The University of St Andrews has announced its third conference (14-18 July 2009) on Scripture and Christian Theology. ‘Since the first conference on the Gospel of John in 2003, the St Andrews conferences have been recognised as one of the most important occasions when biblical scholars and systematic theologians are brought together in conversation about a biblical text. The conferences aim to cut through the megaphone diplomacy or the sheer incomprehension that so often marks attempts to communicate across our disciplines’.

They have issued a call for papers that integrate close readings of Genesis with Christian theology. While the organisers are particularly interested in explorations of the dynamic relationship between Genesis and Christian doctrine, they also welcome proposals that combine careful reading of the text of Genesis with theological attention to art, creativity, ecology, ethics, the history of interpretation, or Jewish and Christian dialogue.

The call for paper proposals closes on 15 March 2009. Please visit the conference website for further details or to submit a proposal. Other enquiries can be directed to the conference administrator, the adroit Luke Tallon.

The Centre of Theology and Philosophy (Nottingham) and St Stephen’s House (Oxford) are organising a conference for 5–7 January 2009 entitled ‘Returning to the Church: Catholicity, Ecclesiology and the Mission of the Church of England’.

Speakers include: John Milbank, Alison Milbank, Graham Ward, Alister McGrath, Michael Northcott, Jeremy Morris and Simon Oliver. 

For more information contact Andrew Davison or visit www.ssho.ox.ac.uk/ecclesiology
or click here to download a conference poster.

The 2008 Annual Conference for the Evangelical Philosophical Society is now taking registrations. Conference details here.

The Society for the Study of Christian Ethics is planning a conference at Westcott House, Cambridge on 5-7 September. The conference is open to both students and faculty members in the disciplines of ethics, theology, religion, philosophy, politics, and sociology, and the conference poster can be downloaded here.

This year’s conference is entitled ‘The Sermon on the Mount and Christian Ethics’, and speakers include the John Battle, Richard Bauckham, Carolyn Muessig, Oliver O’Donovan, Susan Parsons, and Glen Stassen.

There is a Call for Papers which can address either the conference theme or more general work-in-progress. But you’ll need to get cracking because the application deadline for giving a paper is 20th June 2008. Proposals and enquiries should be emailed to Jeffrey Bailey.

The University of Oxford have announced the Second Annual Postgraduate Conference in Continental Philosophy of Religion. The conference, entitled ‘Religion, Atheism and the Community of Reason in Modernity’, will take place at Regents Park College, Oxford University, on the 22nd September 2008. The confirmed keynote speakers are Prof. Raimond Gaita (KCL) and Dr Mark Wynn (Exeter). Areas of discussion include the relation of reason to religion; the role of religious beliefs, practices and forms of argumentation in philosophical discourse; and the very possibility of religious philosophy. The hope is that these topics with be discussed in respect to both contemporary philosophical debate and the history of philosophy.

They have issued a call for papers of 20-30 minutes from postgraduates and those who have recently obtained their doctorate. ‘We encourage both historical and contemporary engagements and, although we wish to provide a forum for continental philosophy (which we understand in its broadest sense as European philosophy from Descartes to Meillassoux), we welcome papers from other traditions, especially analytic philosophy. Possible topics may include:

Contemporary Issues:

• The persistence of theological tropes in contemporary philosophy (apocalypses and utopias, for example)
• The relation between religious and secular ethics
• The role of emotion in philosophical accounts of the self and practical reasoning
• Cosmopolitanism and communitarianism
• The theological turn in recent phenomenology

Historical topics:

• The early modern project of demystification (Spinoza, les philosophes, Hume)
• The Spinoza controversy and the genesis of philosophy of religion in German Idealism
• Rationalism and atheism in the reception of Hegel (Feuerbach, Strauss)
• The critique of religion in Nietzsche, Marxism, feminism, psychoanalysis etc
• Polemics against (onto-)theology in French thought in the sixties and seventies (Deleuze, Kristeva and the early Derrida)’

Please send abstracts of between 300 and 500 words to godphil@googlemail.com by the deadline of 20th July 2008. For more details, see http://www.theology.ox.ac.uk/news_and_events/RACRIM.pdf

As I’ve noted before, 2009 will be the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. To mark this occasion the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership and the Theology and Religious Studies Department of the University of Otago are organizing a two-day conference focusing on Calvin’s legacy on church and society. The conference will be held on 24-25 August 2009, and will feature two international keynote speakers – Professor Randall Zachman (from the University of Notre Dame) and Professor Elsie McKee (from Princeton Theological Seminary) – as well as local contributors. The venue will be Knox College, which is most appropriate given the fact that 2009 will also be Knox’s centennial year.

The Annual National Conference for Christian Postgraduates and Postdoctoral Researchers will take place 20–22 June 2008 at Dovedale House, Derbyshire.

There will be two main speakers – Stefan Lindholm and Andrew Fellows – both from L’Abri Fellowship

Stefan will speak on ‘The importance of intellectual virtues’, and Andrew will speak on ‘Cultivating a Christian mind’ and ‘Integrating the mind and the imagination’.

More information here.