2006-07 Ebor Lectures Series 1
Theme: Liberating Texts? Revelation, Identity, and Public Life
In the contemporary context sacred texts are often regarded as deeply problematic, seen as contributing to the rise of fundamentalisms. In relation to the Abrahamaic faiths, the Ebor Lectures for 2006-07 seek to discover how traditions of interpretation can be used to release the potential of sacred texts for public life. How can sacred texts encourage respectful dialogue and conversation in a plural context? How can sacred texts be interpreted in ways which illuminate and re-imagine public life? How do religious traditions negotiate their identity in relation to the meaning of their sacred texts in ways which are both faithful and open to new insight? How can a sacred text contribute to the exploration of public life – liberation, justice, truth, hope and identity?
|
This first series of Ebor Lectures was published as a book:
Sebastian C. H. Kim and Jonathan Draper (eds.) Liberating Text? Sacred Scriptures in Public Life London: SPCK, 2008. |
Speakers
N.B. Biographical details and lecture descriptions were those written in advance of the lectures and have not been updated since.
The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr John Sentamu - Archbishop of York
‘Uncovering the Purposes of God’
13 September 2006 at York Minster
‘Uncovering the Purposes of God’
13 September 2006 at York Minster
|
In this lecture Archbishop Sentamu argued that God's purposes can be uncovered through a threefold approach of trust and worship of a loving God, love of neighbour, and caring for creation. God will be God without humanity. But without God humanity will be naught. In uncovering God's purposes both for ourselves and for our society, we are involved in an act of uncovering purposes which God has already disclosed to us in creation.
John Sentamu was born in 1949 in a village near Kampala, Uganda, the sixth of thirteen children. He was educated for the law at Makerere University, Kampala, and practised as an Advocate of the High Court of Uganda. Sentamu was appointed a High Court judge in 1973 at the age of 24 by the newly-ascendant Idi Amin; his judicial independence earned the dictator's ire, however, and he suffered threats and physical violence before fleeing to the United Kingdom in 1974. He read theology at Selwyn College, Cambridge (BA 1976, MA MPhil 1979, PhD 1984), and trained for the priesthood at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, being ordained a priest in 1979. He worked as assistant chaplain at Selwyn College, as chaplain at a remand centre, and as curate, priest and vicar in a series of parish appointments before his consecration in 1996 as Bishop of Stepney (a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of London). It was during this time that he served as advisor to the Stephen Lawrence Judicial Enquiry. In 2002 he chaired the Damilola Taylor review. That same year he was appointed Bishop of Birmingham, where his ministry, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was praised by "Christians of all backgrounds". On 17 June 2005 the Prime Minister's office announced his translation to York as the 97th Archbishop. He was formally elected by the Canons of York Minster on 21 June, legally confirmed as Archbishop in London on 5 October, and enthroned at York Minster on 30 November 2005 (the feast of Saint Andrew), at a remarkable ceremony with African singing and dancing and contemporary music, with the Archbishop himself playing African drums during the service. On 7 March 2007 the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr John Sentamu became the first Chancellor of York St John University. |
Professor David Ford - Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge
‘God and our Public Life: A Scriptural Wisdom’
8 November 2006 at York St John University
‘God and our Public Life: A Scriptural Wisdom’
8 November 2006 at York St John University
|
Our public life needs whatever wisdom we can find, whether religious or secular. The Bible is a rich source of such wisdom. Our religious and secular world needs frameworks within which this and other wisdoms (both religious and secular) can be put forward, learned, taught, explained, discussed, disputed, and deliberated about.
Professor David Ford began his career in 1976 as a lecturer at the University of Birmingham, he went on to become a senior lecturer, in 1991 he then became Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. Professor Ford has had his work widely published in a range of theological and interfaith journals as well as being author and co-author of several books. He is also a co-founder of the Society for Scriptural Reasoning and is currently Acting Director of the Cambridge Interfaith Programme. Professor Ford is currently starting work on a major new project – a theological interpretation of the Gospel of John. He is also writing a Manifesto on the future of Christian theology for Blackwell Publishing, which will appear in 2008. Additionally he is preparing an edited collection of his earlier works, to appear in the Blackwell series ‘Challenges in Contemporary Theology’, and a reader for the third edition of The Modern Theologians. Professor Ford’s current research interests in the area of contemporary Christian thought are focussed in two directions: first, in the direction of hermeneutics, the interpretation of scripture and substantive issues in contemporary Christian thought and practice; and second, in the direction of inter-faith theology and relations, particularly the issues of inter-faith scriptural interpretation and the relation of faiths to secular cultures, traditions and forces. Among his other research interests are: the shaping of universities and of the field of theology and religious studies within them; political theology; ecumenical theology; and Christian theologians and theologies. Selected publications:
|
Dr Ataullah Siddiqui - Director, Markfield Institute of Higher Education
‘Text and Context: Making Sense of Islam in the Modern World’
6 December 2006 at York St John University
‘Text and Context: Making Sense of Islam in the Modern World’
6 December 2006 at York St John University
|
Dr Siddiqui’s lecture focussed on the challenges of the secular modern world to Muslims’ understanding of their faith.
