Research Seminars

There are currently eleven regular research seminars running in the Department, each focused on a different sub-field within Theology and Religion. Each seminar typically meets on a weekly basis, and sessions are attended by taught and research postgraduate students along with staff whose work is within this area. The format for these seminars varies, but most are centred on an extended presentation on recent research, given by an invited speaker, followed by questions and discussion. Research seminars are treated as an important part of postgraduate training and a key context for fostering academic scholarship, offering opportunities to learn about new developments in the field, engage in dialogue with guest speakers, and expand knowledge and skills through group discussion.

Current Seminar Series

• Old Testament Research Seminar
• Seminar for the Study of Judaism in Late Antiquity
• New Testament Research Seminar
• Patristics Research Seminar
• Ecclesiastical History Seminar
• Theology and Ethics Seminar
• Religion and Society Seminar
• Catholic Theology Research Seminar
• Anglican Studies Research Seminar
• Faith and Globalisation
• Spirituality, Theology & Health Seminar
• Café des Femmes
• The Forum on Forgiveness and Reconciliation
• Calendars and Festivals: Identity, Culture and Experience

Upcoming Seminars

The Forum on Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Distasteful Empathy and Impossible Forgiveness

13 November 2012 17:00 in SCR Dining Room, Hatfield College

In this seminar, Dr Cherry, a residentiary canon at Durham Cathedral, explores whether forgiveness is possible after shattering hurt. His starting point is that forgiveness is an enigma, and also an agony – yet an agony that heals. As he so eloquently puts it in his book Healing Agony, ‘real forgiveness … involves embracing only the chaos out there but also the agony within [and] does have the capacity to heal’ (pp. 179-80). He argues that an important part of becoming a forgiver is having ‘distasteful empathy’ – getting into the mind of the person who violated the victim. Dr Cherry wants us to ‘re-imagine’ forgiveness. He suggests a ‘diagrammatic map’ and a ‘three-phase venture’ that involve recovery and healing, a relationship with the perpetrator and a changed life because of the violation.

Contact anthony.bash@durham.ac.uk for more information

The Department has started a new interdisciplinary seminar stream entitled ‘The Forum on Forgiveness and Reconciliation’. This is in partnership with Hatfield College. The seminars are held jointly with the Department of Philosophy, the School of Government and International Affairs and the Durham Global Security Institute.