Sydney conference on sin and grace: Theology Connect 2018

The next Theology Connect conference will be coming to Sydney in July 2018. The theme is sin and grace in Christian theology, with keynotes by Kelly Kapic, Alan Torrance, Simon Chan. There's a call for papers, so why not come visit our nice little town and give us a paper? If you bring your bicycle I will even give you a free guided tour!

If you haven't heard of Theology Connect, there's a review and some pictures of the last one, and a while back I did an interview with Chris Green about the conference series. It looks like they've traded the uber-funky industrial setting for a church venue; but apart from that I'm sure it will be an excellent event. Personally I would go just to hear Simon Chan whose work I admire very much. I'm using his book on Grassroots Asian Theology in my contextual theology seminar this semester (I reviewed it here in case you're interested).

Here's a promo video for the conference:

Barth Graduate Student Colloquium

In case you hadn't noticed, the Center for Barth Studies in Princeton has been developing an exciting number of new initiatives over recent years. One of these, The Barth Graduate Student Colloquium is presently calling for applications. The colloquium is open to any doctoral student whose works touches on Barth's theology, and the meeting this year will focus on CD III/3. If you need further enticement to apply, you should note that Willie Jennings is this year's senior scholar and will deliver a paper during the colloquium. So, without any further excuses, follow the link to read more about the colloquium and apply.

Sacrifice and atonement in Origen

Yesterday at the ANZATS conference in Melbourne I gave a paper on sacrifice and atonement in Origen (focusing on Origen's Homilies on Leviticus). This was an attempt to develop some of the ideas sketched out in my earlier paper on the patristic atonement model. It was a special pleasure to have O̶r̶i̶g̶e̶n̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ John Behr in the audience. At the same conference Behr gave an amazing paper discussing his new critical edition and translation of Origen's First Principles (forthcoming from OUP – it includes a 40,000 word introduction!). Anyway here's an excerpt from the end of my paper on sacrifice:

So to return to Gustaf Aulén’s alternatives: was Christ’s sacrifice the propitiation of an angry God, or was it a ransom offered to the devil? Is Origen’s model proto-Anselmian, or is it proto-Lutheran (i.e. christus victor)? Generations of theologians have addressed patristic authors with this kind of anachronistic and untheological question. Once the question is posed in those terms any answer will be false and uninteresting, because the alternatives are both wrong. Both options assume that sacrifice has a predominantly negative function: it averts the wrath, or satisfies the demands, of higher powers. It is an unfortunate solution to an otherwise insoluble cosmic dilemma. But for Origen sacrifice is a matter of joy. It is done for the sake of God’s delight. It is a festive offering in which the whole of humanity acts with one heart and one mind through the agency of one high priest, Jesus Christ. The logic of sacrifice is not fear but love.

I admit that this does not look very much like a theory of salvation. But that is my point. Sacrificial language in early Christian theology tends to serve other purposes. It is not primarily soteriological. It is used not so much to answer the question, “How does Jesus save?”, but a different question: “What does the proper response to God look like?” Origen’s Homilies on Leviticus give an answer: the response to God looks like joy, like a holiday, like the transformation of all things into one enormous festival offered up for the delight of God.

Call for papers: Barth, pneumatology, and Pentecostalism

The call for papers is out for this year's Karl Barth Conference in Princeton. The theme is "Karl Barth's Pneumatology and the Global Pentecostal Movement." 

As we've come to expect from the conferences run by the Center for Barth Studies, the lineup is very impressive:

• Daniela Augustine (Lee University)
• Christian T. Collins Winn (Bethel University)
• Terry Cross (Lee University)
• Jessica DeCou (Princeton Theological Seminary)
• John Flett (Pilgrim Theological College)
• Darrell Guder (Princeton Theological Seminary)
• Michael McClymond (Saint Louis University)
• Frank Macchia (Vanguard University of Southern California)
• Paul Nimmo (University of Aberdeen)
• Nimi Wariboko (Boston University)
• Michael Welker (Heidelberg University)

You can see the call for papers here: http://barth.ptsem.edu/event/2016-annual-karl-barth-conference

Pentecostals are writing some mighty fine theology these days, but can they save Barth from his allegedly underdeveloped pneumatology?

