Conference Paper, Rome

Jewish-Christian relations. On 11 October 2023, HRF Ion Popa presented a paper at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, during the conference “New Documents from the Pontificate of Pope Pius XII and their Meaning for Jewish-Christian Relations” co-organized by, amongst others, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research. Title of presentation: “Shades and Shadows: Vatican Diplomacy and the Holocaust in Romania.” More details here.

Church Service

Christian theology. On 13 December, Peter Scott gave the homily at the Catholic Chaplaincy's Christmas Carol Service at the Church of the Holy Name on Oxford Road. Photo by Lev Eakins.

New Publication

Dead Sea Scrolls. George Brooke has coedited a theme issue of Dead Sea Discoveries entitled Materiality and Textuality in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Essays in Honour of Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar. He co-authored the Introduction, Dead Sea Discoveries 30/3 (2023): 179-187. Further information.

Teaching

Trip to Cathedral. The World Christianities students had a trip to Manchester Cathedral in December, where they met with Canon Missioner, Grace Thomas, to have a guided tour, and were joined by Dr Dominic Budhi-Thornton, who completed his PhD at the University of Manchester in 2022, on the subject of the public theology of Manchester Cathedral. Dom and Grace joined the students and course unit director Dr Eve Parker, to hold a seminar in the refectory where they discussed amongst other topics the cathedrals ministry on anti-racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and the ways in which Christianity is translated and lived out in the context of the UK as well as in other parts of the world.

New Publication

Jewish and Christian studies. HRF Ion Popa has published an article in a special issue of Revue D'Histoire de la Shoah dedicated to Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust: Ion Popa, “The Vatican and the Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism. The Impact of the Holy See’s anti-Communism on Jews and the Holocaust,” Revue d'Histoire de la Shoah, vol. 218, no. 2 (October 2023), pp. 271-298. More info (including the original English and the French translation of the article) here.

PhD Success

Biblical Studies. Hearty congratulations to Anna Budhi-Thornton who passed their PhD viva. The thesis is titled "Jesus the Model Man?: A Comparison of Ancient Masculinities and the Jesus of the Johannine Passion Narrative". Anna's supervisors were Peter Oakes and Holly Morse and the examiners were Todd Klutz and Chris Greenough. Find out more about Anna's work here.

New Publication

Science and religion. Michael Hoelzl has published “Time is up. Decision Making and the problem of time” in: Andrej Zwitter, Takuo Dome (eds.) Meta-Science Towards a Science of Meaning and Complex Solutions (Groningen: Groningen University Press, 2023) pp. 71-88. Further information.