Keynote Speakers
Professor David Brown
is Wardlaw Professor of Theology, Aesthetics and Culture and a
Professorial Fellow of the Institute of Theology, Imagination and the
Arts at the University of St. Andrews. Educated at Edinburgh, Oxford and
Cambridge, David taught at Oxford and Durham before taking up his post
at St. Andrews in 2007. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy
in 2002 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2012. At Durham, and at St Andrew’s,
David research has focused on the relations between theology
and the wider culture, especially as reflected in the arts. This concern
is pursued in his five-volume work for OUP which includes extensive
discussions of the visual arts, architecture, music, ballet, poetry and
the theatre, as well as perhaps more surprising topics such as food,
gardens and sport. He is currently President of SST.
Dr. Alistair McFadyen is Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of Leeds. In his research and writing, he operates within the interface, not only of church and secular world, but of academy and world, often attempting a triangulation between Christian doctrine, secular theories and concrete situations of practice in the real world, hoping for mutual illumination. Alongside his full-time academic post, he also serves part-time as a police officer in a challenging, multi-faith and multi-ethnic inner-city area of Leeds. Al's publications include The Call to Personhood: A Christian theory of the Individual in Social Relationships and Bound to Sin: Abuse, Holocaust and the Christian Doctrine of Sin. He was co-editor of the series Changing Society, Changing Church for SPCK, and previously co-edited the series Society and Church for SCM Press. He has served as a member of the Church of England's Doctrine Commission, responsible for the book Being Human: A Christian Understanding of Personhood illustrated with reference to power, money, sex and time and was secretary to SST for six years. He is currently finalising a book called Seeking Humanity, whilst also working theologically on the themes more directly related to his policing experience - loving enemies, loving the neighbourhood, terrorism, torture. Al was awarded an MBE for services to policing and community in the 2014 New Years Honours list, partly in recognition of his efforts to assist police engagement with faith communities.
Dr. Aaron Rosen is the Lecturer in Sacred Traditions & the Arts at King’s College London. He taught previously at Yale, Oxford, and Columbia Universities, after receiving his PhD from the University of Cambridge. He has written widely for popular and scholarly publications including The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Apollo, New Humanist, Los Angeles Times, Times Higher Education, Jewish Quarterly, Literary Review, Art and Christianity, Religion and the Arts, and Literature and Theology. His first book was entitled Imagining Jewish Art (Legenda, 2009). He is currently editing the forthcoming volume Religion and Art in the Heart of Modern Manhattan (Ashgate, 2015) and writing two books: Spirituality in 21st Century Art (Thames and Hudson, 2016) and The Hospitality of Images: Modern Art & Interfaith Dialogue.
The image (top) is a photograph of (a representation of) the Buddha taken in Ladakh on 17/07/2004 by Rosie Edgley.
The image (above) is a photograph of the Manchester skyline through a drizzly window, taken 20/2/14 by Scott Midson.
The image (above) is a photograph of the Manchester skyline through a drizzly window, taken 20/2/14 by Scott Midson.
