please save the date!
OUR NEXT DCM SEEKING WISDOM CONFERENCE WILL BE 21-22 MARCH 2025 (9TH 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 Philosophy & Theology Stream can be found below.
Philosophy and Theology Stream
Friday 15th March (9:00am to 9:00pm) and Saturday 16th March (you are invited to join another stream)
Magdalen College, Oxford
Senior Conveners: Max Baker-Hytch, Tutor, Philosophy; David Downs, Professor, New Testament Studies
Conveners: Ning Xu, PhD, Science & Religion; Chris Wadibia, JRF, Global Christianity; David Williams, PhD, Christian Ethics
How should we pursue the truth, Christ, relating to Him not as an object but as a person, one of the three persons of God, who is love?
Integrating study with worship challenges Christians across the university, but particularly philosophers and theologians. Our work penetrates to the very foundation of our beliefs. Disciplinary assumptions about religion, ethics, and other existential questions can contradict the God we encounter in our daily activities, quiet times, and churches. Meanwhile, courses along with research projects may expose tensions in our views that resist simple solutions. And classmates, colleagues, students, supervisors, or the broader public often push us to concretely serve our neighbors as Christ would.
The Philosophy and Theology Stream will help postgraduates, postdocs and academics, drawing on experience from many years, to discuss how our scholarship and spirituality not only inform but also strengthen each other. We will explore uniting our hearts and heads so as to wholly champion the Kingdom of God.
We welcome past as well as new attendees to the Philosophy and Theology Stream on Friday 15 March. On Saturday 16 March, participants are encouraged to attend one of the other Streams: Humanities, Natural/Medical Sciences, or Social Sciences & Law. Each combination will advance the philosophical and theological quest for wisdom, supplying a holistic vision of learning in faith.
**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 **
Friday 15th March
9:00 am Registration in Magdalen College Old Kitchen Bar with coffee & tea
9:30 am The Source of Christian Theology and Philosophy - Agape - Margaret Yee, Emeritus Fellow & Tutor, Theology and Religion
On pursuing academic studies in Christian theology and philosophy one is bound to be confronted with profound and complex questions. Exploration of a breadth of scholars in biblical, theological and philosophical thought will be required. Is it possible to become doctrinally informed, knowledgeable and inspirationally enlightened as one wrestles with perplexities re “divine-human” relations? Can the Christian concept of “Agapé”, integral to one’s academic enquiry, also be identified as a “vocational resource,” essential to probe?
11:00 am Coffee & tea in the Old Kitchen Bar
11.30 am Academic Vocation in the Church and Academy Today: 'And with All of Your Mind' - Shaun Henson, Lecturer, Science and Religion
The works of the faithful who combine academic and spiritual functions into one vocation have been vital to the Church since its first-century foundations. The Church, quite simply, would have practically no informed theology or liturgy, and arguably no New Testament, if not for those who have been as gifted at researching, writing, and teaching as at conventional ministry skills such as preaching, presiding at the Eucharist, and pastoral care of various lay and ordained kinds. In this talk I will look at theory, at examples, at the varieties of giftedness, and at the possibilities for following an academic vocation, whether lay or ordained, in the Church and academy today.
1:00 pm Lunch in the Old Kitchen Bar
2:00 pm Panel-led Discussion - Panellists include David Downs, Professor, New Testament Studies; Shaun Henson, Lecturer, Science and Religion; Margaret Yee, Emeritus Fellow & Tutor, Theology and Religion; Chaired by Chris Wadibia, Junior Research Fellow, Global Christianity
3:30 pm Coffee & tea in the Old Kitchen Bar
4:00 pm A Workship on Vocation - David Downs, Professor, New Testament Studies
Our academic training engages our minds and prepares us for the work of teaching, researching, and writing. Yet it is often difficult to integrate the academic life into our formation as disciples of Jesus. This workshop will offer an opportunity to reflect on questions of vocational formation for academics, as well as practical resources aimed to help us answer the question, “At this point in my Christian journey, how do I envision my call to God’s mission in the world?”
The following events are held jointly with all streams at New College.
6:00 pm Prayer in Magdalen College Auditorium
6:30 pm Walking together from Magdalen College to New College
6:40 pm Drinks at the New College Bar
7:30 pm Dinner in the New College Dining Hall
The Friday 15th ticket also includes admission on Saturday 16th to one of the following streams: Humanities, Natural/Medical Sciences, or Social Sciences & Laws. Program details for these streams can be found at the links above.