Conference 2017

God, History, and the Incarnation

Logos conference, St Andrews, 1-3 June, 2017

The incarnation is the focal event of the Christian faith: that the eternal Son ‘became flesh’ as Jesus of Nazareth. To affirm it is to endorse unequivocally God’s free and active involvement in human history.

This raises a variety of different questions. There are exegetical questions relating to the nature and interpretation of the relevant biblical claims. There are questions relating to the conceptual implications for how we conceive of the divine nature. There are epistemological questions about the conditions under which God’s involvement in history may be recognised. Still further, methodological questions emerge relating to the nature of academic biblical scholarship. Should God’s involvement in the relevant historical events be assumed in our scholarship or does it first require to be demonstrated – and, if so, how is this possible? Or should it be bracketed out of academic, biblical scholarship?

The perceived ambiguities and resulting uncertainties have led, at times, to a strained relationship between biblical scholarship and theology and there are examples in both fields of strategies that diminish the significance for the theological enterprise of God’s presence and activity in history.

Logos 2017 will bring biblical scholars, theologians, and analytic philosophers into constructive, interdisciplinary dialogue concerning the challenges and implications of affirming God’s participation in human history.

Eleonore Stump	N.T. Wright	Sarah Coakley	Richard Bauckham
Ian McFarland	Murray Rae	Simon Gathercole	C. Stephen Evans
Sarah Broadie	Oliver Crisp	David Moffitt

Erin Heim	Peter van Inwagen	Faith Pawl	Jeremy Begbie
Philip Ziegler	Thomas McCall	Michael Rea	Nathan MacDonald
Chris Tilling	T.J. Lang	Kevin Diller