2018 ANZATS Conference | 1-4 July

The Conference Planning Committee is pleased to invite all members of ANZATS, and the theological and wider academic community to submit the title of their proposed presentation at this conference. Proposals should be 250-300 words in length and include your full name, title, institution/s, location, email and postal address, and previous and current studies and presentation experience. Doctoral students are asked to include a statement of support and suitability from their supervisor. Please email proposals relating to papers on the general topic of the conference before 30 Jan 2018 to Dr Sam Hey, at shey@citipointechurch.com

Proposals for each of the following special interest groups should be sent directly to each convenor:

1 Lukan Scholarship. Please address submissions to the convenor of this forum, Dr Sarah Harris (Sarah.harris@carey.ac.nz)

2 Learning and Teaching Theology. Please address submissions to the convenor of this forum, Dr John Capper (jcapper@divinity.edu.au)  Les Ball, Bruce,

3 Barth Studies. This forum will cover all aspects of Karl Barth study. Please address submissions to the convenor of this forum, Dr Michael O’Neil (Michael.ONeil@vose.edu.au)

4 Missional leadership and other issues in practical theology, The coordinator is Dr Darren Cronshaw, (dcronshaw@acom.edu.au)

5 Darren Cronshaw – research into theological education

6 The book of Revelation. The coordinator is Dr Jon Newton (JNewton@harvest.edu.au)

7 Studies in Worship and Liturgy. The coordinator is Kieran Crichton (doctor@kierancrichton.com)

The conference theme is: Sacrifice

A diversity of other topics are also covered, including Theological education,  Learning and teaching, Practical theology and missions, worship and liturgy, Lukan scholarship and Karl Barth.

The conference speakers are Professor Andrew McGowan from Yale.  His topic will be “Inventing Sacrifice: Gift, Ritual and Violence in the Bible and Christian Theology.”

Abstract – Sacrifice has variously been seen as essential to religion, as superseded ritual, or as ethical prescription. Theorists of sacrifice from J. G. Frazer to Rene Girard have mined Christian as well as other sources to elucidate human social practices on the one hand, and Christian belief on the other. The very idea of “Sacrifice” in all these cases, however, as a ritualization of altruistic violence, deserves more scrutiny. Andrew McGowan will explore biblical and early Christian texts to offer an alternative story of the origins of “sacrifice” in the usual sense, not as a cross-cultural or universal phenomenon but as a specific outgrowth of early Christian theology and of on the person of Jesus.

The three sessions:

1. Inventing Sacrifice: Leviticus, the Septuagint and the origins of Sacrificial Theory

2. Jesus and Sacrifice: Temple and Cross

3. Eucharist and Sacrifice: A Theology of Gift

The second speaker is Frank Macchia who is Professor of Theology and Church History at Vanguard University. He is the editor, of PNEUMA: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. His topic is – Baptized in the Spirit and Fire: A Reflection on Luke’s Pneumatological Theology of Atonement

Abstract – John the Baptist’s announcement concerning the one who will baptize in the “Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16) has far-reaching implications in Luke’s Gospel for the Spirit’s work throughout Jesus’ sojourn to the cross and beyond. Jesus will baptize in the Spirit-and-fire as the one who himself bears the Spirit. But in Luke, he bears the fire too. The question that can be posed to this tradition is what the “baptism in fire” might be. Luke depicts Christ as the one who will kindle a fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49-59).

Christ refers to the “baptism” of his own death in this context as well (12:50). Luke invites us to explore the relationship between Christ’s death and his larger baptizing in the Spirit-and-fire. Luke offers us resources for a pneumatological theology of atonement, in which Jesus bears the baptism of his death, the baptism in fire, in order to open the life of the Spirit to those who bind themselves to him in hope (Acts 2:21). In the light of this pneumatological theology of atonement, one is expected to pass at baptism through the Messianic fire to the Messianic life in the Spirit.

Date:

Sunday 1 July – Wednesday 4 July 2018

Theme:

Sacrifice

Location: 

Emmanuel College, University of Queensland, Sir William MacGregor Drive, St Lucia, QLD 4067

Costs:

• Students = $250
• Early bird = $295 (up to April 20 2018)
• Standard fee (after April 20) = $350
• Tuesday evening formal dinner is an additional $85
• Day registration = $120 per day

Accommodation is available at Emmanuel College for $95 a night including meals.
Other accommodation is available nearby.

Register:

Please register online.