The day symposium will address the theme of peace in the Augustinian tradition and its potential employment for the sake of intra-Christian dialogue, before the project's more official launch at the Oxford Patristics Conference (5-9 August 2024). In Augustine’s account of the two cities (notably: ciu. 14.28, 19.16), peace is a central theme which can help us reflect on finding or restoring unity within the Church without losing distinctions and convictions. This symposium will, therefore, focus on the question of the Church’s peace as foundational and definitive for conceptualising civic peace within the shared and contested space of the saeculum.
We invite papers from direct exegesis of Augustine, historical interrogations into Augustinian influence and theologies, systematic reflections on peace and the Church, as well as papers in Ethics that retrieve and critique Augustine’s vision of peace. We also encourage particular focus on how eternal and civic peace interlock in Augustine's vision of the two cities and on contemporary receptions and critiques of this doctrine in different Christian traditions.
The symposium is hosted by the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford and the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life.
To submit a paper and/or confirm your attendance, please send your abstract or intent to attend to david.bennett@theology.ox.ac.uk and mehmet.ciftci@theology.ox.ac.uk for consideration by Friday March 1st, 2024. Numbers are limited.
