Call for Papers: 2025 Conference
Dear Practical Theologians,
It seems quite a while ago now that the Practical Theology Study Group met at the Tyndale Conference in July. Thank you to all who attended and presented the theme of a practical theology of sin. I left feeling encouraged and sharpened in my thinking, and was especially grateful for the sense of community in learning together.
Next year, the conference will again take place on 30th June – 2nd July 2025 at the Hayes Conference Centre, Derbyshire (The plan is to be back at High Leigh in 2026). Booking information will be available shortly on the Tyndale Fellowship Website. After some discussion at the conference, we have decided that ‘personhood’ would make for an interesting and stimulating set of papers. The full call for papers is below. Please be thinking if you have a paper idea you could contribute, and do distribute the call among your networks.
Conference theme: A Practical Theology of Personhood
In a world of deepening polarisation around gender/sexuality, heightening anxiety about Artificial Intelligence and the Climate Crisis, and government debates about assisted dying, conceptualisations of what it means to be human have never been more contested nor urgent. There is a huge and growing body of theological literature seeking to examine what it means to be a person in the contemporary world. Our study group are keen to explore what it means to ask this question as practical theologians, and what it means to answer it as evangelicals. This is a call for 20 minutes papers which seek to address these questions. Relevant topics might include:
The results of empirical work examining different interpretations of human personhood
Interdisciplinary perspectives on personhood
Examinations of the understanding of the human person within different contexts or traditions
Reflections on church or community practice in relation to theological anthropology
Revisiting your own research work through the lens of a theology of personhood
The impact of personhood on methods and models of evangelical practical theology
Scholars and doctoral students from across disciplines with an interest in these questions are invited to submit a 300 word abstract and a short biography to helen.collins@trinitycollegebristol.ac.uk and abi.maguire@moorlands.ac.uk by 20th December 2024.
God bless,
Abi