Festival of Research: Swansea University Theology Lecture Series

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This free-to-attend public lecture forms part of Swansea University’s third annual Festival of Research, which takes place from Wednesday, February 19 until Saturday, February 22.

Title: "Inter-faith Relations: Scriptural Reasoning" 

Speaker: Professor Mike Higton, Professor of Theology and Ministry at the University of Durham.

Date: Thursday 20 February

Time: 7pm

Venue: Taliesin Theatre at Swansea University

Admission: Free of charge, all welcome  

In this lecture, Professor Mike Higton looks at our richly diverse multi cultural, multi faith society.  He will argue that religion plays an important role in the lives of many people and develops a deeper understanding of one another's different beliefs and traditions to help eradicate fear and suspicion and promote a greater tolerance and respect for one another.  The more the barriers of ignorance are dismantled, the more harmonious and fulfilled our society will be.

In this talk, Professor Higton will ask why the needs and demands of religious communities can present a problem for public life.  He questions whether we can do better to see those needs and demands as non-negotiable, requiring management rather than exploration and discussion.

He will also discuss ‘Scriptural Reasoning’, the central practice developed and explored by the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme (CIP), for promoting rich argument together across religious and cultural divides. Scriptural Reasoning involves small groups of Jews, Christians and Muslims (and, increasingly, members of other faiths too) meeting to discuss extracts from their respective scriptures.  CIP is the main centre for Scriptural Reasoning in the UK, and has helped it spread to all over the UK – to academics, civic groups, local religious communities, schools, and prisons around the country.

Professor Higton said: “The participants don’t agree about the authority of the different texts in front of them; they don’t agree about how they should be read; they don’t agree about the implications of these texts for their lives – but it turns out to be possible to have deep and rich conversation and argument together over these texts. In the process, they learn more about each others’ traditions, more about their own, and more about the possibilities for shared life together.”  

Swansea University Senior Chaplain Reverend Nigel John set up the Theology Public Lecture Series in late 2002 and to date has arranged 81 lectures, welcoming some of the world's leading figures to Swansea University to talk on a wide range of issues.

Reverend John said: “The lectures demonstrate the contribution that the Chaplaincy and other faiths on campus have to intellectual life of the community and over the years have proved very popular and enjoy a great deal of support not just from the University but also from the public.”

Contact details:  For more information please contact the Reverend Nigel John, Senior Chaplain, Swansea University. Tel: 01792 205678 Ext. 4442 or email: n.john@swansea.ac.uk

For more information about Swansea University’s Festival of Research, contact Andrea Buck on 01792 606669, email: a.j.buck@swansea.ac.uk. 

For more on the latest research from Swansea University visit http://www.swansea.ac.uk/research/.