updates regarding general registration here.
Organisers:
- Joshua Heath, Junior Research Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK
- Pui-Him Ip, Tutorial Programme Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion & Affiliated Lecturer in Divinity, Cambridge University, UK
- Isidoros Katsos FRHistS, Associate Professor of Theological Epistemology and Ancient Philosophy, Athens University, Greece & Research Fellow, Campion Hall, Oxford University, UK
Speakers:
- Lewis Ayres, Professor of Historical Theology, Durham University, UK & Visiting Professorial Fellow, Institute for Religion and Criical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University, Australia
- Ragnar Misje Bergem, Associate Professor in Systematic Theology, MF Norweigian School of Theology, Norway
- Sarah Coakley FBA, Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity Emerita, Cambridge University, UK & Professorial Fellow in Religion and Theology,
- Ruth Coates, Associate Professor in Russian Religious Thought, Bristol University, UK
- Mark Edwards, Professor of Early Christian Studies, Oxford University, UK
- Caryl Emerson, A. Watson Armour III University Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University, USA
- Simon Gaine, Pinckaers Chair in Theological Anthropology and Ethics, Angelicum Thomistic Institute, Italy
- David Fergusson FBA, Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge University, UK
- Lucy Gardner, Tutor in Doctrine, St Stephen’s House, Oxford, UK
- David Bentley Hart, Research Associate, University of Notre Dame, USA
- Joshua Heath, Junior Research Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK
- Douglas Hedley, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Cambridge University, UK
- Pui-Him Ip, Tutorial Programme Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion & Affiliated Lecturer in Divinity, Cambridge University, UK
- Isidoros C. Katsos FRHistS, Associate Professor of Theological Epistemology and Ancient Philosophy, Faculty of Theology, Athens University, Greece & Research Fellow, Campion Hall, Oxford University, UK
- Martin Laird O.S.A., Professor of Early Christian Studies, Villanova University, USA
- Andrew Louth FBA Professor Emeritus of Patristics and Byzantine Studies, Durham University, UK
- Morwenna Ludlow, Professor of Early Christian Thought, Exeter University, UK
- John Milbank, Emeritus Professor of Theology, Nottingham University, UK
- Oliver O’Donovan FBA Professor Emeritus of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology, Edinburgh University, UK
- Aristotle Papanikolaou, Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture and Co-Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University, USA
- Catherine Pickstock, Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, Cambridge University, U.K.
- Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, King’s College London, UK
- Catherine Rowett, Professor of Ancient Philosophy, University of East Anglia, UK
- Andrew Shanks, Canon Emeritus of Manchester Cathedral, UK
- Graham Ward, Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford University, UK
Rowan Williams: A Cambridge Celebration
Provisional schedule
Monday 11 September 2023, Old Divinity School, St John’s College, University of Cambridge
09:00-09:10 – Welcome, Bishop Stephen of Ely
09:10-09:30 – Opening Address, David Fergusson (Cambridge)
09:30-10:30 – Panel 1: Philosophical Theology
David Bentley Hart (Notre Dame) – tbc
Catherine Pickstock (Cambridge) – Flotsam and spindrift: the arrival of words
Andrew Shanks (Manchester Cathedral) - On the state-institutionalisation of the public conscience
10:30-11:00 – Panel 1 Discussion
11:00-11:30 – Coffee Break
11:30-12:30 – Panel 2: Doctrinal Theology - Past, Present and Future
Lewis Ayres (Durham) – tbc
Pui-Him Ip (Cambridge) – tbc
John Milbank (Nottingham) – The Identity of Christ and identity as such
12:30-13:00 – Panel 2 Discussion
13:00-14:00 – Lunch
14:00-15:00 – Panel 3: Contemplative Theology – Silence and Prayer
Sarah Coakley (Cambridge) – Inner-trinitarian relations as ‘deflections of desire’? The Trinity, prayer, and the problem of speculation on the divine ontology.
Simon Gaine (Angelicum) – Will there be silence in heaven?
Martin Laird (Villanova) – The Jesus Prayer and the Practice of Theology in St. Diadochos of Photiki
15:00-15:30 – Panel 3 Discussion
15:30-16:00 – Tea Break
16:00-17:00 – Panel 4: Political and Moral Theology
Ragnar Misje-Bergem (MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society) – The politics of finitude
Oliver O’Donovan (Edinburgh) – Divine and human action
Graham Ward (Oxford) – The diremption of meaning
17:00-17:30 – Panel 4 Discussion
Tuesday 12 September 2023, Old Divinity School, St John’s College, University of Cambridge
09:00-10:00 – Panel 5: Eastern Orthodox Theology
Isidoros C. Katsos (Athens) – Could There be an Eastern Orthodox Philosophy of Religion and What Might It Look LIke?
Andrew Louth (Durham) – Rowan Williams’ engagement with Orthodox theology: Vladimir Lossky and Olivier Clément
Aristotle Papanikolaou (Fordham) – Avoiding the avalanche while Looking East in Winter
10:00-10:30 – Panel 5: Discussion
10:30-11:00 – Coffee Break
11:00-12:00 – Panel 6: Theology, Arts and Imagination
Lucy Gardner (Oxford) – Seeing the Word: Balthasar and theological imagination
Douglas Hedley (Cambridge) – tbc
Ben Quash (King’s College London) – Sapiential imagination: the arts and the expansion of grace
12:00-12:30 – Panel 6 Discussion
12:30-13:30 – Lunch
13:30-14:30 – Panel 7: The Russian Imagination
Ruth Coates (Bristol) – tbc
Caryl Emerson (Princeton) – Being Dostoevsky (how Rowan Williams opens up Bakhtin)
Joshua Heath (Cambridge) – Metaphysics and the motherland in Sergii Bulgakov
14:30-15:00 – Panel 7 Discussion
15:00-15:30 – Tea Break
15:30-16:30 – Panel 8: Ancient Greek Philosophy, Early Christianity and Contemporary Theology
Mark Edwards (Oxford) – The Fathers, computers and us
Morwenna Ludlow (Exeter) – ‘What is it to be called a theologian?’
Catherine Rowett (East Anglia) – Corporeal communication and embodied meaning: a creation story
16:30-17:00 – Panel 8 Discussion
17:00-17:10 – Short Break
17:10-17:40 – Closing Address from Rowan Williams
17:40-17:45 – Final remarks
This conference is generously cosponsored by the following organisations: The Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College Cambridge, The Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius, The Anglican and Eastern Churches Association, St John’s College Cambridge and Magdalene College Cambridge.
