20 Feb 2012 — 21 Feb 2012

Revd Dr. Graham Tomlin is the guest lecturer at this year’s Church of Ireland Theological Lectures in Queens entitled, ‘The Church and the Crisis of Character’.

Monday 20: Culture and Character
Tuesday 21: Community and Virtue

“Whether binge drinking, domestic violence, MP’s expenses or boardroom greed, like many modern nations today we face a crisis of character. How do we encourage socially responsible and constructive behaviour? And what does the church have to contribute in this area? These lectures will explore how the church might need to change and what it might have to offer and in the context of these vitally important social questions.”

Time: 6pm

Venue: Main Lecture Theatre, Geography Building, Elmwood Avenue, Belfast

Refreshments served in The Hub Cafe from 5pm and 7.30pm on both days

Lecture 1:

This will look at a number of factors in contemporary culture that make the question of character very important. These include a sense of the irrelevance of religion, the pervasiveness of consumerism, but also a sense of crisis as to how we can encourage good socially constructive behaviour. We will look at a number of factors that make the development of virtue difficult in our contemporary western culture and then begin to explore the role of the church in the development of character and virtue, by use of the comparison with the gym, as a centre for physical health and fitness.

Lecture 2: This will look in more detail at how Christian communities can become centres of character development, looking at the different ways in which that might take place. This will look at the interplay between the Holy Spirit and the development of Christian character, the role of instruction and Christian teaching, the exercise of traditional Christian disciplines, and the role of community.

About Graham Tomlin

The Revd Dr Graham Tomlin is the Dean of St Mellitus College, London. He studied English Literature and Theology at Oxford University, and was curate of a church in Exeter, before returning to Oxford to be Chaplain of Jesus College and tutor in Historical Theology and Evangelism at Wycliffe Hall, where he eventually became Vice Principal.

He moved to London in 2005, to start up the St Paul’s Theological Centre based at Holy Trinity Brompton, which is now part of St Mellitus College. He was a member of the Theology Faculty of Oxford University for seven years and is a member of the Church of England’s College of Evangelists.

He is the author of many articles and several books, including ‘The Power of the Cross: Theology and the Death of Christ in Paul, Luther and Pascal’ (Paternoster 1999), ‘The Provocative Church’ (SPCK 2002), ‘Luther and his World’ (Lion 2002), ‘Spiritual Fitness: Christian Character in a Consumer Culture’ (2006), and ‘The Prodigal Spirit: The Trinity, the Church and the Future of the World’ (SPTC 2011). He is married to Janet and has two grown–up children. He is a keen follower of various kinds of music and sport, especially football, rugby and cricket.