Oxford Scott Hahn conference
I am very happy to pass on from Stratford Caldecott information about this important conference:
Conference in Oxford on Pope Benedict XVI
A landmark theological conference with Dr Scott Hahn the popular American writer and biblical scholar, which also features Dominican theologian Aidan Nichols, leading Biblical scholar Michael Waldstein, and Adrian Walker the translator of the Pope’s book on Jesus Christ, will take place at the Catholic Chaplaincy of Oxford University opposite Christ Church College on Saturday 1 November 2008. It is organized by the Centre for Faith and Culture in Oxford, directed by Stratford Caldecott, and co-sponsored by the St Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Steubenville, Ohio.
The purpose of the conference is to focus attention on the principles underlying the Pope’s ongoing reform of the reform of Catholic liturgy. The relationship between SCRIPTURE AND LITURGY underpins the Pope’s teaching on both. The Pope reminds us that ‘The privileged place for reading and listening to the Word of God is in the liturgy.’ Furthermore, that liturgy is cosmic, for the love of the Trinity moves the stars. These principles are inspiring the new liturgical movement.
Dr Hahn is Professor of Theology and Scripture at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he has taught since 1990, and is the founder and director of the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology. In 2005, he was appointed as the Pope Benedict XVI Chair of Biblical Theology and Liturgical Proclamation at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The author of numerous books and articles, he speaks widely in the United States but only rarely in the UK.
The conference also provides a rare opportunity to hear Dr Michael Waldstein, who will have been attending this year’s Synod on Scripture in Rome as a peritus. Formerly the President of the International Theological Institute in Gaming, Austria, he is currently the Max Seckler Professor of Theology at Ave Maria University in Florida. Dr Adrian Walker, a member of the editorial board of Communio, is also rarely in England: after teaching for some years at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, he now lives in Germany and works as a translator. Aidan Nichols OP is, of course, well known as writer of numerous books on theology and liturgy, including the leading study of the thought of Pope Benedict XVI.
As the world reels from the effects of the global economic crisis, more people than ever are turning back to religion. The Catholic Church is meanwhile recovering her ancient heritage and addressing the modern world with a new confidence. "Let us seek to learn on earth those truths which will remain ever valid in heaven" (Pope Benedict XVI).
Further information from the Second Spring website where you can make a reservation and see the relevant fees for the conference.
8 comments:
Dear Father Tim
Excellent news!
Fr. Aidan Nichols' book Looking at the Liturgy helped a friend and I maintain sanity amidst the 'beanbag and scatter cushion Masses' at Ushaw when we were seminarians in the late 1990's.
And in 2006 one of my final classes, on the other side of the Atlantic, at Steubenville was Dr. Scott Hahn's timely course entitled; The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI. In that class I learned a lot about the Hermeneutic of Continuity (the theology not the blog... although I did providentially discover the blog during that same period - which became a link to home).
The reading list was pure heaven and included Spirit of the Liturgy, which confirmed for me the direction of my thoughts and spirituality over the previous decade.
Now then... this series of talks looks too good to miss!
God Bless - Alan (and Angeline)
Dr. Scott Hahn is a former Presbyterian minister. The way he discuses the bible still comes across like a Protestant minister.
We all know he is very orthodox but to me he just does not seem authentic.
What do you find particularly protestant? His defence of transubstantiation in reference to John 6? His scriptural apologetic for the infallibility of the Pope?
Sorry to be sarcastic but this kind of sweeping and unsubstantiated statement just seems lazy to me. His book "Rome Sweet Home" has been of great inspiration to many of my converts in the parish.
Dear Fr. Tim
Regarding Mr. Edward P. Walton's unsubstantiated assertions about Dr. Hahn. I feel I must come to the defence of my old prof!
Like Dr. Hahn, I was myself a Protestant who converted to the Catholic Faith from the type of background that held the Pope as the anti-Christ (- yes, when I grew up in 1970's Liverpool such ideas were still around). Trust me this background enables me to spot a Protestant thought or idea a mile off (indeed such thought is not so popular today amongst many 'theologians' as is the post-modern/post-Christian type of relativism which too often prevails).
Having read some of his works, attended a semester of his classes, and witnessed him with his family over a 2 year period I must say that this criticism is unfair and just not cricket!
Dr. Hahn brings all the good things about his Protestant past - a deep love of Christ, a strong desire for the truth whatever the cost to self and reputation, a deep reverence for Sacred Scripture, and a remarkable gift for teaching and proclamation of the Good News.