Announcing a new conference series: Theology Connect

This week a new conference series will be launched. It's called Theology Connect and it aims to support theological reflection in the southern hemisphere. The first one will be held in Sydney in July 2016, on the theme of Divine Revelation and Human Reason. I had a chat to the managing director, Chris Green, to find out about this new venture.

BM: Was there a particular inspiration for this new series of conferences? How did you come up with the idea?

CG: While I was lecturing in systematic theology at Wesley Institute I started gathering advice from local theological colleges in Sydney. Eventually, this led to us envisioning a cross between an antipodal version of the Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference and something more inclusive of biblical studies, like a southern hemispheric version of the Tyndale House study groups.

BM: How does it differ from other conferences?

CG: Theology Connect is about finding strategic locations in the southern hemisphere (or the “majority world”) and setting up conferences that move from the Bible to Christian theology. So while our first conference is set in Australia, we're also hoping to start some others in different parts of the world. Our plan for the Australian conference is to make it bi-annual, for it to be multi-denominational, and to bring in several international speakers each time. We want to keep a number of values in mind. First, our themes need to facilitate the participation of both biblical and theological scholars of different denominational backgrounds. So we like the more ecumenical themes, and want to stay away from divisive topics. Second, each conference needs to highlight keynote speakers that are of international quality alongside local voices at the same level. Third, our keynote speakers should be both academic as well as ministerial. Fourth, we want our keynotes to balance representation of traditional Reformed views alongside others with broader appeal.

BM: Who's it for?

CG: We're aiming primarily to serve scholars, students and interested ministers. In general, we want to see options increase for the professional development of theological scholars in Australia. We also want to see highly skilled students present alongside more seasoned scholars. For students, we are also going to offer a 700-level class after the conference, which will allow time spent at the conference to be translated into academic credit.

BM: The practice of Christian theology in Australia is very different from elsewhere in the world. The institutional settings are different. The ecumenical relationships are different. There are unique geographical challenges. Sometimes the theological questions need to be different too. What do you think are the main prospects for Christian theology in this part of the world?

CG: We don't have designs on changing the context in Australia, but we do want to challenge it in a couple of strategic ways. I agree that structural and geographical challenges shape some of the limitations theologians face here. For instance, conferences often focus on one particular international speaker who is brought in from the outside. That usually functions as a centerpiece for bringing in delegates. However, due to the significant expense incurred by international speakers, we tend to only choose the ones we already agree with. Many of our conferences in Australia tend to function more like ideological rallies. It’s a bit strange to me when we call these events “conferences,” since we don’t do much “conferring” with others at these kinds of events. I think the prospects for Australian theology are significant if we can develop a more internally interested environment. My own perspective on the theological scene in this part of the world is that Aussies are reluctant to read each other's work. Regardless of the motives for that tendency, I’d like these conferences to support a more mutually interested context.

BM: The topic of the first conference will be revelation and reason. Why was that theme chosen?

CG: We want to focus on something that will bring both biblical and theological scholars together, especially because we are holding the conference in Sydney and have a larger proportion of professionals there who are biblically trained. We also believe the “theological interpretation of Scripture” is a bit overdone right now. So we are focusing on reason and revelation in order to explore how to move from the Bible to theology, but with a bit more of a dogmatic aim. We want to explore how decisions concerning revelation and reason might have entailments for other aspects of theology too.

If you're interested in coming along next year, there's a call for papers up on the website. You can also keep in touch with them on Facebook.

