Trinity Term 2010
Seminars
on John Henry Newman
The writings of the Venerable John Henry Newman (1801–1890) span a range
of disciplines and together with his sermons and letters fill over seventy volumes.
Countless books and articles have been published about him. This means that the
specialist is well catered for, but that the ordinary person who knows little
about Newman is left bewildered about where to start.
In anticipation of his beatification in September 2010, three seminars
will take place at Grandpont House with a view to exploring different aspects
of Newman’s life and teaching. They are not primarily intended for the
specialist, but aim to make Newman more accessible to a general public.
Each seminar will comprise two talks, separated by a coffee break, the
first more theoretical, the second more practical, anecdotic or historical.
Some supplementary reading material will be provided during the morning, and
those interested in following up the topic will be able to find further reading
from this website.
Programme: 10 am First talk
11 am Coffee break
11.20 Second talk, followed by
discussion and questions
Saturday 22 May
Newman and the laity
Newman’s idea of the laity Mgr Richard
Stork
Newman’s pioneering thinking on the role of the laity in the Church
meant that he developed a ‘theology of the laity’ long before Vatican II. His
sermon on the priestly, prophetic and kingly roles of laity is one example of
how he brought out the role of the lay person.
[click here
for a write up of the talk]
Newman and the formation of the laity Dr Paul Shrimpton
How Newman lived out his ideas in his dealings with lay people can be
seen in his foundation of the Catholic University in 1854 and the Oratory
School in 1859, as well as in his advice to individuals
[click
here for a write up of the talk]
Saturday 19 June
Newman and human flourishing
‘Lead kindly light’: reason and faith Rev. Dr James Pereiro
Newman’s ideas of the perfectibility of human nature were accompanied by
a concept of ethos, indebted in good measure to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, which influenced his
vision of the relationship between reason and faith.
Newman’s pastoral idea of a university Dr Paul Shrimpton
The idea of human flourishing underpins Newman’s conception of
education, influencing his idea of the university in which the true object is
not instruction in a particular subject, but the development of a mature human
individual.
[click here for a
write up of the talk]
Saturday 17 July
Newman and conscience
Newman’s teaching on conscience Rev. Dr Peter Bristow
One of Newman’s main contributions to religious thought is his insights
into the workings and role of conscience, a theme which recurs throughout his
writings and letters. He famously invoked the primacy of conscience in his
Letter to the Duke of Norfolk.
Communicating Newman in the media Mr Jack Valero
Newman’s writings on conscience have ramifications for the ordinary
Christian living in the world, and especially those in public life, as can be
seen from the way they influenced such people as the young Joseph Ratzinger, as
well as Sophie Scholl and other members of the White Rose student movement
opposing Nazism in Germany.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Of one thing we may be sure, that the memory of this pure and noble
life, untouched by worldliness, will endure and that whether Rome canonizes him
or not he will be canonized in the thoughts of pious people of many creeds in
England. The saint in him will survive.”
(Obituary in The
Times, 12 August 1890)
“Newman belongs to the greatest teachers of the Church, because he both
touches our hearts and enlightens our thinking.”
(Cardinal Ratzinger,
Newman symposium, 1990)
John Henry Newman, one of Oxford University’s most famous alumni,
entered Trinity College as an undergraduate in 1817, and became a Fellow and Tutor
of Oriel College. Ordained as an Anglican clergyman in 1825, he became Vicar of
St Mary’s, the University Church, and there delivered the sermons that made a
deep impression on the rising generation in the University.
In the 1830s he became one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement and
arguably its leading apologist. (Also known as ‘Tractarians’ after their Tracts
for the Times, the Movement sought to reform the Established Church and defend
it against liberalism.) Newman moved to the parish of Littlemore in 1842, and
after resigning his Oriel fellowship was received into the Catholic Church in
1845. He left Oxford in 1846, returning on only two occasions: in 1878, when he
was made the first honorary Fellow of Trinity; and in 1880 as a cardinal.
About the speakers:
Fr Peter Bristow was chaplain of
Grandpont from 1975 to 1978. Now living in Manchester, he lectures at Maryvale
Institute and has served for ten years as chaplain to a London branch of the
Guild of Catholic Doctors. He has published The
moral dignity of man (2004) and Christian
ethics and the human person (2009), as well as various articles in journals
and websites (including one on ‘Newman and true Ecumenism’ for Christendom Awake).
Mr Jack Valero is a former resident
of Grandpont House. In 2006 he helped coordinate, with Austen Ivereigh, the Da
Vinci Code Response Group. He was recently appointed Press Officer by the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales for the Beatification of John
Henry Newman in the run-up to and during the Pope’s visit to Britain. He is
also acting as one of the three coordinators of Catholic Voices.
Fr James Pereiro is chaplain of
Grandpont House and a member of the History Faculty, Oxford University. Besides
academic articles on history and theology, he has published Cardinal Manning: an intellectual biography
(1998) and ‘Ethos’ and the Oxford
Movement (2008).
