Faith, Law, and the Common Good: Reflections on the 2026 Political Theologies Conference

The McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life was delighted to be among the sponsors of last month’s sixth Political Theologies conference, held at Jesus College, Cambridge. 

55 delegates gathered from 18 countries and a wide range of academic disciplines to explore the theme Political Theologies of Constitutions, the Rule of Law, and the Common Good. Papers addressed the entangled religious histories and  traditions of constitutionalism, and explored pressing questions emerging in contexts from Ukraine and Armenia to South Africa and  the USA. The conference was preceded by a graduate pre-conference and featured public lectures from Prof Wim Voermans (Leiden) and Prof Laura Field (Washington DC).

McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Samuel Tranter served as a member of the organising group, chairing a panel on contested theological interpretations of constitutionalism and the common good(s).

Alongside the McDonald Centre, the conference is generously supported by the Landecker Foundation, DAAD-Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies, Åbo Akademi University, Huffington Ecumenical Institute, Inez and the Julius Polin Institute for Theological Research.

Watch this space for details of 2027’s Political Theologies conference and a call for papers.