Theology events in Manchester

Our summer research programme is kicking off here at Nazarene Theological College. If you are in the Manchester area, you might want to consider dropping by one of our research events:

13th of June: One Day Theology Conference 

Keynote: Paul Avis “Communion and Mission: an agenda for the church”

I’ll be presenting the first paper of the day, “Speaking of the Living God: The language of divine encounter”. In this paper I'll be featuring my first sketches of a Wesleyan doctrine of God. I’ll be strolling through passages of Dionysius, Aquinas, Wesley, Williams, Tanner and others to argue that theological language is underwritten by divine presence or encounter—even if experienced as absence—and is aimed at transformation.

Details of other papers are here.

13th of June: Book launches

In the afternoon we’ll be launching three books: 

• Sarah Whittle’s Covenant Renewal and the Consecration of the Gentiles in Romans
• My Dogmatic Aesthetics: A theology of beauty in dialogue with Robert W. Jenson
• And Purity: essays in bible and theology, edited by Andrew Brower-Latz and Arseny Ermakov

16th June: Manchester Wesley Research Centre annual lecture

This year’s lecturer is my retiring forerunner, David Rainey. He will be delivering a paper on John Wesley’s natural philosophy: “Beauty in Creation”.

Event details here.

17th June: MWRC Colloquium

Paper descriptions here. (Comes with a free lunch!)

Theology sessions at AAR

The scholars of the world are now descending on San Diego for the annual meeting of SBL and AAR. Here are some theology sessions that look notable to me. If you know of any other interesting sessions, feel free to leave the details in a comment.

M22-109
Pentecostal Theological Seminary
Theme: The Promise of Robert Jenson's Theology: Constructive Engagements
Saturday - 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire D
Featuring Daniela Augustine, Eugene Rogers, R. Kendall Soulen, and Steve Wright

A23-334
Wildcard Session
Theme: Mission in Comparative Perspective – Atheist, Mormon, and Inter-religious Views
Sunday - 5:00 PM-6:30 PM
Convention Center-9
Featuring Aaron Ghiloni, David Golding, Jesse Smith, Ferdinando Sardella, and Janice Rees

A24-110
Religion and the Social Sciences Section
Theme: Remembering Jean Bethke Elshtain (1941-2013)
Erik Owens, Boston College, Presiding
Monday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Convention Center-28D
Featuring Victor Anderson, Eric Gregory, R. Marie Griffith, David Novak, Daniel Philpott

A22-323
Eastern Orthodox Studies Group
Theme: Georges Florovsky and Changing Paradigms of Modern Orthodox Theology
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Hilton Bayfront-310A
Featuring Matthew Baker, George Hunsinger, Cyril O'Regan, Vera Shevzov, Brandon Gallaher, and Paul Gavrilyuk

M22-303
Bonaventurean Studies
Theme: The Disciplines of Wonder: Bonaventure and Theological Method
Saturday - 6:00 PM-8:00 PM
Marriott Marquis-Torrey Pines 1
Featuring Travis Ables, Holly Taylor Coolman, Andrew Davison, Peter Spotswood Dillard, Shannon McAlister, Kevin L. Hughes, Daniel Wade McClain

A23-311
Philosophy of Religion Section and Theology and Religious Reflection Section
Theme: What is "Theological" about Theology? A Conversation between Analytic and Continental Perspectives
Sunday - 5:00 PM-6:30 PM
Hilton Bayfront-Indigo E
Featuring Tamsin Jones, Sarah Coakley, Oliver Crisp, Kevin Hector, Andrea C. White

P22-106
Karl Barth Society of North America and Eberhard Jüngel Colloquium
Theme: Eberhard Jüngel at 80
Saturday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Convention Center-29D
Featuring Ingolf Dalferth, John Webster, George Hunsinger, Paul Hinlicky, R. David Nelson

 M23-200
Analytic Theology Lecture Series
Theme: Fourth Annual Analytic Theology Lecture
Sunday - 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Hilton Bayfront-Indigo B
Lecture by Oliver Crisp (*note to grad students: sessions includes free food and drink)

