Programme 2008/09
(Meetings take place in the Seminar Room, The Graduate School, University of Hull Cottingham Road campus, unless otherwise indicated.)
Wednesday 15 October 2008, 7.30 pm
‘The Reformation in Iceland’
Dr Jack Cunningham (Head of Theology, Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln)
The story of the Reformation in England is familiar to most of us – not least because the Tudors remain such a fascinating subject for film and television treatments. But the Reformation came to Iceland – then part of the Danish Empire – in an even more dramatic fashion. Dr Cunningham, already well-known for his work on the Reformation in Ireland, now turns his attention northwards, and in this lecture will open up for us some of the chief issues and approaches to the saga of the Icelandic reformation.
Wednesday 12 November 2008, 7.30 pm
‘The Padre and the Show Girl: US Army Chaplains in the Second World War’
Dr Jenel Virden (Senior Lecturer in American Studies; Head of the Department of Humanities, University of Hull)
One of the more benign ways in which religion and the use of force have coincided is in the institution of military chaplaincy. The military chaplain stands at the nexus of the professional, the personal, and the pastoral, and is an ideal subject for Dr Virden, whose previous work on British war brides in the US, and more recently on Americans and the wars of the twentieth century, has focussed on the interaction of the frontline with the home front. She is currently preparing a major study of US army chaplains in World War II.
Wednesday 10 December 2008, 7.30 pm
‘Kierkegaard’s reception in English: the early years’
Revd Rodney Ward (sometime Ecumenical Chaplain, University of Lincoln)
By the late twentieth century, the Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s status as ‘the father of existentialism’ had been firmly established in the English-speaking world. But were Anglo-Saxon attitudes towards this notorious iconoclast initially so cordial? In this lecture, the Revd Rodney Ward, who served as chaplain to Humberside University before its move to Lincoln, will examine for the first time the nature of the early reactions in English to Kierkegaard.
Wednesday 21 January 2009, 7.30 pm
‘On Being a Quaker-Anglican’
Dr Mary Munro-Hill (Department of Modern Languages; Quaker Chaplain to the University of Hull)
Quakers believe that all people possess an inner divine light. They reject fixed forms of worship, and frown on social distinctions. Members of the Church of England look to the Bible for guidance in matters of faith, celebrate the sacraments, and recognize the Queen as the Church’s supreme governor. Despite the apparent incompatibility of these two Christian traditions, some distinguished individuals (most famously the pacifist Canon Paul Oestreicher) have claimed to be both Quakers and Anglicans. In this lecture Dr Munro-Hill, who is both the University’s Quaker Chaplain and its Anglican Lay Reader, will discuss and attempt to explain the phenomenon of the ‘Quaker-Anglican’.
Wednesday 18 February 2009, 7.30 pm
‘Francis of Assisi: A Man of his Time’
Professor Brian Moloney (Emeritus Professor of Italian, University of Hull)
Wednesday 27 May 2009, 8.00 pm (following the Society’s AGM at 7.30 pm)
‘The Church and Public Engagement: Rowan Williams, Sharia Law, and the Media’
Professor Sebastian Kim (Professor of Theology & Public Life, York St John University)
Holder of one of the newest chairs in Yorkshire’s newest university, Professor Kim came to York St John from Cambridge, having previously taught in India and South Korea. He has particular interests in issues of community identity, globalization, and peace and reconciliation. As Professor of Theology and Public Life, his remit is to promote the interaction of theology with public issues of contemporary society, in interdisciplinary dialogue with politics, economics, and other social sciences, and with cultural studies. In this lecture he will discuss the media reaction to one of the most famous (or infamous) recent examples of theological engagement with public life: the Archbishop of Canterbury’s suggestion that some aspects of Sharia Law might be recognized by the English courts.
