Rowan Williams: A Cambridge Celebration - Day 1
Janet Soskice
514.37
11 September 2023
11 November 2025
Timestamps
00:00:00 - Beginning
00:05:14 - Welcome & Opening Address
00:28:45 - Panel 1: Philosophical Theology.
02:34:36 - Panel 2: Doctrinal Theology - Past, Present and Future.
05:03:34 - Panel 3: Contemplative Theology - Silence and Prayer.
07:03:58 - Panel 4: Political and Moral Theology.
This conference will bring together scholars, many of whom have studied under Lord Rowan Williams or have worked closely with or alongside him, to honour his contributions as a writer, scholar, and churchman to contemporary thought. Papers will take inspiration from his work to explore the manifold ways he has inspired generations of students, and to pursue further the new directions his work has opened up on theology, philosophy, spirituality, art, literature, poetry, politics, culture, society, ecumenism, and last but not least, comparative literature and culture.
Rowan Williams has had a long and close association with the University of Cambridge and the Faculty of Divinity. As an undergraduate, he read theology at Christ’s College. After his doctoral work on Vladimir Lossky at Oxford, he returned to Cambridge initially for ordination at Westcott House, followed by his appointment as University Lecturer in Divinity and later Dean of Clare College. This conference will therefore be a fitting tribute to mark the retirement of Lord Williams as Master of Magdalene College and Professor in Contemporary Christian Thought at the University.
09.00-09.10 – Welcome
09.10-09.30 – Opening Address, David Fergusson (Cambridge)
09.30-10.30 – Panel 1: Philosophical Theology.
Chair: Janet Soskice (Cambridge)
David Bentley Hart (Notre Dame) - Living Spirit and Living Word: Reflections on Consciousness and Language
Pui Him Ip (Cambridge & Copenhagen) - Speakable and unspeakable in nature: the view from Copenhagen reconsidered
Catherine Pickstock (Cambridge) - Flotsam and spindrift: the arrival of words
10.30-11.00 – Panel 1 Discussion
11.00-11.30 – Coffee Break
11.30-12.30 – Panel 2: Doctrinal Theology - Past, Present and Future.
Chair: David Fergusson (Cambridge)
Lewis Ayres (Durham) - The Mysteries That Remain: Lessons in Trinitarian Theology from Gregory Nazianzen
John Milbank (Nottingham) - The identity of Christ and identity as such
Graham Ward (Oxford) - The diremption of meaning
12.30-13.00 – Panel 2 Discussion
13.00-14.00 – Lunch
14.00-15.00 – Panel 3: Contemplative Theology - Silence and Prayer.
Chair: James Hawkey (Westminster Abbey)
Sarah Coakley (Cambridge) - Inner-trinitarian relations as ‘deflections of desire’? The Trinity, prayer, and the problem of speculation on the divine ontology.
Simon Gaine (Angelicum) - Will there be silence in heaven?
Martin Laird (Villanova) - The Jesus Prayer and the practice of theology in St. Diadochos of Photiki
15.00-15.30 – Panel 3 Discussion
15.30-16.00 – Tea Break
16.00-17.00 – Panel 4: Political and Moral Theology.
Chair: Andrew Bowyer (Oxford)
Ragnar Misje Bergem (MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society) - The authority of Christ
Oliver O’Donovan (Edinburgh) - Divine and human action
Andrew Shanks (Manchester Cathedral) - On the state-institutionalisation of the public conscience
17.00-17.30 – Panel 4 Discussion