P21-315
North American Paul Tillich Society & Reinhold Niebuhr Society
Theme: A Review of Politics and Faith: Niebuhr and Tillich at Union Seminary in New York
Friday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Omni-Gaslamp 5

M22-301
Society for Pentecostal Studies
Theme: Pentecostal Readings of Biblical Texts
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Marriott Marquis-Laguna

A23-318
Eastern Orthodox Studies Group, Middle Eastern Christianity Group, and World Christianity Group
Theme: Middle Eastern Christians, Collective Memory, and the “Arab Spring”
Sunday - 5:00 PM-6:30 PM
Convention Center-29A

22-116
Augustine and Augustinianisms Group
Theme: Augustine on the Emotions
Saturday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Convention Center-23A

A23-310
Comparative Studies in Religion Section
Theme: Comparative Messianism: Messianism and the Political
Sunday - 5:00 PM-6:30 PM
Hilton Bayfront-502A
Featuring David Novak, A. Azfar Moin, Elaine H. Pagels, Francis X. Clooney, Kurt Anders Richardson

A24-212
Christian Systematic Theology Section
Theme: Human Ends: Deification, Transformation, and Human Freedom
Monday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
Convention Center-2

A25-105
Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture Group and Niebuhr Society
Theme: Kierkegaard, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Current Political Theology
Tuesday - 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Convention Center-24A

A25-111
Christian Systematic Theology Section
Theme: The Human: Body, Soul, and (Holy) Spirit
Oliver Crisp, Fuller Theological Seminary, Presiding
Tuesday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Convention Center-23A

A25-123
Platonism and Neoplatonism Group
Theme: Image and Idol in Neoplatonism and Christian Platonism
Tuesday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Hilton Bayfront-501B

Next week: Craig Keen in Sydney

Next week in Sydney we're having a symposium around the work of Craig Keen. Craig will be presenting some new material, and a line-up of scholars from Australia and abroad will be presenting on various aspects of his work. My paper will be an attempted defence of divine impassibility, titled "Did Jesus Change God? Incarnation and Divine Impassibility".

If you've never read any of Craig Keen's work, check out his two books, The Transgression of the Integrity of God and After Crucifixion.

If you'd like to join us, you've got till the end of the week to register.

Near and distant conferences and events

• Tomorrow night at Christ Church St Laurence in Sydney, I'll be giving a lecture on "George Herbert's God" following a service to mark the feast of Nicholas Ferrar
• Next week in Melbourne there'll be a colloquium with Sarah Coakley. I'll be giving a paper there on "Exegetical mysticism: scripture and the spiritual senses" (mainly on Origen).
• There's a call for papers for a theology panel at next year's Religion in California conference at Berkeley, with a focus on the California body
• Princeton has a conference coming up on the doctrine of creation in patristic tradition
• I'll be involved in next year's online Ecclesia and Ethics conference; they have a call for papers on the theme "Gospel Community and Virtual Existence"
• It looks like a good lineup for the second Los Angeles Theology Conference on the doctrine of the Trinity. Plus you get to be in California.
• Wheaton's theology conference next year is on the Spirit of God and renewal
• And some church events coming up in Australia: a big youth festival, Yurora NCYC, is coming soon to Sydney (I'll be giving some talks there too); and the Uniting Church has a women's conference coming up next year with Nadia Bolz-Weber of the aptly named House for All Sinners and Saints in Colorado.

If you'd like me to add a link to any other upcoming events, just leave the details in a comment.

AAR/SBL in Baltimore: a report in rhyme

Scholars
At SBL and AAR,
Scholars come from near and far
To drink together at the bar.

Papers
At AAR and SBL,
Everyone is smart as hell
(Their papers can be hell as well).

Sightseeing
All the scholars stop and stare
At Oliver Crisp and his facial hair.

Jobs
If you have a PhD
And like to be abused,
You can pay an extra fee
To go to interviews.

Books
Thousands of new books on display,
But which are worth reading? Who can say?

