St Mary Magdalen School of Theology — St Mary Magdalen School of Theology

update

Contributors to The School of Theology have been busy. Fr Simon Cuff’s book Love in Action: Catholic Social Teaching for Every Church is out tomorrow.

Feb 27

Feb 27 George Herbert: Priest and Poet

Peter Groves

When the great Tractarian leader John Keble died in 1866, he was best known as a poet. His volume, The Christian Year, received something like ninety printings in his own lifetime. The obituary published in The Times of London tackles his reputation head on, and concludes that he should probably be thought of as England’s greatest priest poet. Among those who are dismissed as less deserving of the accolade, the writer lists ‘the poet of Bemerton’, one George Herbert (1593-1633).

Feb 20

Feb 20 Love Makes No Sense: An Invitation to Christian Theology

update

The St Mary Magdalen School of Theology’s first book—Love Makes No Sense: An Invitation to Christian Theology is now out with SCM Press.

Feb 13

Feb 13 St Valentine: Highly Dubious

Martin Henig

Saint Valentine is by tradition a third-century Roman saint and martyr whose cult was only established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496 amongst those “whose names are justly reverenced amongst men, but whose acts are known only to God”. He is included in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (460-544 CE), and the sparse information which may have some element of reliability seems to be no earlier than the fifth century. He would, in fact, seem to have been the conflation of two saints […]

Feb 6

Feb 6 Sacraments: Eucharist

Angus Ritchie

The sacraments, as Fr Ken Leech put it, are not “freak events” in a world which otherwise “runs on quite different rules.” They are a foretaste of God’s new creation, showing us what the world has been made for, and what it will ultimately be. The time of the Church’s sacramental life falls between that of Christ’s decisive victory over sin and death and the time in which the whole creation will enter into the fruits of that victory - when the powers of death are finally destroyed and he is “all in all” […]

Jan 30

Jan 30 Candlemas (or the Purification or the Presentation)

“Merry Christmas!” If you haven’t been using the last 39 days to say “Merry Christmas” to friends, family and the world outside every day, you’ve been missing a trick. Whilst the world outside celebrates Christmas from early Autumn until Boxing Day, the Church celebrates the Christmas season from Midnight Mass to Candlemas. […]

Jan 23

Jan 23 Sacraments: Baptism

When was the last time someone wished you Happy Birthday? It would be a fair bet that it was on your birthday. I’m sorry to tell you that if you’re baptised they almost certainly chose the wrong day. Not because your birth certificate is mistaken, or your parents had a strange sense of humour, but as baptised people your physical birth wasn’t your gateway to life, your baptism was. […]

Jan 16

Jan 16 A Christian Vocation: Chaplaincy in the Armed Forces

Barry Hammett

For centuries the basic unit of Church life has been the parish, and parochial ministry is still today the principal focus for the work of the clergy and committed lay people. But it has been widely recognized in recent times that there are areas of life that demand a more specialized form of outreach, and this in turn has led to the development of a wide range of so-called “sector ministries” of which Chaplaincy in the Armed Forces is one, albeit of greater antiquity than most. […]

Jan 9

Jan 9 A sermon for Epiphany

Now what? What’s next? Twigs and needles from the languishing tree are scattered on the carpet. Tinsel and wrapping paper lay crinkled and crushed in some corner somewhere. Tupperware, holding on to leftovers now somewhat less than appetizing. […]

Jan 2

Jan 2 Hymns and Carols: Five Songs

Jennifer Strawbridge

This Advent and Christmas season, the School of Theology has been celebrating the tradition of carolling that we now strongly associate with this season. But actually, the carol hasn’t always had an easy association with the celebration of Christmas. In the medieval period, carols were popular dance songs, especially for a sort of circle dance. […]

Dec 24

Dec 24 Hymns and Carols: In the Bleak Mid-winter

Richard Frith

I remember well a conversation I had about Christina Rossetti’s poem In the Bleak Mid-winterover twenty years ago. I was an earnest young Christian undergraduate reading English Literature. I had just “discovered” Rossetti, and was planning to write my dissertation on her poetry. Talking with another earnest young Christian undergraduate of my acquaintance, I described Rossetti as an important Victorian religious writer. “What did she write?” he asked. My first thought was to mention In the Bleak Mid-winter, probably her best-known work owing to its having been memorably set to music as a Christmas carol by Gustav Holst. But this was a mistake […]

Dec 19

Dec 19 Hymns and Carols: Of the Father’s Heart Begotten

Judith Brown

Singing together in the Christian community goes back to its origins, as the earliest disciples were immersed in the Jewish tradition of singing psalms. In Mark’s account of the Last Supper (Mark 14: 26) we read of Jesus and his friends singing a hymn before they went out to the Mount of Olives. The hymn-singing practice of the early church is suggested by the writer to the Ephesian Christians who exhorted them not to get drunk with wine, but to “be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs […]

Dec 12

Dec 12 Hymns and Carols: Adam Lay Ybounden

There’s a strange thing that happens during sermon preparation at Easter and Christmas. At Easter, preparing sermons about the death and resurrection of Christ, it becomes almost impossible not to dwell on the events we celebrate at Christmas. As we reflect on the Christ’s Passion, the babe lying in the manger springs to mind. […]

Dec 5

Dec 5 Hymns and Carols: O Come O Come Emmanuel

Advent is my favourite liturgical season, and I think this is because it expresses something of the Christian life that resonates with my experience of it. Of course it is true that we are resurrection people, and therefore Easter says something fundamentally true about us. Of course we are people of the incarnation, and therefore Christmas gives voice to that aspect of our identity. But we are also people in waiting, but it is a funny kind of waiting. […]

Nov 28

Nov 28 For children: Five Books

Clare Gardom

book review

If you are lucky, you were read to as a child. Some books will have sunk without trace in your memory, though a parent may tell you resentfully that you insisted on the same one every evening, and they can still remember all the words. Sometimes forgotten impressions surface years later: my non-sporty husband’s identification with the hero of The King who Couldn’t Kick’ or my own love of sleeper trains, which I trace back to T. S. Eliot’s Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat. […]

Nov 21

Nov 21 Should clergy learn New Testament Greek?

Sam Gibson

“To imagine a language is to imagine a form of life”. There are many excellent reasons for learning a language other than one’s own mother tongue. Doing so opens up horizons that would otherwise be closed. We are regularly reminded of the beneficial effects of language-learning for children, with all its concomitant social and intellectual advantages. […]

Nov 14

Nov 14 St Albert the Great: Patron Saint of Scientists

The Church has a patron saint of natural scientists, though I confess that I have never availed myself of his intercession. Albert—called Magnus (the Great) even during his lifetime—is now best known as Thomas Aquinas’s teacher and defender, but as the Church celebrates his feast on November 15th, we have an excellent excuse to learn a little more about his own life and work. […]

Nov 7

Nov 7 New Book -- Love in Action: Catholic Social Teaching for Every Church

update, book review

Catholic Social Teaching has been described as the Catholic Church’s best kept secret, the fruit of carefully applying the demands of the Gospel in ever-changing social and political contexts. […]

Oct 31

Oct 31 Death and Dying: Five Books