Common Places

A lecture with Q&A entitled "A Very Celtic Christmas: Incarnation and Christology in Celtic Christian Theology" by Dr. Matthew Hoskin.

Much is often made of the “closeness” of “Celtic” Christian spirituality to the rest of the created order and the “natural world”. At times, this approach is even presented as more “incarnational” than other forms of Christianity.

Yet sometimes one wonders what is specifically “Christian” about all this. Holy wells are well and good, but what about the incarnation of Christ Himself? Did Celtic Christian have much to say about this?

In this Fellows Lecture, Dr. Matthew Hoskin unpacks the the Celtic tradition’s theology of the incarnate Christ, from the foundational Trinitarian orthodoxy of St Patrick’s Confession and St Columba’s hymn "Altus Prosator" and its specific expressions in liturgy and poetry, closing with a consideration of John Scotus Eriugena. He demonstrates that the early medieval Irish, Welsh, and Scottish church had a perfectly orthodox Christian faith that expressed itself in its very own mode, and that this can still help us worship the incarnate God more fully today.

To learn more about Davenant Hall, and to register for Dr. Hoskin's upcoming course on Celtic Christianity, please visit: https://davenanthall.com/course/celtic-christianity/

What is the end of Protestant retrieval?

After some lively response to a recent Ad Fontes article, "The End of Protestant Retrieval", we brought together Wyatt Graham, John Ehrett, Michael Lynch, and Steven Wedgeworth to discuss what Protestant retrieval is and isn't.

"The End of Protestant Retrieval" by John Ehrett: https://adfontesjournal.com/web-exclu...

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Retrieval and Its Importance

05:22 The Purpose and Limitations of Theological Retrieval

10:01 Contextualizing Historical Theological Insights

15:16 Disagreements on Political and Social Retrieval

19:58 The Role of Prudence in Theological Application

24:48 Exploring the Nature of Protestant Tradition

29:47 Personal Reflections on Retrieval and Its Impact

32:16 The Value of Reading Old Texts

34:53 Prudence in Retrieval

39:57 Diverse Approaches to Retrieval

43:41 The Role of Published Works in Retrieval

52:35 End of Protestant Retrieval Intro

A lecture with Q&A given by Professor Ryan Hurd entitled "Introducing Lombard’s Sentences: The Nature and Method(s) of Scholastic Theology."

Professionalization is the word which best describes the advance from patristic to medieval theology (as the medievalist Philip Rosemann has claimed). But as a consequence, contemporary students stand hopeless until they have been inducted into scholastic theology, and they remain barred even from profitably reading the texts of scholastic theologians. Perhaps no more so has this been the case than for the very textbook of medieval theology itself: Peter Lombard’s Sententiae.

In this all-important text, which trained professional theologians for centuries, Lombard gifted all budding theologians sententiae patrum, the sentences of the Fathers. These were the patristic verdicts regarding various theological questions or contradictions. This bequeathed all future theologians with an initial and largely adequate set of truths about theology’s various subjects (such as God himself). Nonetheless, Lombard expected much from his students, and did not issue these sententiae in a straightforward manner. Rather, he marshals authorities and arranges them so that their apparent conflicts are evident. Forced through this gauntlet and constantly pulled in both directions (yes and no), the student theologian was thereby trained to harvest from these sayings the patristic judgments, and to cement their truths in the cathedral of Christian doctrine. The success of Lombard’s Sententiae is attested not only by the centuries it endured as the professional theologian’s training-ground, but also in generating its own eventual replacement: the great summae, especially those of Thomas Aquinas.

This lecture introduces Lombard’s Sententiae, considering the nature of its content (sententiae) and method (conflicting authorities), with special and further attention to other termini technici–the many and various medieval “theologisms” which students are required to know. The lecture aims to induct the student initially into the nature and method(s) of scholastic theology, and to begin training him to read its texts as a medieval bachelor would.

Ryan Hurd is a systematic theologian whose area of expertise is doctrine of God, specifically the Trinity. His primary training is in the high medieval and early modern scholastics as well as the 20th century ressourcement movement. He has written a number of articles and regularly does translations of early modern theology sources; but his primary project is writing a systematics of the Trinity.

Audio from The Davenant Institute's event "Beyond Rules and Roles: Scripture and the Sexes", held April 2024 at 3Crosses Church, CA. Lectures delivered by Dr. Alastair Roberts.

Audio from The Davenant Institute's event "Beyond Rules and Roles: Scripture and the Sexes", held April 2024 at 3Crosses Church, CA. Lectures delivered by Dr. Alastair Roberts.

Audio from The Davenant Institute's event "Beyond Rules and Roles: Scripture and the Sexes", held April 2024 at 3Crosses Church, CA. Lectures delivered by Dr. Alastair Roberts.

Audio from The Davenant Institute's event "Beyond Rules and Roles: Scripture and the Sexes", held April 2024 at 3Crosses Church, CA. Lectures delivered by Dr. Alastair Roberts.

Audio from The Davenant Institute's event "Beyond Rules and Roles: Scripture and the Sexes", held April 2024 at 3Crosses Church, CA. Lectures delivered by Dr. Alastair Roberts.

Audio from The Davenant Institute's event "Beyond Rules and Roles: Scripture and the Sexes", held April 2024 at 3Crosses Church, CA. Lectures delivered by Dr. Alastair Roberts.

Audio from The Davenant Institute's event "Beyond Rules and Roles: Scripture and the Sexes", held April 2024 at 3Crosses Church, CA. Lectures delivered by Dr. Alastair Roberts.