Publishers
They greet you with kind words and friendly looks.
But when your back is turned they pounce –
And force you to write books.

Length
Two things are exceedingly long
(I won't say exceedingly weird):
The first is a book by Nicholas Tom,
The second is Oliver's beard.

Panel
I went to the afternoon panel,
It sounded excellent too;
But I fled for my life when I heard someone mention
The names of Zizek and Badiou.

Friends
My friend had drunk too many drinks
At the Wipf & Stock reception.
He kissed my cheek and said, "I'm straight –
But for you I'd make an exception."

New book
When you see them buying and selling your book,
You suddenly feel exposed:
Like one of those dreams where you're preaching a sermon
But haven't put on any clothes.

Homesick
By Sunday I was feeling blue.
I missed the ones I left at home:
My dog, my cat –
By Tuesday I had missed my family too.

What do Barth, Paul, Wesley, and German Protestantism all have in common?

You guessed it: they each have an upcoming conference.

In May, the University of Geneva is hosting a conference on The Wisdom and Foolishness of God: Reconsidering 1 Corinthians 1-2.

In June, Princeton Seminary is hosting a conference on Karl Barth in Dialogue: Encounters with Major Figures.

In July, the Australasian Centre for Wesleyan Research is hosting a conference in Sydney on Holy Trinity – Holy People.

Also in July, there will be a conference in Heidelberg to mark the 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism: Our Only Comfort.

Any other interesting conferences on the horizon?

The cross and the lynching tree: an AAR panel set to verse

Tonight's AAR panel on James Cone's The Cross and the Lynching Tree was quite an experience. We heard from J. Kameron Carter, Christopher Morse, Nate Kerr, and James Cone. Here's an account of the panel, told in four poems:

Lynching Tree Blues (J. Kameron Carter)

Take him down (poor boy) from the tree,

Lay him down (sweet boy) next to me.

Papa gonna hold you now (don't cry),

Mama take your photograph (don't die).

Close your eyes, it's as easy as one-two-three,

And you'll wake up in the morning come judgment day.

Take him down (poor boy) from the tree.

Theological Malpractice (Christopher Morse)

Reinhold Niebuhr, 

fastidious theorist of original sin,

went by a lynching tree one day

and never said a thing. 

Songs of Jericho (Nate Kerr)

Gray sky, barbed wire, business is booming;

we cleared away the trees to build 

these excellent high walls (Satisfaction Guaranteed). 

Outside, investors study annual reports, count sums.

Inside, because there is nothing else to do,

the women join hands, singing.

Crosses Too (James H. Cone)

By the cross I suffered,

by the cross I persevered:

there's a riddle for you.

If God was with Jesus

then God must be with us, 

for we are up on crosses too.

AAR in Chicago

I'm on my way to Chicago for AAR and SBL. I'll be chairing a panel on Saturday morning: M17-105 Sarah Coakley and the Future of Systematic Theology (Saturday, 9.00am-12.00pm), with papers by Eugene Rogers, Serene Jones, Nate Kerr, and responses by Sarah Coakley.

Three of my doctoral students will be presenting too: Janice Rees and Steve Wright are both giving papers (one on gender, the other on evangelism) in M16-205 The Salvation Army and Intersections of Contemporary Theology (Friday - 1:45 PM-4:45 PM); and Matthew Wilcoxen is giving a paper on Augustine and Nabokov in A17-312 Augustine's Confessions and Its Afterlives (Saturday, 4.00-6.30pm).

