The latest in the series of online short courses provided by the Scottish Episcopal Institute will take place throughout Advent, looking at Creation Theology.
The course, led by the Very Rev Stephen Holmes, Provost of St Ninian’s Cathedral, Perth and Associate Tutor at the Institute, is made up of four roughly thirty-minute video’s with questions for reflection or discussion. We will explore our theology of Creation.
Previewing the talks, Dr Holmes said: “We live in an environmental crisis. Although many Christians are responding to it in creative ways, there has recently been a neglect of the theology of creation in the Western Churches which has obscured a distinctively Christian response to the crisis. Taking their shape from the 1982 Scottish Liturgy these four sessions aim to outline the main elements of a faithful and orthodox Christian theology of creation which can speak to our contemporaries. The basic structure is taken from traditional Catholic theology, but this is filled out using the insights of poets and theologians such as Kathleen Raine, Maximos the Confessor, Elizabeth Theokritoff, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Gerard Manley Hopkins. That I have naturally turned to poets, Eastern Orthodox theologians, and an Islamic philosopher, to help outline an adequate theology of creation, and have found the contribution of Pope Francis helpful but limited, suggests that we in the Western Churches have work to do here. The lectures are just a start, an invitation to you to think and pray. I hope they will give a foundation for action, but also counter environmental despair for the earth is the Lord’s and the real heroes in this story are the angels and Mary, the Mother of God.”
Theology of Creation 1 – The Mountain behind the Mountain – 25 November
“Worship and praise belong to you, Father, in every place and at all times. All power is yours. You created the heavens and established the earth; you sustain in being all that is.”
Theology of Creation 2 – Creation through the Word – 2 December
“In Christ your Son our life and yours are brought together in a wonderful exchange. He made his home among us that we might for ever dwell in you… He is the Word existing beyond time, both source and final purpose, bringing to wholeness all that is made.”
Theology of Creation 3 – New Creation in the Spirit – 9 December
“Through your Holy Spirit you call us to new birth in a creation restored by love… Help us, who are baptised into the fellowship of Christ’s Body to live and work to your praise and glory; may we grow together in unity and love until at last, in your new creation, we enter into our heritage in the company of the Virgin Mary.”
Theology of Creation 4 – Creation perfected in praise – 16 December
“As children of your redeeming purpose we offer you our praise, with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven, singing the hymn of your unending glory: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.”
The course can be joined at the links above from 7pm on each Monday in Advent.
On the Holy Spirit within the Trinity (September 2024)
Each of the three talks is roughly thirty-minutes with questions for reflection or discussion. This series explores our theology of the Holy Spirit; studying pneumatology, which is the official theological term for talking of the Holy Spirit. Each can be joined below:
Biblical Paths (16 September 2024) – In the first session, we discover how the bible speaks of the Holy Spirit. We start with historically one of the oldest texts in the New Testament that brings together the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in Romans 8. Then we trace back through our bibles to a study of the story of Pentecost and the Spirit in the Gospels. We look especially at the relationship between Jesus and the Spirit. Finally, we look at the Spirit in creation as we find it in the Old Testament.
Images and Icons (23 September 2024) – In the second session we look at how the Spirit is portrayed in art and iconography and how that symbolises the Spirit’s relationship to the Father and the Son, most of these images are of the Trinity. We look at and analyse pictures from very early on in Christian history to pictures that are made today even some by AI. We examen images that are anthropomorphic (where the Holy Spirit is imagined as a human being) and those that are completely abstract, and ideas that lie between.
Doctrine and Ethics (30 September 2024) – In the third session we explore the pneumatology of St. Basil the Great from 4th century Cappadocia. He was part of a bitter dispute about the role of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity. His voice within that 4th century debate has determined the clause about the Holy Spirit in (what is known to us as) the Nicaean Creed and therefore influenced our thinking about the Spirit significantly. We also think together about what influence these ideas of the Spirit might have on our behaviour. What does all this mean for how we live our lives.
Presenter: Dr Anna-Claar Thomasson-Rosingh is Director of Studies at the Scottish Episcopal Institute.
St Thomas Aquinas on the intimacy of God (April-May 2024)
‘O Lord, thou hast searched me out and known me’: St Thomas Aquinas on the intimacy of God
Christians in former days sometimes seem to have believed only in a God who is far off, a distant and exalted ruler of the universe, and reading their theological works seems only to reinforce that. But a closer look reveals something different. In this series of talks, Dr Euan Grant leads us to see that for St Thomas Aquinas, one of the great theologians of the Latin middle ages, the God afar off is also the God at hand—that the highness of God is also the ground for a remarkable divine intimacy. St Thomas shows how God is intimately present to us at our creation and is always calling us to come ever closer, in the company and on the way of Jesus, who comes to be with us without leaving his Father’s side.
Each of the four talks lasts around 30 minutes, including an interview with the Presenter.
- An Introduction to St Thomas Aquinas
- St Thomas on God and Creation
- St Thomas on God, our end and our way
- St Thomas on Jesus, God with us
Presenter: Dr Euan Grant, Associate Lecturer and Gifford Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews. Dr Grant is a Member of the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Faith and Order Board and of the Scottish Episcopal Institute’s Board of Studies.
