The ACT is looking for a new Director of Teaching and Learning. The role covers teaching and learning policy for the whole ACT Consortium, as well as offering assistance to affiliated colleges in their own teaching and learning practices. The role requires academic qualifications in theology/theological education/education and relevant higher education teaching experience, publications/presentations in the field of theological educationa nd proven interpersonal skills. The position is based in the Sydney CBD,  Australia. Applicants should provide a current CV, a letter addressing the requirements of the position (as given in the job description) and two academic and one church-related referees. Please email applications to ceo@actheology.edu.au. Applications close on October 19th, 2020.You can find the full job description here and here. https://www.actheology.edu.au/position-vacant-director-of-teaching-and-learning/

Plenary speaker J. Aaron Simmons of Furman University presents his paper, “Of God and Trout Fishing: Phenomenology, Desire, and Faithfulness,” for “Art, Desire, and God: Phenomenological Perspectives,” a virtual conference hosted by the University of Notre Dame on October 2-3, 2020 …

Art and desire have been perennial objects of philosophical and theological questioning throughout the history of ideas in the West. Phenomenology in particular has proven itself uniquely equipped to explore these topics with its method of examining human experience. Thinkers such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Françoise Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, Richard Kearney, and David Tracy, as well as those conventionally associated with the so-called theological turn in French phenomenology, such as Michel Henry, Jean-Luc Marion, Jean-Louis Chrétien, and Emmanuel Falque, frequently treat one or another of these topics. However, the relation between art and desire together in the human experience of the divine or Absolute broadly construed goes overlooked in contemporary academic discussions. The question remains: what is the role of the desire of/for God in art and aesthetic experience? Registration is free. Click on home on top right hand corner for details. https://sites.google.com/view/artdesiregod

Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR) annual conference Meeting in Zoom webinars on 11-12 December 2020, the conference program will highlight the strength and diversity of the study of religion, in Australia and New Zealand especially, expanding networks of scholarship and support. Proposals of up to 300 words and additional questions may be sent to aasrconference2020@gmail.com until 31 October 2020, https://www.aasr.org.au/2020-conference

The recent Online IRCI Religion & Theology Seminar series by David Newheiser on ‘Hope in a Secular Age – argues that hope is the indispensable precondition of religious practice and secular politics. Drawing on Jacques Derrida and Dionysius the Areopagite, David Newheiser construes hope as a discipline of persistence that acknowledges its uncertainty. Against this background, he develops a negative political theology that resiHope in a Secular Age argues that hope is the indispensable precondition of religious practice and secular politics. Drawing on Jacques Derrida and Dionysius the Areopagite, David Newheiser construes hope as a discipline of persistence that acknowledges its uncertainty. Against this background, he develops a negative political theology that resists both quietism and theocracy in the name of a circumspect hope.s both quietism and theocracy in the name of a circumspect hope. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR6hEb9Q0Nk&feature=youtu.be