New appointment

Liberal Arts and Christian theology. Congratulations and a warm welcome to Wren Radford who has been appointed Lecturer in Liberal Arts and who will work closely with Scott Midson on the Liberal Arts programme from Sept 2022. Wren's research specialism lies in innovative qualitative and collaborative approaches to practical theology, a programme of research developed in their role as the LTI postdoctoral fellow under Peter Scott. Among their major publications is Lived Experiences and Social Transformations: Poetics, Politics and Power Relations in Practical Theology (Brill, 2022). Wren is able to teach in a variety of disciplines and one immediate benefit for Religions & Theology is that we expect to be offering Wren's course RELT31131 Literature and Theology once again next year.

International Day of Parliamentarism

Parliament of the World's Religions. To celebrate International Day of Parliamentarism (30 June) see… John Zavos, "Dialogues on Religion and Violence at the Parliament of the World’s Religions” in Green N. (ed.) & Searle-Chatterjee M. (ed.) Religion Language and Power (New York: Routledge 2008), 27-41, and John Zavos, "Bin Laden is one of us! Representations of religious identity at the Parliament of the World's Religions” in Culture and Religion (2008) 9:1, 45-61.

Reading group, phenomenology

Kant's Critique of Judgement. Alex Samely reports on the new reading planned for the academic year 2022–23. "We decided after our last meeting that we would read Kant's Critique of Judgment in the next academic year. We are likely to restart our fortnightly Wednesday meetings in September, and we may use as our main English translation the relevant volume by Matthews and Guyer in the Cambridge Kant series (Critique of the Power of Judgment, CUP 2000). We will meet by zoom." Please get in touch with Alex (alex.samely@manchester.ac.uk) if you wish to join the group. Further information.

Conference papers, BIAJS

Jewish Studies. Research papers offered at the 2022 annual conference of the British and Irish Assocaition for Jewish Studies ("Unfolding Time: Texts - Practices - Politics") include: PhD student Sherry Ashworth, 'On Time and Reading the Book of Esther', CJS postdoctoral fellow Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz, '"A taste of the world to come": time and timelessness at Limmud conference', and CJS honorary research fellow Avishalom Westreich, 'The Civil Revolution of Jewish Family Law in Israel'. King's College London,  11-13 July 2022. Further information. 

Podcast, Sherman Community Lecture 2021

Jewish Studies. The 2021 Sherman Community Lecture by Prof George Brooke is now available to view online. The lecture is entitled "Questioning Qumran: Judaism and the Dead Sea Scrolls" and was first presented 9 Dec 2021. Watch on YouTube.

New publication

Christian Social Ethics. Wren Radford and Peter Scott have co-edited a special issue of the journal Crucible, on the theme of ‘Beveridge at 80: Welfare Revisited’. Wren Radford has also written one of the four articles for the issue. The editorial is free to access. Further information.

Conference paper, BAHS

Holocaust Studies. CJS honorary research fellow Ion Popa will present a paper at the British Association for Holocaust Studies' annual conference. The paper is entitled: "The Kingdom of Christ: The Churches' Totalitarianism and the Holocaust." University of Winchester, 19 July 2022. Further information.

Digital exhibition, Rylands Library

Hebrew and Jewish Studies. The new digital exhibition 'The Many Faces of the Rylands' Jewish Manuscripts' is now available to view. "This important collection of manuscripts is one of the best in the UK and contains many surprises. The collection includes beautiful manuscripts, including the gloriously illuminated Sephardi Rylands Haggadah. Other manuscripts look nondescript at first sight, torn scraps of parchment or badly damaged books, but contain precious evidence for Jewish life and thought in the far-flung Diaspora. This exhibition focusses on lesser-known items that illustrate the diversity of the collection and hidden details discovered by cataloguers. Never judge a book by its cover." Further information.

Blog entry, The Torah

Jewish Studies. CJS honorary research fellow, Michael Hilton, "Between Shavuot and Pentecost" (with John Barton) on TheTorah.com. "The Torah never associates Shavuot with any event in Israel’s history. Moshe Weinfeld (1925–2009) of Hebrew University argued that already in biblical times, it was associated with the revelation on Mount Sinai..." Further information.

Blog interview, Vox

Religion and Technology. Scott Midson has been interviewed by Vox Recode on the subject of sentient AI. "Let’s start with the big story that came out of Google a few weeks ago. How common is it that someone with religious views believes that AI or technology has a soul, or that it’s something more than just technology...?" Further information.

New position, AHRC research associate

Religion and environmentalism. Applications are invited for the post of Research Associate in Religion, Theology and Climate Change. This is part of an AHRC-funded project that will focus on Christianity in the UK to explore in detail the on-the-ground theological responses and changes generated by how this religious tradition is responding to the crisis of climate change. The duration of the position: 1 Oct 2022 - 30 Sept 2025. Salary: £33,309 per annum Closing date: 20 July 2022. Further information.

Funding, research leave

Biblical Studies. Congratulations to Andy Boakye, who has been awarded Supplementary Research Leave by the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures for semester two of the next academic year. He will be working on a commentary on Paul's Letter to the Ephesians for Zondervan's WORD Biblical themes series.

Fellow of the International Society for Religion and Science

Religion and Science. Congratulations to Daniel Langton who has been made a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion. This is based on Daniel's scholarly contributions to the area of Judaism and evolutionary theory. Further information.