‘THE NEWNESS OF THE OLD’: TRADITION, DOCTRINE AND CHRISTIAN LIFE BETWEEN PRESERVATION AND INNOVATION
31 August 2018
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
31 August – 1 September 2018
Keynote speakers:
- Dr Brandon Gallaher (University of Exeter)
- Revd Prof Nikolaos Loudovikos (University Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki)
- Revd Prof Andrew Louth (Durham University)
- Prof Jens Zimmerman (Trinity Western University)
Papers will be presented by:
- Barnabas Aspray (University of Cambridge)
- Lucian George Berciu (University of Fribourg)
- Richard Choate (Graduate Theological Union and University of California, Berkeley)
- Dr Viorel Coman (KU Leuven)
- Dr Christine Mangala Frost (IOCS)
- Ryan Hacker (University of Cambridge)
- Prof. Sigríður Halldórsdóttir (University of Akureyri)
- Dr Smilen Markov (University of Veliko Turnovo / University of Oxford)
- Michael Miller (University of Cambridge)
- Ben Morris (Diocese of Sourozh)
- Yuliia Rozumna (Nottingham University)
- Stefan Zelijkovic (University of Belgrade)
Please download a programme/flyer for the conference here.
Conference Abstract
In Christianity, preservation of tradition and innovation are complexly intertwined. On the one hand, an act of resistance to change can turn out to be an original move that outperforms fashionable new ideas and practices. On the other hand, the audacious introduction of the ‘new’ is at times the only way to safeguard the faithful continuation of tradition. Yet innovation can also weaken tradition and lead to its destruction, and faithfulness to tradition may degenerate into an ossified and lifeless traditionalism. A consistently Trinitarian theology and practice must transcend any simplistic dichotomy between a conservative and a progressive outlook on life. Paradoxically, it is precisely the ‘old’ that manifests itself as the ‘ever-new’. The question as to how to balance the interplay of continuity and discontinuity remains one of the main challenges for Orthodox theology in the twenty-first century. The aim of the conference is to explore how the complex interrelationship between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ is to be conceived of.
Venue/Location
This Conference takes place at Sidney Sussex College in central Cambridge. Information about how to get to Sidney Sussex can be found here.
For more information visit https://www.iocs.cam.ac.uk/conference/
