NOTE:  Topical Seminars may be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit.  If taken for graduate credit additional coursework will be required and, where enrolments allow, a separate graduate section may be offered. 

2008 TOPICAL SEMINARS
 

The shaping of Shakespeare's humanism
Mr Nigel Frith

Shakespeare’s style shows him to be heir to the idealism of medieval love poetry and the city-wise prosess of renaissance comedy and humanism. Similarly the religion in his plays shows first the easy-going world of medieval catholicism in his comedies and histories, and then the protestant contemplation of evil in his dark tragedies. This class will examine this progress and its culmination in his late romances. Each week some training will be given in the analysis of structure and metre. The texts will be chosen to suit the students’ tastes and plays being staged in Oxford. A tour will also be given of Oxford sites connected with Shakespeare and the Renaissance.

Reading List for The shaping of Shakespeare’s humanism (2008)

 

 

Imagination and intellect: the allegorical theology and rational religion of C. S. Lewis

Dr Meriel Patrick

           

C. S. Lewis remains one of the most popular religious thinkers and writers of the 20^th century. His work has received much praise – and much criticism. The purpose of this seminar is a close examination of a number of key strands of his theological works, both allegorical and apologetic. Themes that will be explored include: theodicy (the problem of suffering), heaven and hell, the miraculous, and the possibility of rational religion. We will also look at some responses to C. S. Lewis’s writings, and the works will be considered in the context of other philosophers and theologians writing on similar themes.

 

Reading List for Imagination and intellect: the allegorical theology and rational religion of C. S. Lewis (2008)

 

 

 

Philosophy of religion during the Enlightenment

Dr Meriel Patrick

The Enlightenment saw the rise and triumph of reason as the supreme power in many spheres. Focusing on the works of the British empiricists, this course examines the application of reason to matters of faith during this period, and in particular to the question of whether God’s existence can be proved. The relationship between faith and reason, Locke’s cosmological argument, Berkeley’s idealism, and Hume’s criticisms of the argument for design will all be considered. While our main interest will be in the primary texts themselves, we will also look at a selection of contemporary and modern responses.

 

Reading List for Philosophy of religion during the Enlightenment (2008)

 

 

Jane Austen and the rise of the woman novelist

Dr Emma Plaskitt

This course examines the enduringly popular novels of Jane Austen, looking at her novelistic technique and development, and her place among women writers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In addition to studying the major novels, we will look at Austen’s juvenilia and place each text in its literary and historical context. This will involve, for example, an examination of the eighteenth-century cult of sensibility when we discuss Sense and sensibility, the epistolary novel when we look at Lady Susan, and the contemporary vogue for gothic novels when we study Austen’s burlesque of the gothic genre, Northanger Abbey. Other themes that will be discussed include Austen’s treatment of class, economics, female friendship, courtship, and politics.

 

Reading List for Jane Austen and the rise of the woman novelist (2008)

 

 

Oxford fantasists
Dr Emma Plaskitt

This course examines seminal works of fantasy written by famous Oxford writers and alumni including Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Philip Pullman. These will include such famous texts as Alice’s adventures in Wonderland and Through the looking glass, The picture of Dorian Gray, The chronicles of Narnia, The hobbit, The lord of the rings, and Northern lights. To place our readings in context, we also explore selected source materials used by these writers and examine their differing, and even controversial views on fairy tales and fantasy.

 

Reading List for Oxford fantasists (2008)

 

 
The Bible and the environment

Revd Margot Hodson and Dr Martin Hodson

The environment has become an important and controversial issue, and there is increasing debate among Christians as to how to respond. This course will examine the biblical relationships between God, humanity, and the rest of nature. Are we responsible for the environment? How do we balance this against human needs? How should we engage with climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification? How has the church historically responded to environmental concerns? Taking the examples of the United Kingdom and the United States, we will examine how politics and the Christian faith interact over this issue. We will consider the relationship between theological and ethical starting points and practical responses at individual, local, national, and international levels. The course is team taught by a theologian and a scientist.

Reading List for the Bible and the environment (2008)

 

Reformations in England: change in politics, religion, and society
Canon Dr Vincent Strudwick

The Reformations in the 16th century are among the most fascinating stories of political, theological and social change. Europe had Luther, Zwingli and Calvin, but the course of change in England followed its own path. While influenced by what was going on elsewhere, the English Reformation raised its own issues about Church and State, personal and national identity, the place of law and reason in theological discernment, public worship as a 'formation' process, and the nature of ‘making church’.  ‘The long Reformation’ from the reign of Henry VIII to the death of Elizabeth I provides a patchwork of people and events that affected not only the future culture of England, but also that of America.  We shall study this in Oxford, a city that was at the heart of these changes, where we can visit colleges, churches and monuments that still tell the story.

Reading List for Reformations in England: change in politics, religion, and society (2008)

 

 

The Oxford Movement
Revd Dr Peter Groves

 

Oxford in the nineteenth century was the centre of a Christian movement which revolutionised the English church. Political and religious reform immediately before the Victorian era provoked a series of debates and controversies in which seemingly obscure theological arguments eventually resulted in clergy being imprisoned for such heinous crimes as using candles. “The Oxford Movement” sought to challenge received notions of English Christian identity and practice. This seminar will examine those challenges and debates, through the work of major figures such as John Henry Newman, Edward Pusey and John Keble, and through some of the social and intellectual battles which were at the heart of Victorian Christianity: its reaction to the rapidly changing English landscape and city; the constitutional questions concerning the place of the church in modern Britain; and the perceived threat to traditional Christianity from history and science alike.

Reading List for The Oxford Movement (2008)

 

 

 

NB:  Topical Seminars may be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit.  If taken for graduate credit additional coursework will be required and, where enrolments allow, a separate graduate section may be offered.