please save the date!
Our next DCM Christianity & the life of the mind conference will be 31 Jan - 1 Feb 2025 (2nd week Hilary term)
Please do save the dates for our next two DCM Conferences, ‘Christianity and the Life of the Mind’ on Friday 31 January & Saturday 1 February 2025 (2nd Week Hilary Term) and ‘Seeking Wisdom’ on Friday 21 & Saturday 22 March 2025 (9th Week Hilary Term). An example programme from our 2024 DCM Christianity & the Life of the Mind Conference can be found below.
example ‘Christianity & the life of the Mind’ programme 2024
Friday 26 - Saturday 27 January 2024
Hosted at Jesus College, Cheng Yu Tung Lecture Theatre, Oxford
What does our calling to be disciples of Christ mean for our academic life, whether temporary as students or longer term as a career? What are some of the promises and pitfalls of scholarly life? How can academics and postgraduate students serve and relate to the wider body of Christ, the church? Christianity and the Life of the Mind examines these questions and more.
Join other Oxford postgrads, postdocs, and faculty as we explore integrating our faith with our academic life through this conference. The event will include lectures by academics including Bishop Graham Tomlin (Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness, Historical Theology), Ard Louis (Theoretical Physics), Katherine Blundell (Astrophysics), Elaine Storkey (Sociology), Simeon Zahl (Christian Theology), and Christopher Wadibia (Global Christianity). There is also plenty of time for discipline based discussion. Registration includes discussion group dinners hosted by faculty around Oxford on the Friday evening.
Past speakers include Alister McGrath (Theology), Simon Horobin (English) and Michael Lloyd (Theology) and Kate Kirkpatrick (Philosophy).
*Early-bird Registration deadline 12th January 2024: £20 and meals are included
*General Registration closes 19th January 2024: £30 and meals are included
*DCM Alumni Registration: For capacity reasons, this year we are asking DCM alumni and those who are in continuing education programs to please fill out this interest form. Please note that if admission is granted then attendance is in-person and that one will need to arrange one’s own accommodations.
**Please note our eligibility criteria: This event is for University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes postgraduates, postdocs, academic staff. If you do not fit this criteria, are DCM Alumni, or in a continuing education program, please complete this form and we will review your request **
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED
PROGRAMME 2024
FRIDAY 26 JANUARY 2024
This program is subject to change, please watch this space for updates:
1:30 p.m. Registration, coffee & tea
2:00 p.m. Welcome & introduction
2:10 p.m. Vision Talk: My spiritual and intellectual heroes - and what I learned from them - Bishop Graham Tomlin (Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness, Historical Theology)
In this talk I want to focus upon a number of figures from the past whom I have come to love and admire. I will reflect on what they have taught me about the intellectual and spiritual task of loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Each one of them has helped me integrate life, scholarship and Christian faith in different ways and my hope is that this session will help you reflect on those you have learnt from in the past as you seek to bring together faith and the life of study.
3:00 p.m. Vocation Talk: The calling of Christian postgrad students and academics - Ard Louis (Theoretical Physics)
Based on his own academic career and experience with postgraduate ministry in several countries, Professor Ard Louis will discuss the main themes of the conference in the light of questions such as: What does our calling to be disciples of Christ mean for our academic vocation (whether temporary as students or longer term as a career)? What are some of the promises and pitfalls of the scholarly life? How can academics and postgraduate students serve and relate to the wider body of Christ (the Church)?
3:50 p.m. Discussion
4:30 p.m. Coffee & tea
5:00 p.m. Panel discussion: Faith and scholarship – Session chaired by Mary Louis (Senior Fellow in Management Practice, Said Business School) and includes
Lynn Gill (Vice President, Graduate & Faculty Ministries, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA )
Esau McCaulley (Author; Associate Professor, New Testament, Wheaton College)
Romuald Méango (Associate Professor of Economics, Christ Church, University of Oxford)
Simeon Zahl (Professor of Christian Theology, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge)
Jakob Zeitler (PhD Centre for Artificial Intelligence, UCL; Head of R&D, Matterhorn Studio)
6:15 p.m. Prayer
6:30 p.m. Travel to dinner
7:00 p.m. Dinner and discussion of panel with faculty hosts
Dinner will be with your discussion group and will be hosted by various faculty members within their homes or colleges throughout Oxford.
SATURDAY 27 JANUARY 2024
10:00 a.m. Light breakfast, coffee & tea
10:30 a.m. Explanations & questions; mechanism & meaning - Katherine Blundell (Astrophysics)
In this talk Katherine Blundell examines the differences between Biblical language and literature, on the one hand, and scientific language and literature, on the other. Situating the Biblical creation narratives in their ancient cultural context and within the wider context of the Biblical canon, she develops a nuanced and literarily sophisticated account of what those narratives were and were not designed to convey. She suggests that the Bible was never intended to be a technical scientific monograph, but rather that Scripture employs a wide range of literary genres—poetry, proverbs, prophecies, and parables to name just a few—in order to powerfully communicate vital theological truths to a wider audience than a technically precise scientific textbook could ever hope to reach.
11:30 a.m. What does it mean to be human? - Elaine Storkey (Philosophy and Sociology)
This lecture discusses how the Christian understanding of the human being steers a course between individualism and collectivism, between fatalism and personal freedom, between materialism and ‘idealism’; and how its personal and communitarian understanding of the human being is grounded in the Trinitarian God.
12:20 a.m. Discussion
1:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m. Seeking knowledge in a fallen world - Simeon Zahl (Christian Theology)
In this talk Professor Zahl will reflect on what it means for a Christian to seek academic knowledge in the modern research university. He will present a Christian case for academic rigour in light of the Christian belief that human beings are fallen creatures who struggle to see the world as it really is.
3:00 p.m. Coffee & tea
3:30 p.m. Understanding Christian eschatology: God's ultimate plan for creation - Chris Wadibia (Global Christianity)
For many Christians, the subject of eschatology (generally defined as how events will play out during the end times, final judgment, and God's establishment of the New Creation) brings to mind feelings of confusion, anxiety, and even fear. However, this talk explains why the eschatological visions outlined in the Bible should instead fill Christians with joy, excitement, and confidence in Christ. The purpose of this talk will be to point out popular myths that Christians unknowingly associate with biblical eschatological ideas, and to explicate why the Christian's career and professional life in this world matters in light of the new world to come.
4:20 Discussion
5:00 Prayer
5:30 p.m. Drinks reception
6:30 p.m. Day closing
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED