Common Places

In this address from our 2024 Davenant UK Convivium on "Renewing British Political Theology", Daniel Caballero (Ph.D candidate, Queen's University Belfast) delivers an overview of John Owen's understudied political theology and considers its relevance for today.

In this address from our 2024 Davenant UK Convivium on "Renewing British Political Theology", Dr. Graham Shearer, Lecturer in Theology at Union Theological College Belfast, draws on Augustine's famous distinction between things and signs to deliver as a diagnostic tool for the ills of modern British politics.

A lecture given at the 2024 UK Convivium by Oliver O'Donovan entitled "The Children of This Age and the Children of Light: A Biblical Apologia for Political Theology and a Critique of Its Traditional Defenders" In the keynote address of the 2024 Davenant UK Convivium on "Renewing British Political Theology", Prof. Oliver O'Donovan delivers an exposition of the Parable of the Dishonest Manager from Luke 16 in defense of the practice of political theology.

A lecture with Q&A given by Davenant Residential Teaching Fellow, Dr. Joseph Minich, entitled "C.S. Lewis as Historian of Religion." C.S. Lewis wore many hats: children’s author, Christian apologist, literary scholar. But can he be read as a theorist of the history of religion? And can reconstructing his theoretical history speak into contemporary controversies about the doctrine of God? By putting Lewis in conversation with some of his major influences (e.g. Owen Barfield) and by reading his fiction (Narnia, The Ransom Trilogy, Till We Have Faces) in conversation with several didactic works (especially Miracles), this lecture argues that we can in fact infer an implicit “history of religion” in Lewis that reconstructs religious knowing from the time of Adam, to the Ancient Near East, to the dawn of philosophical thought. Lewis’ implicit narrative reconstruction is likewise an attempt to situate his own modern moment within that same history. And while Lewis was not unaware of the risks of the modern project, he also took its goods for granted, and anticipated their preservation into the future. This lecture, then, likewise covers Lewis’ anticipation concerning the possible future of religion. Moreover, one might read Lewis’ own intellectual project is an attempt to enact a certain possible future, to publicly gesture man (through the renewal of an atrophied imagination) toward the telos of Christ, who is the human destiny. Joseph Minich (Ph.D, The University of Texas at Dallas) is a Residential Teaching Fellow at The Davenant Institute in Landrum, South Carolina. He is the author of Enduring Divine Absence (Davenant Press, 2017) and Bulwarks of Unbelief (Lexham Press, 2023), the editor of several works with The Davenant Press, as well as the founding editor of Ad Fontes. He is also a host of The Pilgrim Faith Podcast.

A Davenant Hall Fellows Lecture with Q&A offered by Prof. Ryan Hurd with a response by Dr. David Haines. In recent years, there has been a welcome resurgence of interest in Thomas Aquinas among Protestants. Many have recovered his masterwork, the Summa Theologiae, as a go-to resource for dogmatic questions. Even where they disagree with it, it has once more become an indispensable tool for doing theology. However, when reading the Summa, students can quickly max out the resources helpful for introductory learners. Careful reading on their own often hits a wall which can be difficult to climb. Students may feel they have a basic grasp of some of Aquinas’s big ideas and way of working, but sense that there is much more to be unlocked. In this lecture, Ryan Hurd gives some more advanced tips for reading the Summa and understanding the greater logic of Aquinas’s thought. Anyone desiring to go to “the next level” in understanding Aquinas will benefit. David Haines then offers a response to Ryan’s lecture, before an open discussion and Q&A time.

A lecture given at the 2023 National Convivium entitled “Non-violent Resistance for Just War Theorists” by Darren Yau. Darren is Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University. His research interests lie at the intersection of political theory and Christian political theology. Prior to joining the Religion department, Darren received a B.A. in Philosophy and a certificate in Early Christian Studies from Wheaton College.

A lecture given at the 2023 National Convivium “Rooted and Obliged: Simone Weil’s Vision for the Post-Liberal West” by Nathan Johnson. Nathan is Assistant Dean of Academics, Head of Program, and Teaching Fellow at New College Franklin in Tennessee. He is also Provost of Davenant Hall and author for The Davenant Institute’s magazine, Ad Fontes Journal.

A keynote seminar given at the 2023 National Convivium entitled “Supererogation and Statecraft ” led by Dr. Eric Gregory. Dr. Gregory is Professor of Religion at Princeton University. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Religious Ethics and sits with the executive committee of the University Center for Human Values. He is also author of a number of books and articles which includes Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship. His keynote address draws from his work in Augustian studies for advancing the theme of this convivium, “Christ and the Nations: A Protestant Theology of Statecraft.”

A lecture given at the 2023 National Convivium entitled “Theological Reflections on the Coronation of Charles III” by Dr. Alastair Roberts. Alastair is a teaching fellow with The Davenant Institute as well as with the Theopolis Institute. He has a Ph.D. from Durham University in the UK. He is coauthor of Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture. His talk is a captivating explication of Scriptural themes and events on coronation with rich theological implications. The culmination of this talk on the royal office of Christ brought a capstone to the convivium theme, “Christ and the Nations: A Protestant Theology of Statecraft.”

A lecture given at the 2023 National Convivium entitled “The New England Dilemma: John Cotton, Increase Mather, and the Perils of Puritan Political Theology” by Flynn Evans. This talk was a break-out session on the theme of this convivium, “Christ and the Nations: A Protestant Theology of Statecraft.” University of Mississippi). Flynn is a graduate student in history at the University of Mississippi.