Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in most churches to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325. When I was in Oxford earlier this week, I heard about a two-day conference in Pusey House that I am now thinking of attending later this year.
‘Receiving Nicaea’ takes place in Pusey House on Wednesday and Thursday 12 and 13 November 2025. The conference will look at the Council of Nicaea as a key moment in the Christianisation of the Roman Empire and as a major crucible in the development of orthodox Christian doctrine.
This is a two-day conference will also consider the Council’s later reception in the history of the Church and the continuing vitality of the council’s doctrinal formulae – both in theological academia and in the spiritual life of the Church – today. This will include considering how saying and praying the Creed shapes the life of the Church, forms the Christian’s experience of God, and also equips the Church to engage with the challenges of the current time.
The conference is also being held in memory of Betsy Livingstone (1929-2023), editor of The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church and Studia Patristica.
The conference includes a public lecture on Wednesday by the Revd Dr Mark Smith of Clare College, Cambridge: ‘Nicaea Then and Now: the Council after 1700 years’, and a performance of the Symbolum Nicenum (Credo) from Bach's Mass in B Minor BWV 232.
The conference begins on Wednesday 12 November at 2 pm, and the speakers on the first day include:
Professor Johannes Zachhuber, Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, Trinity College, Oxford, ‘Nicaea between tradition and innovation’
Dr Brendan Wolfe, St Andrews, the Principal Editor of the St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, ‘The Other Side of the Hill: Revisiting Arianism’
The Revd Dr Mark Smith, Dean of Clare College, Cambridge, and Director of Studies in Theology, ‘Nicaea Then and Now: the Council after 1700 years’, a public lecture in memory of Elizabeth Livingstone.
The day concludes with Evensong at 5:30 and a performance of JS Bach’s Credo from the Mass in B Minor at 6:15, followed by a reception in the library and dinner in the Hood Room.
The second day (Thursday 13 November) begins with Morning Prayer and Mass before breakfast.
The speakers on the second day include:
The Revd Dr Joseph Hamilton, Rector of Domus Australia, Rome, ‘The West Responds; Phoebadius and the Rehabilitation of Tertullian’
Professor Mark Edwards, Professor of Early Christian Studies, Christ Church, Oxford, ‘After Nicaea: the Councils of Antioch and Sardica’
The Revd Professor Andrew Louth, University of Durham, ‘Some Neglected Canons of Nicaea I (canons 15, 16, 20)’
Dr Sara Parvis, Senior Lecturer in Patristics, University of Edinburgh, ‘Women and the Reception of Nicaea from 325-381’
The Revd Professor Khaled Anatolios, University of Notre Dame, ‘Revisiting Being as Communion: Ontology and Existential Christology in Athanasius’s Nicene Theology’
Dr Brendan Harris, Departmental Lecturer in Early Christianity at the University of Oxford and Tutor in Theology at Oriel College and Christ Church, ‘The pro-Nicene Grammar of Deification’
The Revd Canon Professor Morwenna Ludlow, Professor of Christian History and Theology, University of Exeter, and Canon Theologian, Exeter Cathedral, ‘What was a Creed for and what does it do now? Thinking about the Nicene Creed from a seat in the pew today’
Archbishop Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, ‘Nicaea and the Theology of Power: a Twentieth Century Debate’
Each session includes an opportunity for Questions and Answers, and the conference concludes with Evensong at 5:30.
More information about Receiving Nicaea is available here.
Tickets (£55/£15 students, etc.) are available here.
No comments:
Post a Comment