In February, the McDonald Centre helped sponsor a symposium co-convened by the Oxford Christian Ethics Research Seminar with the Patristics and Historical and Systematic Theology seminars, to discuss an important and innovative book by Matthew Elia, entitled The Problem of the Christian Master: Augustine in the Afterlife of Slavery. Introduced by Professor Luke Bretherton, Dr Elia gave a brief overview of the book, highlighting its key claims concerning the entanglement of Augustine’s signature concepts with the social imaginary of slavery, and reflecting more broadly on the task of Christian theology at the intersection of tradition and critique. Professor Carol Harrison (Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity) chaired the lively conversation that followed, and two Oxford doctoral students, Nathaniel Hodson (Christian Ethics) and Seung Heon (Hosea) Sheen (Patristics), offered thoughtful invited responses to the book. Leading up to the event McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Sam Tranter convened a reading group to work through the book. We hope this is the first of many such joint events, drawing researchers and students together to explore topics of shared academic enquiry and contemporary significance.
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