CIDRA

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts (CIDRA) is hosting a series of seminars for postgraduate students at the University of Manchester on interdisciplinary in the arts and humanities.  Professor Graham Ward will be speaking on theology and the sciences on Tuesday, 7 October, 4-6 pm in Mansfield Cooper 2.04 along with James Thompson (SAHC Director of Research/Drama), Amelia Jones (Art History/Visual Studies), and Janet Wolff, the Director of CIDRA. Further details on future events will be available on the CIDRA website linked above.

Edinburgh Festival 2008

Listen to the Graham Ward, professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics at the University of Manchester, examine shifts in modern religious beliefs and behaviour at the Edinburgh International Festival 2008. Here's an excerpt from the festival brochure:

The Edinburgh International Festival was founded in 1947 in the aftermath of a devastating war, as an optimistic expression of what Europe could be. It owes its origins to an imperative to rebuild a sense of community in a continent which had torn itself apart; to restore hope to shattered lives through music, opera, drama, and dance... A festival is an expression of the creative ambition of the community it serves. It's also a place where the personal and collective challenges we face as a society can be explored; explored by artists working across and beyond the very boundaries which often seem so problematic.

Professor Ward's lecture, "The New Visibility of Religion," has been recorded into a three part series of Mp3 files for easy download and can be accessed by  visiting the festival website or clicking on the following links:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Political Theology II

Forthcoming publication with Polity Press, October 2008! Political Theology II: The Myth of the Closure of Any Political Theology by Carl Schmitt, translated and introduced by Michael Hoelzl and Graham Ward.

From the Back Cover

Political theology II is Carl Schmitt’s last book. Part polemic, part self-vindication for his involvement in the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), this is Schmitt’s most theological reflection on Christianity and its concept of sovereignty following the Second Vatican Council. At a time of increasing visibility of religion in public debates and a realization that Schmitt is the major and most controversial political theorist of the twentieth century, this last book sets a new agenda for political theology today. The crisis at the beginning of the twenty-first century  has led to an increased interest in the study of crises in an age of extremes – an age upon which Carl Schmitt left his indelible watermark. In Political Theology II, first published in 1970, a long journey comes to an end which began in 1923 with Political Theology. This translation makes available for the first time to the English speaking world Schmitt’s understanding of Political Theology and what it implies theologically and politically.

St. Thomas von Aquin Katholische Akademie in Berlin

The photo at left was taken at the St. Thomas Aquinas art exhibit at the Catholic Academy in Berlin. For further images please click here to view them in our gallery. The following provides further description of the exhibition:

Die Photos auf den letzten Seiten zeigen, was zu sehen war in den Wochen nach dem Allerheiligentag 2006 in der Kirche St. Thomas von Aquin in Berlin. Ein Altar, gleichsam aufgehoben vom Boden wie mit sphärischen Kräften, weiße, im Scheinwerferlicht leuchtend strahlende Baumwollfäden, die quer durch den Kirchraum wiesen, die einschlugen in Erde, heraustraten hinter den Säulen, um sich in den Spalten des Altarsteins zu fangen. Ein Spiel mit Symmetrie und dem Eindruck chaotischer Kräfte, die sich an dieser Symmetrie abzuarbeiten haben. Draußen vor der Tür: einige Figuren aus bloßer Erde, menschengroß liegen sie auf dem blanken Boden – die Köpfe zum Altar hingewendet, von dem sie durch eine dicke Kirchenmauer getrennt sind. Nebeneinander aufgereiht wie die Toten auf dem Friedhof hinter der Glasstür, die an schönen Tagen offen steht. Die Gemeinschaft der Lebenden und Toten, ein nicht vergangener Glaube der Christen, gewinnt hier einen Ausdruck – die menschliche Sehnsucht nach Gemeinschaft überschreitet die uns gewohnten Grenzen des Sozialen.

Click to read more ...

Religion and the Welfare State Lecture Series

Four Lectures under the auspices of the Centre for Jewish Studies, the Centre for Religion and Political Culture and the Manchester Reform Synagogue.

The basic question addressed in this series was whether, or to what extent, the secular state has rendered the traditional welfare activities of faith communities redundant, or whether the latter are all the more needed given the increasing (?) weaknesses of the welfare state.

Click here for a PDF poster. As well, the links below will download Mp3 files of the lectures.

Thursday 11 October 2007: Clive Lawton 

• “Judaism: Religion or Welfare State?” (mp3) chaired by Reuven Silverman; welcome by Alistair Ulph, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities.

Wednesday 24 October 2007: Graham Ward

• “Poverty and Piety: On the Loss of a Civic Virtue” (mp3) chaired by Max Elstein

Thursday 8 November 2007: Imtiaz Husain 

• “Religion and the Welfare State: a Muslim perspective”(mp3) chaired by David Berkley

Thursday 22 November 2007: Michael Hoelzl

• “Solidarity and Altruism: Who is Running the Extra Mile in a Secular State?” (mp3) chaired by Bernard Jackson 

All lectures commence at 6.00 p.m. in the Arts Lecture Theatre, Samuel Alexander Building, Oxford Road, and will be followed by discussion and a reception.

European Consortium for Political Research

Michael Hoelzl and Graham Ward will be talking at the European Consortium for Political Research, Pisa, Italy, 6-8th September, 2007