..David Fergusson’s Faith and Its Critics: A Conversation  Gifford lectures, Oxford University Press, 2009 is written in response to the new atheists, especially Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris. Fergusson regards it as incumbent on Christians to give an answer for the hope that is in them and in this sense his book is certainly an apologetic work. In engaging the new atheists on their own territory Fergusson turns in his second chapter to discussion of the credibility of religious faith.  He begins by cautioning against the reductive understanding of faith as an assent to intellectual propositions deployed by many of the new atheists. Instead he argues that faith is a personal trust which motivates a whole set of intellectual and moral commitments and transforms an entire way of living. https://www.giffordlectures.org/books/faith-and-its-critics-conversation

.Church of Scotland theologian and former parish minister Rev Professor David Fergusson, has been appointed as the new Regius Chair of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. https://churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/news/2020/Church-of-Scotland-theologian-appointed-Regius-Chair-of-Divinity-at-Cambridge-University

University of St Andrews, UK. New Visions in Theological Anthropology (NViTA) Fellowship in Science-Engaged Theology This is part of a project designed to get theologians thinking carefully about theological anthropology on those questions that involve evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, and cognitive science. This project is intended as an exercise in science-engaged theology. By this, we see science as an authentic theological source alongside – not in competition with – scripture, tradition, and reason.. https://theology.news/

The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (Grand Rapids, MI) Symposium on Worship offers a free online worship and the Christian life learning experience to be held January 6-26, 2021, for all kinds of learners: students, faculty, artists, musicians, pastors, preachers, scholars, teachers, worship leaders and planners, and all interested worshipers around the world. . https://worship.calvin.edu/symposium/

In this interview, Volf reflects on the challenge of living a theology in the fissures of life; the often irreducible complexity of human experience; how Volf’s own biography and personal experience with oppression during the Cold War impacted his theology; the centrality of memory to forgiveness; and the importance of living as a porous, open self—open to encountering and embracing the other. For theologian Miroslav Volf, it’s important that a theologian stand in the fissures—the cracks of human life—helping to mend and tie and heal the fractures that characterize that life, directing humanity back to its telos—its animating purpose and ultimate goal. Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School and founding director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. https://cct.biola.edu/standing-in-the-fissures-miroslav-volf/

New Visions in Theological Anthropology (NViTA), an initiative in science-engaged theology, are excited to announce we will be running three virtual sessions examining topics in science-engaged theology around the AAR and SBL Virtual Meetings. As a member of the emerging science-engaged theology community we would like to invite you to take part in these sessions. You are welcome to attend all or just one of the sessions.1.        Teaching science-engaged theology. – Tuesday 1st December 20202.       Puzzles in science-engaged theology. – Tuesday 8th December 20203.       Science-engaged theologies: variations on a common theme? – Thursday 10th December 2020For full details including descriptions, a list of presenters and how to register please go to https://set.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/virtual-sessions/. https://set.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/virtual-sessions/