LeRon Shults

Saving Desire

That is the tentative title of the book that will emerge out of the lectures and conversations at next week's conference in Oslo "Desire and Theology."

Here are links to recent newspaper comments on the upcoming event: Forsking and  Vårt Land

And here is the announcement and schedule.

Istanbul

Tomorrow I'm off to Istanbul, Turkey, for a conference with the European Research Council, related to a grant on "transforming religious pluralism."

I've only been to the airport before (on my way to Konya), so it will be nice to stay in and see downtown Istanbul. 

Professor in Religious Studies (application deadline 30 March)

Here are links to the position announcement here at the University of Agder:

EURAXESS link.

UiA link.

Please note the position is for a full professor, and we hope to add a colleague with expertise in a tradition other than Christianity, as well as an interest in comparative religious studies.

The deadline for applications is 30 March.

The details for the application process is on the websites.

Please forward this to anyone you know in the field who may be interested!

Desire and Theology Reminder

For those of you in Scandinavia, just a reminder that the Desire and Theology conference is coming up soon: 26-27 March.

You can read more about it and register here.

Yesterday we had a session in the Forum for Theology and Philosophy on a draft of my paper for the conference "Theology After Oedipus," and I'm more convinced than ever that we're dealing here with one of the most important issues for contemporary theology.

Book Discussion: "Seeking the Identity of Jesus"

I've not used the blog before to have a book review discussion but I thought I would give it a try on Beverly Gaventa and Richard Hays' new (edited) book: Seeking the Identity of Jesus (Eerdmans, 2009).  As you'll see from the Eerdmans site, it has a terrific list of contributors.

The book also gives me a chance to make some connections with our ongoing lecture series here in Kristiansand on the world's sacred texts.  In the case of my own religious tradition, how does the way we "hold on" to our sacred texts shape our own identity and our ability to relate compassionately to religious others?

Here are the points on which the contributors came to agree during their three-year interaction (as noted in the introduction).

1. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew.
2. The identity of Jesus is reliably attested and known in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
3. The entirety of the canonical witness is indispensable to a faithful rendering of the figure of Jesus.
4. In order to understand the identity of Jesus rightly, the church must constatly engage in in the practice of deep, sustained reading of these texts.
5. To come to grips with the identity of Jesus, we must know him as he is presented to us through the medium of narrative.
6. The trajectory begun with the the NT of interpreting Jesus' identity in and for the church has continued through Christian history.
7. Because Jesus remains a living presence, he can be encounterd in the community of his people,the body of Christ.
8. Jesus is a disturbing, destabilizing figure.
9. The identity of Jesus is something that must be learned through long-term discipline.

Some of these are not very shocking, while others appear quite contentious and contestable.  It would take too much space to summarize the essays themselves, but perhaps these nine points of convergence can open up the conversation.

It was not the purpose of these essays to ask how various understandings of the identity of Jesus shape the way Christians engage religious others, and some of the authors, especially those who were students of Lindbeck, might reject such a question outright.

Nevertheless, let's explore these questions.  What are the presuppositions about the holy texts of Christianity that lay behind these nine assertions?  How might accepting these assertions shape the way in which Christians interpret their own identity and the identity of religious others?

(Please indicate the number of the assertion in question if you comment)

The World's Holy Texts

This month begins a series on the world's holy texts, sponsored by the University of Agder, Stiftelsen Arkivet, the Parliament of World Religions and the Kristiansand Forum for Tros- og Livssynsamfunn.

Here is the Announcement (in Norwegian).

Under the scientific leadership of Årstein Justnes, this series presents experts from across Norway who will introduce the holy texts of several major traditions for a popular audience.

This is part of our broader work this year on the theme of compassion across religious boundaries.  The academic seminars (announcements to follow soon) will deal with the way in which persons and communities hold onto their holy texts (hermeneutically and psychologically) and how this shapes encounters with religious others.

"Desire and Theology" Announcement

On 26-27 March, Jan-Olav Henriksen and I will be hosting a conference on "Desire and Theology" in Oslo.

For a list of the speakers and summaries of the conference presentations, all of which will be in English: Download Programme Here.

For a summary in Norwegian, visit the MF website here. 

Cape Town

Later this week I'm heading off with Elizabeth to Cape Town, South Africa.  We're approaching the end of our 25th year of marriage and so decided to splurge a little and celebrate!

We're planning a safari (only shooting with cameras) and the usual fun Cape Town adventures.  Toward the end of our stay, I'll be participating in a conference on evolution and spirituality, then we'll round it off with a visit to the Blombos caves.

I'll try to get back to blogging in February.  Happy New Year everyone!

"Chrisendom" Review - Part 2

Chris Tilling just posted part 2 of his review of Christology and Science...thanks for the kind words, Chris ...and the illustrious honor!  ;)

Podcast Interview on "Homebrewed Christianity"

I just got notice from Tripp Fuller that he has posted a podcast of his interview with me on his blog Homebrewed Christianity. 

Because of the advent season, we discussed chapter 2 in my Christology and Science book, which treats the doctrine of the incarnation in dialogue with evolutionary biology and late modern philosophy.