Dr Ataullah Siddiqui is a Senior Research Fellow at the Islamic Foundation, Leicester and Director of the Markfield Institute of Higher Education; Visiting Fellow in the Centre for the History of Religious and Political Pluralism, University of Leicester. In 1997 he published a comprehensive study on Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Twentieth Century. |
The Revd Professor Frances Young - Emeritus Professor of the University of Birmingham
‘Sacred Text and the Transcendence of Tradition: the Bible in a Pluralist Society’
7 February 2007 at York Minster
‘Sacred Text and the Transcendence of Tradition: the Bible in a Pluralist Society’
7 February 2007 at York Minster
|
Can any ‘sacred text’ contribute to our culture or society in the present context of secularism and pluralism? What are ‘sacred texts’? Are they not confined by the religious communities which treat them as authoritative? On the contrary, the Bible and other sacred texts, rescued from fundamentalist traditions, point beyond themselves…
Revd Professor Francis Young taught theology at the University of Birmingham from 1971, becoming the Edward Cadbury Professor and Head of the Department of Theology in 1986. During her time at the University, she also served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1995-7) and Pro Vice Chancellor (1997-2002). In 1984, she was ordained as a Methodist minister, and has combined preaching in a local Circuit and pursuing her academic career. In 1998, she was awarded an OBE for services to Theology and in 2004, elected a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2005, she retired from the University. On 15 November 2005, she preached at the opening service of the Eighth General Synod Church of England, the first Methodist and the first woman to preach at the five-yearly inauguration ceremony. She delivered her sermon at the Eucharist service at which the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, presided. Her books include both academic and more popular theological writings, drawing on her work on the New Testament and on Christianity in its formative centuries, but also on her experience as the mother of a son (Arthur) who was born with profound physical and mental disabilities. Her latest book is Brokenness and Blessing: Towards a Biblical Spirituality, 2007. |
Rabbi Professor Dan Cohn-Sherbok - Professor of Judaism, University of Wales, Lampeter
‘The Bible and Modern Israel’
14 March 2007 at York St John University
‘The Bible and Modern Israel’
14 March 2007 at York St John University
|
How does the Bible affect the Middle East conflict? The lecture explains ways in which Jews and Christians have used the Bible to defend the Jewish claim to the Holy Land.
Dan Cohn-Sherbok was born in Denver, Colorado, and educated at Williams College. He was ordained a Reform rabbi at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where he gained a doctorate in divinity. He served congregations in Jasper, Alabama; Galesburg, Illinois, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Denver, Colorado. Subsequently he was a rabbi in Melbourne, Australia; London, England; and Johannesburg, South Africa. He received a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge University, England and from 1975 taught Jewish theology at the University of Kent, Canterbury. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Essex, University of Middlesex, University of St Andrew's, and the University of Vilnius. Dan Cohn-Sherbok is currently Professor of Judaism at the University of Wales at Lampeter. He is a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Peer Review College. Professor Sherbok is the author and editor of over 80 books which have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Bulgarian, French, Swedish, Italian, German, Greek, and Swedish including:
|
The Rt Hon The Baroness Williams of Crosby
‘Religious Traditions in the Context of a Liberal Democracy’
16 May 2007 at York Minster
‘Religious Traditions in the Context of a Liberal Democracy’
16 May 2007 at York Minster
|
This lecture was about the development of the philosophy of human rights, both nationally and internationally; about how far the international community has the duty to intervene in cases where states abuse their own citizens; and finally the concept of the Just War and what relevance that has for us today in the conflict situations that we confront.
Baroness Williams’ career began when as Shirley Williams she entered journalism in the 1950s. In 1964 she was elected as MP for Hitchin and served as a member of the Wilson and Calaghan Governments during the 1960s and 70s, culminating in her time as Secretary of State for Education and Science between 1967 and 1969 and as Paymaster General between 1976 and 1979. After losing her seat in 1983, Baroness Williams increased her academic commitments, lecturing in Harvard, Cambridge, Princeton and Chicago. Baroness Williams returned to Parliament as a life peer in 1993 and went on to be elected Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords between 2001 and 2004. The Baroness of Crosby has written several books. Her most recent book God and Caesar: a Personal reflection on Politics and Religion (2003) explores the Church and public life in the modern world and how her own faith impacted on her political career. |