As usual there are loads of interesting panels at both AAR and SBL. Some that I'm particularly interested in are:

• A17-223 The Philosophy of Evagrius (Saturday, 1.00-3.30pm), with Kevin Corrgian, Sara Ahbel-Rappe, Robin Darling Young, and Joel Kalvesmaki
• S18-145 Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts (Sunday, 9-11.30am), on the theme of "Exegesis in the Context of Asceticism and Culture"
• M17-403 Explorations in Theology and Apocalyptic (Saturday, 6.30pm-9.00pm), on the theme "James Cone's The Cross and the Lynching Tree, with Nancy J. Duff, Nate Kerr, Christopher Morse, J. Kameron Carter, and James H. Cone.
• M18-407 Diagonal Advance: Discussing Christian Perfection with Anthony D. Baker (Sunday, 7-9pm), with Dan McClain, Frederick Bauerschmidt, D. Stephen Long, Sarah Coakley, and Anthony D. Baker
• A19-104 The Authority of Doctrine: In Dialogue with Khaled Anatolios (Monday, 9.00am-11.30 am), with George Hunsinger, Francesca Murphy, Bruce Marshall, Matthew Levering, and Khaled Anatolios
• S17-341 Interpreting the Psalms Theologically (Saturday, 4-6.30pm), with Ellen Davis, Matthew W. Bates, Patrick Henry Reardon, Andrew M. Selby, Ellen T. Charry, and William Brown
• P16-210 Karl Barth Society of North America (Friday, 3.15pm-6.15pm), with Katherine Sonderegger and Paul Dafydd Jones
• A19-202 Teaching Bonhoeffer in Undergraduate Settings (Monday, 1-3pm), chaired by Joel Lawrence.

If you're going, I hope to see you there!

Theology events: Sydney and LA

For everyone in the Sydney area, there's a new website for theology events in Sydney – a great way of keeping up to date on conferences, public lectures, and seminars in this part of the world.

There's also a call for papers for the first annual Los Angeles Theology Conference, on the theme "Christology Ancient and Modern".

I'll be back in LA for a month in November/December this year too, following AAR in Chicago. I'll be speaking at a church in Long Beach on the first Sunday of Advent – and if any other churches in the area would like a sermon or two, or some help with Sunday worship, I'm your man!

The wisdom and foolishness of the cross: a conference on 1 Cor 1-2

It's a good year for conferences on the theology of St Paul. There was the recent Princeton conference on Romans, and next month is the St Andrews conference on Galatians. Now Christophe Chalamet of the University of Geneva has announced a conference on 1 Corinthians: "The Wisdom and Foolishness of the Cross: Reconsidering 1 Corinthians 1-2." The conference will take place in Geneva on 23-25 May 2013.

So far, speakers include Heinrich Assel, Günter Bader, John Behr, John Caputo, Kathryn Tanner, Marc Vial, and Matthias Wüthrich.

If you're interested in presenting something, you should send a one-page CV with a half-page abstract of your paper to Christophe Chalamet by 1 October. Accepted presenters will have free room and board in Geneva.

Princeton Romans conference: audio and video

Last week's Princeton conference on Romans 5-8 was terrific. The whole conference had an ethos of serious exegetical, theological, and pastoral reflection on Romans, and there was a remarkable degree of resonance between the various papers, thanks to the careful and ingenious (though self-effacing) orchestrations of Beverly Gaventa, whose Christian warmth and love for St Paul were the real animating pneuma of the whole event.

Happily, all the plenary papers are available in audio and video. Though the whole conference was excellent, if I was to pick one highlight it would have to be John Barclay's paper on Paul's theology of 'the Christ-gift'. (My own paper was on the Christ-Adam typology in Augustine's Confessions – when I revise it for publication, I'm thinking of calling it "A Tale of Two Gardens: Augustine's Confessions as a Narrative Commentary on Romans".)

If you don't do anything else, you really ought to watch the opening sermon by Luke Powery – the guy can really preach! When you hear good preaching like that, the gospel dawns on you as though for the first time. Listening to Luke Powery, I was stunned by the realisation that God loves me – as though I'd never heard of such a thing before!

Speaking of preachers, another highlight for me personally was getting to know the American preacher Fleming Rutledge – a grand and good human being. She has a new collection of sermons on the Old Testament, which I'm eager to read: And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament (Eerdmans 2011). She also has a lot of sermons online.

