Best remembered today alongside John Henry Newman as a leader of the Tractarian Movement, this conference will evaluate Dr Pusey’s wider contribution to the intellectual life of the University and the Church. We will consider his role as Regius Professor of Hebrew (1828-1882), his Biblical commentaries, and his expertise as a Semitic philologist. His engagement with both British and German Biblical criticism, and as theologian of Sacred Scripture, will also be treated. This will invite us to reassess the significance and contemporary relevance of Pusey’s work for twenty-first century Biblical Studies, Hermeneutics, and Theology. Papers will include: Joshua Bennett (Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford) on ‘Pusey and the German Critics’.Brian Douglas (Charles Sturt University) on ‘Pusey, Scripture and Epistemology’.Aaron Hornkohl (Girton College, Cambridge) on 'Foreign Influence on the Language of Jonah: Pusey and Modern Scholarship'.Toby Karlowicz (Diocese of Quincy) on 'Window to a distant land: Pusey's biblical scholarship as the source and framework of his theology'.Timothy Larsen (Wheaton College) on ‘Pusey’s The Minor Prophets and the Devotional Reading of Holy Scripture’.George Westhaver (Pusey House, Oxford) on ‘Typology and Transformation’. Tickets £20 full rate / £10 for students and the unwaged, are available HEREPlease email pusey.conference@stx.ox.ac.uk with any questions.This conference is part of a series of events celebrating the 140th anniversary of Pusey House, and its mission to the University of Oxford and the Church of England.Public LectureThe conference will be preceded by a public lecture by Prof Timothy Larsen at 4pm on the afternoon of Wednesday 13th November: ‘Pusey and the Tractarian Commitment to the Centrality of Scripture’.The Tractarians inaugurated a significant and enduring Catholic revival in the Church of England. Because Protestantism emphasises biblical authority, scholars of the Oxford Movement have often focused on other sources of authority to which the founders of the Catholic revival were committed such as the Church, tradition, and the early fathers. Such an approach, however, can create a false dichotomy. This lecture will uncover how deeply and tenaciously the Tractarians emphasised the authority and centrality of Holy Scripture, with a special emphasis on the life, work, and ministry of E. B. Pusey.
‘What is man that thou art mindful of him?’, the Psalmist asks. In July 2025, Pusey House will host the fourth in a series of theological conferences, Restoring the Image: Creation, Salvation, and the Human Person.Theologians from the Academy and the Church will meet to consider Christian theological anthropology – the doctrine of humankind’s creation and restoration in the image and likeness of God.The Church confesses that human beings are made in both the image and likeness of God. The restoration and perfection of this image in the human person and in the whole body of Christ is fundamental to God’s purposes for humankind and the whole cosmos. Our conference will consider how the creation and salvation of the human being is revealed and taught in both the Old and New Testaments, and the development of these doctrines by the Fathers of the Church. We will discuss how theologians through the ages related the divine image and likeness to the developing dogmas of both the Triune deity and of Christ as the Incarnate Word.We will further consider how the Church, as well reading both Jewish and Christian sources, also received ancient philosophical notions of human nature and personhood, and how these notions were developed to articulate a fuller Christian anthropology. Speakers will draw on both the riches of the catholic tradition and contemporary philosophical theology. All this will also enable us to consider current debates about the human person and community.The Conference will include opportunities to meet and socialise with theologians from both the Academy and the Church, to foster friendships across different parts of the Church, and to share in the liturgical life of the House. All conference delegates are warmly invited to join the Pusey House community in worshiping at the daily Offices and Holy Mass.We hope that the conference will serve not only the furnishing of our minds, but also the transforming of our lives and communities by the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit, that we may all grow together in the image and likeness of God. We welcome theological students, lay members of the Church, clergy, academic theologians, and all those interested in the subject.Speakers at Restoring the Image: Creation, Salvation and the Human Person will include:Gary A. Anderson, Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Thought, University of Notre Dame.Lewis Ayres, Professor of Catholic and Historical Theology, University of Durham, McDonald Agape Distinguished Chair in Early Christian Theology, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome.Joanna Collicutt, Karl Jaspers Lecturer in Psychology and Spirituality, Ripon College, Cuddesdon.David Curry, Rector of Christ Church, Windsor, Nova Scotia.Andrew Davison, Starbridge Professor of Theology and Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge and Regius Professor Designate of Divinity, University of Oxford.Paul Dominiak, Senior Tutor and Director of Studies in Bachelor of Theology for Ministry Exams, Jesus College, University of Cambridge.Mark Edwards, Professor of Early Christian Studies and Tutor in Theology, Christ Church, University of Oxford.Abigail Favale, Professor of the Practice, McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame.Jennifer Frey, Dean of the Honors College and Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Tulsa.Malcolm Guite, Life Fellow, Girton College, University of Cambridge.Joshua Hordern, Professor of Christian Ethics, University of Oxford.Andrew Louth, Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, Department of Theology and Religion, University of Durham.Pia Matthews, Senior Lecturer, St Mary’s University, Twickenham and Lecturer, Allen Hall Seminary, Chelsea .Grant MacAskill¸ Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis, University of Aberdeen.Simon Oliver, Van Mildert Professor of Divinity, University of Durham.Alexis Torrance, Archbishop Demetrios Associate Professor of Byzantine Theology, University of Notre Dame.Robin Ward, Principal, St Stephen’s House, Oxford.Thomas Joseph White, Rector Magnificus, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome.Rowan Williams, Honorary Fellow, Magdalene College, and Honorary Professor of Contemporary Christian Thought, University of Cambridge and sometime Archbishop of Canterbury.Judith Wolfe, Professor of Philosophical Theology, University of St Andrews.To express an interest in attending, please complete the "Expression of Interest" booking option at the link here and we will contact you once tickets go on sale.