Dr Paul Shrimpton has taught at
Magdalen College School, Oxford for twenty-four years. He has published A Catholic Eton? Newman’s Oratory School
(2005) and is currently working on a book on Newman’s pastoral idea of a
university education.
Monsignor Richard Stork was Regional
Vicar of Opus Dei in Britain for fourteen years. He has completed a doctorate
on Newman and the laity, and has written many articles and book reviews in
theology, philosophy and history.
Hilary Term 2010
‘Ethical issues in my field: what light my Faith has
shed on them’
Sunday 28 February 2010 (Week 7)
Sherif Girgis (Merton)
How Christian is Aristotle’s conception of friendship?
Sunday 7 March 2010 (Week 8)
Joe Suttie (Merton)
End-of-life issues: the definition of death.
These papers will be given at 8.00pm and will appeal to a general rather than a specialist audience, inviting input and discussion.
More details from sherif.girgis@merton.ox.ac.uk
Christmas Vacation 2009
New Decade, One City, Two
Seminars
12th International Interdisciplinary
Seminar in Barcelona 1st to 6th January 2010.
These International
Interdisciplinary Seminars aim to bring together students from science,
philosophy, law and other disciplines, to study key issues of current interest.
1. Migration
What rights do migrants have?
Should their rights depend on why they have migrated, which may be for
economic, political or environmental reasons? Where is the balance between the
rights of the migrant and the rights of the indigenous population?
Spain has experienced significant levels of immigration from both Latin
America and North Africa, making Barcelona an ideal location to discuss the
topic of migration.
For further information and booking please contact:
Dermot Grenham (d.j.grenham@lse.ac.uk)
2.
Charles Darwin & Evolution
The 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species has re-opened the debate about how blind
forces and random chance can produce all the intricate varieties of life that
we see around us. The Creationists say that only God can produce such highly
complex and specialised living creatures. The Darwinists assert that from
processes within living things, random mutation and natural selection are quite
sufficient to explain the vast diversity of the biosphere. Can we reconcile
these two approaches?
For further information and booking please contact:
Mark Fox (Mark.Fox@sheffield.ac.uk)
Michaelmas Term 2009
This term we have invited
some of those who have lived at Grandpont over the past fifty years to speak on
their professional field or interest.
The talks will begin at 7.45pm and finish around 9.00pm.
21 October (Week 2)
Dermot Grenham, actuary and lecturer at London School of Economics
Demography and
migration
The impact of population has
been at the heart of the debate on economic and social development from at
least the times of Malthus at the end of the 18th century. It is not just the
size and rate of growth of the population that has caused concern but also
movements of population (migration). Dermot Grenham will give an overview of
the population and development debate with particular reference to the mutual
relationship between migration and development. He will also provide details of
the next Interdisciplinary Seminar, to be held in Barcelona in January 2010,
which is on the topic of migration.
28 October (Week 3)
Jack Valero, director, Opus Dei Press Office
Journalists are also human (are they?)
When the Da Vinci Code book
and film thrust Opus Dei onto the media spotlight, Opus Dei’s response was to
opt for total transparency, opening its doors and using the media interest to
explain to everyone who enquired, both journalists and members of the public,
what the organization did and why. As a result, the media gave it considerable
time and facilities, something quite unusual for a religious organization.
After its success, “Operation Lemonade”, as it came to be known, has since
become a textbook case in crisis communication which is studied in corporate
communications courses. Jack Valero will give an overview of the media campaign
both in Britain and worldwide, his role in it, and how this led him to see
journalists in a completely different light.
4 November (Week4)
Peter Bristow, priest and author of The Moral
Dignity of Man
Morality in the 21st Century
Are we well served today by a relativistic morality which derives from
the major ethical systems of the last 200 years? Any analysis highlights
limitations such as the lack of an adequate anthropology, and an inability to account
for moral obligation and moral absolutes.
Is there some connection between present day problems of family
breakdown and violent crime, and the uncertainty about the value of human life
and the secular morality which generations have learnt from university courses?
There is a pattern in the development of ethics during this period which
enables us to identify weaknesses in philosophies. These point to the
characteristics of a desirable a 21st century morality to correct the flaws in
post-Enlightenment ethics.
18 November (Week 6)
Peter Adams, computer consultant
Thinking about Evolution
In this year of several Darwinian anniversaries, I will look at Darwin's
original proposal in The Origin of
Species and present a brief overview of the arguments surrounding evolution
today. I will touch on related topics such as the notion of God, Big Bang
cosmology and a few ideas about design, as dealt with in some recent
publications.
25 November (Week 7)
Andrew Hegarty, researcher in the history of universities
The Purpose of a University Education: Some Historical
and Related Considerations
The university is arguably the second oldest of European institutions.
Ever greater proportions of age cohorts are spending significant parts of their
youth there. While it is possible, and indeed common, to take an a historical
approach to the purpose of such an investment, some appreciation of what the
institution has been at times in the past may help undergraduates to make more
of the privileged opportunity open to them.