His journey to Catholicism was not taken lightly and came after much soul and scripture searching. His theology of the Church, the Eucharist and the papacy are indeed thoroughly Catholic.
He admits himself that a large part of his journey to Rome was through reading a certain theologian from Bavaria whose 'Introduction to Christianity' and subsequent works profoundly effected his personal life and his theological approach. That this theologian was elevated to the Holy See of Peter in 2005 is the most eloquent defence of much of Hahn's ecclesiology, and Eucharistic theology.
If Mr. Walton could pin point more exactly which areas he finds so 'Protestant' this would be helpful towards a more frutiful discussion.
In Christ
Alan (and Angeline) Houghton
I think what Mr. Walton is trying to say is that some Catholic converts who go into apologetics, still retain some of their former Protestant tastes. Take for example some of the Catholic apologists attitude to the older form of mass: almost all of them just cannot understand the traditionalist criticism of the new liturgy and equate anything like it with schism. They have an inept problem of understanding the "Romanity" of the older form of mass and see things such as polyphony, Roman vestments and Latin as rather excessive. A great deal of their commentary before the motu proprio was dedicated to slating traditionalists at every opportunity (e.g. Fr. Dwight Longknecker, Mark Shea, Dave Armstrong, etc.)
Dr. Scott Hahn is not an enthusiastic supporter of the extraordinary form of the mass. I wouldn't expect him to be though anyway, as he teaches at a Catholic university that is heavily steeped in the charismatic ways.
What I find more worrying however is how he would impose as dogmatic, his view that the Holy Spirit is the feminine part of the Trinity. This to me poses a lot of problems and can only play into the hands of people like Christine Odone.
The deposit of faith consists of scripture and tradition.
Sounds simplistic but I think it is still true.
Dear Fr. Tim
Ottaviani does well to focus this argument on to specifics.
After reading his comment I have read up just a little on Dr. Hahn's 'view that the Holy Spirit is the feminine part of the Trinity' (as Ottaviani has it)- I certainly would benefit from reading more if time permitted to gain a more full understanding of Hahn's position in this matter.
Nevertheless, like Ottaviani such an approach, so understood, would be very worrying to me also. The Catechism (in at least CCC's 683, 687, 1092, 1107, 1129, and 2652) refers to the Holy Spirit in terms of he and him. Also, the 1997 Norms for the Use of Translation of Biblical Text for Use in the Liturgy states that 'in keeping with the Christian Tradition, the feminine and neuter pronouns are not to be used to refer to the person of the Holy Spirit. (4-3 and 4-4). Naturally, this would be my own position.
In my reading though, I thought Dr. Hahn was meaning to talk about feminine 'qualitites' such as compassion, rather than feminine personhood - although I have always thought it unnecessary to resort to such use of gender - after all is not compassion a male quality too? Perhaps Ottaviani goes a little far to accuse Dr. Hahn of seeking to 'impose this view as dogmatic'. Not least, because Dr. Hahn has already stated publicly it seems (in later editions of his books) that if the Magisterium found anything wrong in his texts on this issue he would be the first to accept their findings. In such days of radical feminist attempts to hijack Christian thought though, I would always advocate airing on the side of caution when articulating such concepts and would desire to remain well within the expressions of the tradition.
Regarding the Extraordinary Form, I must say that at Franciscan University there existed a movement desirous of its wider use; of which we were part. Also, we (and many other students and several of the professors) attended the Holy Mass at the more traditional and majestic St. Peter's in Steubenville's 'Downtown' area.
It must also be said that Dr. Hahn was very enthusiastic in his classes for Pope Benedict's book (as Cardinal Ratzinger) - The Spirit of the Liturgy (2000).
So as not to get bogged down in this one issue, I think I'll leave my comments in its regard at that! Alan(and Angeline)Houghton
Edwin - indeed, and in his published work there is every evidence that Scott Hahn entirely agrees with this: indeed he offers powerful apologetic arguments for this position.
Ottaviani - you are right that some converts have difficulty understanding traditionalism. This does not mean that they are protestant. The feminine Holy Spirit thing is not something that has a lot of mileage, I would agree, but it is not a "dogma" of Scott Hahn, merely a metaphor that can be taken from the scriptures. We can use metaphorical language of God without being committed to the view that God, or one of the persons of the Trinity, is feminine.
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