AAR in San Francisco: some theology panels

So I'm off tomorrow for the AAR meeting in San Francisco – I look forward to seeing some of you there. My own paper explores the problem of time and history in Walter Benjamin, Jacob Taubes and early Christian asceticism – it's part of the following panel:

Explorations in Theology and the Apocalyptic: Jacob Taubes and Christian Theology
Sunday - 6:30 pm-9:00 pm
Room: MM-Sierra C
Christopher Morse, Union Theological Seminary, presiding

• Sam V. Adams: The Apocalyptic Cosmic Imaginary: Time and Space in Taubes, Moltmann, and Barth
• Ben Myers: Jacob Taubes: Apocalyptic Time and the Retreat from History
• David Congdon: Eschatologizing Apocalyptic: A Reconsideration of the Messianic Event
• Virgil Bower: Embodied Eschatology: Jacob Taubes on Paul, Marx and Kierkegaard

Here are some other panels that look promising. I hope at least to get along to some of these! If you know about any other interesting panels, or if you're presenting something yourself, let us know in the comments:

Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group and Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements Group: Holy Spirit, Power, and Feminist Subjectivity in Pentecostalism
Monday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
Room: CC-3016
Sammy Alfaro, Grand Canyon University, presiding

• Janice Rees: Subject to Spirit: The Promise of Pentecostal Feminist Pneumatology and Its Witness to Systematics
• Saunia Powell: Pentecostal Articulations of Feminist Theory
• Lisa Stephenson: An Emerging Pentecostal–Feminist Theological Anthropology: North America and Beyond
• Pamela Holmes: Towards Useable Categories of “Women’s Experiences” and “Power”: A Canadian Pentecostal Feminist Considers the Work of Margaret Kamitsuka and Kwok Pui Lan

Mysticism Group: Screening of the Documentary An Encounter with Simone Weil by Julia Haslett 
Friday - 7:00 pm-9:00 pm

Room: MM-Sierra H

Eastern Orthodox Studies Group: Syriac Patristic Literature and Spirituality
Saturday - 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
Room: MM-Golden Gate C1
Paul Gavrilyuk, University of Saint Thomas, presiding

• Thomas Cattoi: A Garment of Metaphors? Incarnation as “Borrowed Speech” in the Poetry of Ephrem the Syrian
• David Belcher: The Veiled Mysteries in the Testamentum Domini
• Liza Anderson: The Interpretation of Dionysius the Areopagite in the Works of John of Dara
• Christopher Johnson: "Base, but Nevertheless Holy": Lessons in Liminality from Symeon of Emessa

Explorations in Theology and Apocalyptic Working Group
Friday - 1:30 pm-3:30 pm
Room: IC-Pacific Terrace 
This meeting of the Explorations in Theology and Apocalyptic working group will feature a paper presented by Peter Kline and Nathan Kerr, entitled "God." The presentation will be followed by a response from Phil Ziegler and open discussion.

Augustine and Augustinianisms Group: Lewis Ayres's Augustine and the Trinity and the History of Our Shifting Understandings of the Christian Trinity
Saturday - 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
Room: CC-3003
Paul R. Kolbet, Wellesley, MA, presiding

• Michel Rene Barnes, Marquette University
• John Slotemaker, Boston College
• Sarah Coakley, University of Cambridge
• Responding: Lewis Ayres, Durham University

Sarah Coakley's God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay On the Trinity
Saturday - 10:00 am-12:00 pm
Room: HI-Golden Gate 1
Therese Lysaught, Marquette University, presiding

• Alan Padgett, Luther Seminary
• Danielle Nussberger, Marquette University
• Responding: Sarah Coakley, Cambridge University

Explorations in Theology and the Apocalyptic: The Gospel of Mark
Saturday - 6:30 pm-9:00 pm
Room: PW-Sutro
Doug Harink, King’s University College, presiding

• Joel Marcus, Duke University
• Ched Myers, Bartemaeus Co-operative Ministries
• Craig Keen, Azusa Pacific University
• Laura C. Sweat, Seattle Pacific University