Death, bereavement and the making of a good funeral for Christians (Lent 2024)
In Lent 2024, the Rev Dr Jane Edwards, curate at St Baldred’s, North Berwick and St Adrian’s, Gullane, presented a series on Death, bereavement and the making of a good funeral for Christians:
‘Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ’. In Lent, more than any other season we are reminded of our own mortality. It is an appropriate time to refresh our thinking on death. This series looked at Christian hope at death, and reflected on the significance of the funeral ritual, engaging with findings from recent research on what makes a good Christian funeral.
Understanding current thinking on bereavement and how that mirrors Christian theological thinking on death can equip us to find hopeful ways through grief. This series explored aspects of grief theories that may help us navigate our way through this painful experience.
These subjects touch on tender parts of our lives. Please do look after yourself. If the talks bring emotions to the surface which you need help with please do seek support from a trusted person you know or a source of support such as the free confidential Breathing Space helpline 0800 83 85 87.
Presenter: Rev Dr Jane Edwards, a BACP Accredited Counsellor and Psychotherapist with 20 years experience, curate at St Baldred’s, North Berwick and St Adrian’s, Gullane and has recently completed a PhD on ‘What makes a good funeral’ with Durham University.
- What is Christian hope at death?
- Who is a Christian funeral for?
- What makes a good Christian funeral?
- How can Christians find a hopeful way through grief?
The Coming of the Christ (Advent 2023)
In Advent 2023, the Rev Canon Prof Michael Hull, Principal and Pantonian Professor of Divinity, Scottish Episcopal Institute presented a series on The Coming of the Christ.
As we observe Advent and Christmas in the twenty-first century, it is worth reviewing a first-century Christian take on the coming of the Christ by rereading some of Christianity’s oldest texts, particularly the Gospels. If we lament Christianity’s waning in a post-Christian age, it is worth asking what Christians projected in a pre-Christian age. What did our forebears in the faith think about the coming of the Christ before the disciples were called ‘Christians’ (Acts 11.26)?
This Series considers this question in three parts. First, what Jesus means when he says that he has come down to earth from heaven (Jn 6.38). On the one hand, the coming of the Christ had been anticipated in Judaism for centuries; on the other hand, the first Christians had to interpret the Old Testament to read the signs of their times. Second, Jesus tells us he came to save the world (Jn 3.17). The coming of the Christ, in what St Paul calls ‘the fullness of time’ (Gal. 4.4–7), inaugurates a series of events yet unfinished until the Christ comes again ‘that God may be all in all’ (1 Cor. 15.28). Third, Simeon prophesies bewilderingly about the Christ child. Whilst Simeon rejoices in the salvation wrought in the Christ, who is ‘revelation for the Gentiles’ and ‘glory for Israel’, he discloses that the baby Jesus is ‘a sign of contradiction’ (Lk. 2.25–36).
- The Christ: God come down to earth
- The Christ: God come to save us
- The Christ: A sign of contradiction
Teach Us to Pray: A Close Reading of the Lord’s Prayer
In Lent 2023, Dr Hull presented a series of six talks entitled ‘Teach Us to Pray: A Close Reading of the Lord’s Prayer’.
The talks are a detailed reading of the ancient texts of the Lord’s Prayer. Given that pious Christians recite the Lord’s Prayer daily, if not thrice daily, and the Lord’s Prayer is given to us by the Lord Jesus himself at the direct request of his disciples (Matthew 6.9–13 and Luke 11.2–4; cf. Didache 8.2), it is worthwhile to read the Lord’s Prayer closely and deliberately to unpack the ways in which it glorifies God and petitions for humanity’s spiritual and physical needs.
Each of the talks is about 30 minutes and may be found here:
- Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
- Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
- Give us today day our daily bread.
- Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
- Do not bring us to the time of trial, but deliver us from evil.
- For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Anglican Identity
In Advent 2022, Dr Hull offered a series of four talks around the question What does it mean to be an ‘Anglican’ Christian?
The talks are an overview of Anglican/Episcopal identity organised around the Chicago–Lambeth Quadrilateral to look at four staples Anglicans have classically identified as the bases of their doctrine and practice.
Each of the talks is about 30 minutes and may be found here:
- Holy Scripture: ‘all things necessary to salvation’ and the rule of faith. Download the handout.
- The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds: symbols and statements of faith.
- The Dominical Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
- The historic Episcopate: a universal and locally adopted means of unity.
Episcopalians and Their Ethics
In Lent 2022, Dr Hull offered a series of six talks entitled ‘Episcopalians and Their Ethics’.
The talks are an overview of Christian Ethics from an Episcopal/Anglican perspective with the aim to develop a well-informed understanding of Christian deliberation on behaviour and the ways in which Anglicanism informs and shapes the morality of individuals and communities.
Each of the talks is about 30 minutes and may be found here:
- What is Christian ethics?
- Why should I choose good over evil?
- How do I tell good from evil?
- What is conscience?
- Why follow conscience?
- Where do I go with Christian ethics?
Reading the Bible like an Episcopalian
In Advent 2021, Dr Hull offered a series of four talks entitled ‘Reading the Bible like an Episcopalian’.
Because we Episcopalians, like all Christians, read the Bible from our own perspective and within our own denomination, it is worth probing our own predilections. It is worth asking, in other words, what characterises an Episcopalian approach to the Bible over time, say, from the Reformation until today.
Each of the talks is about an hour and may be found here:
