Sarah Coakley – Theologian and Writer
Prof. Sarah Coakley is the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, and a Fellow of Murray-Edwards College, at the University of Cambridge. She originally studied at Cambridge and Harvard, before taking a lectureship in Religious Studies at the Univeristy of Lancaster (1976-1991). She later became a university lecturer in Theology at Oxford, as well as a Tutorial Fellow of Oriel College (1991 – 1993). In 1993 she was made a tenured Professor of Christian Theology at Harvard Divinity School, and was promoted in 1995 to the Mallinckrodt Professorship (also at Harvard). She was appointed to her current chair at Cambridge in 2007.
A philosophical and systematic theologian, Sarah Coakley became increasingly involved in interdisciplinary work whist at Harvard, and conducted collaborative research projects in medicine and religion (with Prof Arthur Kleinman), and in theology and evolutionary theory (with Prof Martin A. Nowak). The work with Nowak garnered a $2 million 3-year research grant from the Templeton Foundation, and will issue you in a jointly edited book: Evolution, Games and God: The Principle of Cooperation (Harvard UP, forthcoming, 2009).
Sarah Coakley’s other publications include: Christ Without Absolutes: A Study of the Christology of Ernst Troeltsch (OUP, 1988); (ed.) Religion and the Body (CUP, 1997); Powers and Submissions (Blackwell, 2001); (co-ed), Pain and Its Transformations : The Interface of Biology and Culture (2007), and (eds.) Re-Thinking Gregory of Nyssa and Re-Thinking Dionysius the Areopagite (both Blackwell, 2001 and 2009). She is at work on a 4-volumed systematic theology, the first volume of which will appear next year as God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’ (CUP).
Richard Bauckham – Biblical Scholar and Theologian
Richard writes; “I am a biblical scholar and theologian. My academic work and publications have ranged over many areas of these subjects, including the theology of Jürgen Moltmann, Christology (both New Testament and systematic), eschatology, the New Testament books of Revelation, James, 2 Peter and Jude, Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament Apocrypha, the relatives of Jesus, the early Jerusalem church, the Bible and contemporary issues, and biblical and theological approaches to environmental issues. In recent years much of my work has focused on Jesus and the Gospels. Probably my best known books are Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (2006), God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament (1998), and The Theology of the Book of Revelation (1993). As well as technical scholarship and writing aimed at students and those with some theological background, I have also written accessible books for a wider readership, of which the best known is At the Cross: Meditations on People Who Were There (1999), which I wrote with Trevor Hart. (It has been translated into five other languages.)
Until 2007 I was Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. I retired early in order to concentrate on research and writing, and moved to Cambridge. For more information about me, see my Short CV. On this site, you will find complete lists of my publications. You can find out about my forthcoming books. You can read unpublished papers, lectures and sermons. You can find out about the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha project (directed by myself and James Davila).
You can also read some of my poetry, and two story books written for children (adults also enjoy them) about the MacBears of Bearloch.”
Guy Consolmagno – Astronomer and Theologian
Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ was born in Detroit, Michigan. He earned undergraduate and masters’ degrees from MIT, and a Ph. D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona, was a researcher at Harvard and MIT, served in the US Peace Corps (Kenya), and taught university physics at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, before entering the Jesuits in 1989.
At the Vatican Observatory since 1993, his research explores connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies. He observes asteroids, moons, and Kuiper Belt comets with the Vatican’s 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona, and curates the Vatican meteorite collection in Castel Gandolfo. Along with more than 100 scientific publications, he is the author of a number of popular books including Turn Left at Orion (with Dan Davis), Worlds Apart (with Martha Schaefer), Brother Astronomer, and God’s Mechanics, and for the International Year of Astronomy he edited The Heavens Proclaim.
Dr. Consolmagno has served on the governing board of a number of international scientific organizations, including the International Astronomical Union, the Meteoritical Society and the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. He served as chair of the DPS in 2006-2007, is past president of IAU Commission 16 (Planets and Satellites) and past secretary of IAU Division III (Planetary Systems Sciences) as currently serves on the IAU Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature. He has held chairs as a visiting Jesuit scholar at St. Joseph’s University (Philadelphia), Fordham University (New York), and LeMoyne College (New York).
Richard Coles – Broadcaster and Writer
The Reverend Richard Coles is a broadcaster, writer and Church of England priest. Before being ordained Richard was a musician, able to play saxophone, clarinet and keyboards, and having success as one half of the 1980s band, The Communards. They enjoyed three UK Top 10 hits, including the biggest-selling single of 1986: Don’t Leave Me This Way.
He then turned his hand to acting, narrating Style Council’s movie JerUSAlem. He also penned music for film and TV, and won a Sony Gold as presenter of The Mix on Radio 5 Live.
With a successful media career already established, Coles trained at Mirfield for priesthood in the Church of England. He was Curate at St Boltoph’s in Lincolnshire before moving to a second curacy at St Paul’s Knightsbridge and becoming Chaplain to the Royal Academy of Music.
Richard Coles continues to work in broadcasting, as an opera reviewer and frequent contributor to Newsnight Review. He has featured as a panellist on Have I Got News For You and regularly stands in for Fi Glover on Radio 4′s Saturday Live. He also makes time for the odd Songs of Praise special.
Entertainment
Paul Kerensa, award-winning comedian and a British Comedy award nominated writer has been booked for entertainment for the evening of Wed 21st September at the Clergy Conference in Swanwick. Paul started stand-up in 2002 when he won ITV’s Take the Mike Award. Since then he has become a regular at the UK’s biggest venues. He writes for various sitcoms, invcluding BBC hits Not Going Out, After You’ve Gone and Miranda. You can find out more from his website, www.paulkerernsa.com. And if you receive the Bible Society’s magazine The Bible in Transmission, you’ll find an article by him in the Spring 2011 edition, entitled Getting to grips with comedy – as a Christian.