Augustine and Augustinianisms Group and Platonism and Neoplatonism Group: From Middle Platonism to Neoplatonism
Sunday - 1:00 pm-2:30 pm
Room: MM-Yerba Buena 10
Douglas Hedley, University of Cambridge, presiding

• John Dillon, Trinity College, Dublin
• John Kenney, Saint Michael's College
• John Bussanich, University of New Mexico
• Sara Rappe, University of Michigan

Karl Barth Society Of North America
Friday - 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
Room: CC-2011
George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary, Presiding

• Matthew Puffer: Revisiting Karth Barth's Ethics of War
• Jessica De Cou: “Serious” Questions about “True Words” in Culture: Against Dogmatics IV/3 as the Source for Barth's Theology of Culture

Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship: Thomas F. Torrance and the Problem of Universalism (Paul Molnar)
Friday - 1:00 pm-3:00 pm
Room: MM-Pacific H


Karl Barth Society Of North America
Book Panel Discussion: Paul D. Molnar, Thomas F. Torrance: Theologian of the Trinity
Saturday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
Room: CC-3005
George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary, presiding

• Gary Deddo, InterVarsity Press
• Ivor Davidson, University of St. Andrews
• Alan J. Torrance, University of St. Andrews
• Responding: Paul D. Molnar, St. John's University, New York

Augustine and Augustinianisms Group: Decentered Readings of Augustine
Tuesday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
Room: MM-Sierra K
Paul R. Kolbet, presiding

• Stephanie Frank: Using Theology to Undo Theology: Mauss's Subversion of Augustinian Moral Psychology in The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies
• Matthew Drever: Reassessing Augustine’s Anthropology in Light of Recent Scholarly Trends
• Jeffrey McCurry: De- and Re-centering Augustine: A Nietzschean Reading of Confessions beyond Platonism
• Sean Larsen: Augustine for Denaturalized Societies: Two Types of Decentered Augustinianisms

Christian Theological Research Fellowship: Peter Leithart's Defending Constantine   
Sunday - 1:00 pm-3:00 pm

Room: HI-Continental Ballroom 2
Joel Scandrett, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, presiding

• Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University
• Vigen Gurioian, University of Virginia
• Respondent: 
Peter Leithart, New Saint Andrews College

G. K. Chesterton and distributism

One more Sydney theology event that I neglected to mention: this coming weekend, Campion College will be holding a G. K. Chesterton conference, on the theme of Chesterton's economic theory. The Campion library also has a special research collection of Chesterton-related materials – and they have a Chesterton conference every year.

Theology events in Sydney

The University of Notre Dame in Sydney is advertising for a Professor of Theology: details here [pdf].

In other Sydney theology news, my new colleague Jeff Aernie arrives this week to begin teaching New Testament. And my friend Matt Tan (who blogs at The Divine Wedgie) has begun teaching theology at the Catholic liberal arts institution, Campion College.

There are some good events coming up in Sydney too. The Greek Orthodox seminary is hosting a series of Wednesday night seminars on the theology of Gregory of Nyssa [pdf]. In a public debate at the City Recital Hall, Scott Stephens and Peter Jensen will debate Jane Caro and Tamas Pataki on the theme Atheists Are Wrong. And my own college is holding a day-conference on climate change and the common good with Ernst Conradie and Clive Hamilton, followed by a conference on atheism.

Israeli writer Amos Oz was also in Sydney this month. He gave a very entertaining lecture at the Shalom Institute on the theme of fanaticism – you can hear it on ABC radio.

A little in the year, the Australian Bonhoeffer Conference will be exploring the theme: Practical Mysticism: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Conversation with Mary MacKillop.

Call for papers: faith and atheism in Australia

I'm involved in organising a conference on Questioning God: Faith and Atheism in Australia, to be held in Sydney this October. There's a call for papers, and we're especially interested in interdisciplinary perspectives on contemporary faith and atheism.