Why Study Theology and Religious Studies

Dr Alison Milbank looks at how the great Italian poet, Dante Alighieri (c.1265-1321), can be seen a someone presenting his fellow Christians with a unique theology through his masterpiece: La Divina Commedia

Prof. Alan Ford takes the religious history of Ireland as an example of how important is for historians to examine religious dimension of the past societies -- and how that religious history impacts on historians

Anyone reading the historical books of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament can be shocked that warfare figures so prominently in the writings held by many as sacred. Dr Carly Crouch examines how warfare was understood within the religious worldview of ancient Israel.

Professor Philip Goodchild argues that way we use money amounts to a belief system, and what we say about money is, in fact, a form of theology.

The Pharisees led an important religious movement in ancient Judaism around the time of Jesus. Here Prof. Roland Deines discusses their beliefs, their practices, and their influence -- in particular in relationship to Jesus of Nazareth.

Prophecy was a major institution in the religion of ancient Israel, and the writings left by the prophets make up a major part of the collection known by some as 'the Hebrew Bible' and by others as 'the Old Testament.'

Jesus, a Jewish teacher from Nazareth in Galilee, is one of the central religious figures of history. Here Prof. Roland Deines discusses what we know of his life.

'The Hebrew Bible' is the name given to the collection of ancient writings that come from Judaism and constitute 'the bible' for Jews and which makes up the major part of the 'Old Testament' read by Christians.

John Milbank introduces the significance of Henri de Lubac (1896-1991), one of major Catholic theologians of the last century whose work inspires theologians far beyond the boundaries of Catholicism.

There are many Christian Churches which have ancient roots, but about which western Christians are almost wholly unaware. Here Dr Mary Cunningham seeks to draw attention to the ancient Churches of Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Egypt and Ethiopia.

The mother of Jesus, Mary, is revered in many branches of Christianity as the all-holy Mother of God. In this video Dr Mary Cunningham looks at the origins of devotion to Mary, and her place in Orthodox and Catholic theology and belief.

Hermeneutics is the study of how to interpret texts that come from a different culture, time, language and world view. So it is a skill that is valuable in many aspects of study, but especially when reading ancient religious texts such as the Bible. Prof. Anthony Thiselton tries to capture the key insights of a life devoted to the study of hermeneutics.

Ussher (1581-1656) is now principally remembered for just one thing: giving the date of the creation as 4004 B.C.! In this video Prof Alan Ford sets him in his context as a great Protestant scholar who made contributions to patristics, biblical studies, and the church and society of his time.

Prof. Richard Bell conveys his enthusiasm for the study of the letter of St Paul addressed to the Romans.

Spinoza (1632-1677) is now remembered mainly as a philosopher. But he was also deeply concerned with religious and theological questions. In this video, Professor Agata Bielik-Robson argues that he has to be seen as presenting a particular view of the divine and as representative of a distinctive spirituality.

Professor Alan Ford introduces the notion of historiography: the history of history. By studying how historians have constructed the past one can better understand the role of history in forming identities.

Dr Mary Cunningham talks about the Syrian Orthodox Church with Fr Samuel Issa (a priest in that church). This is a community of Christians who have lived in the Levant since the time of Jesus and whose language, Syriac, is a development of Aramaic.

Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) was a German Lutheran theologian whose work highlighted the difficulties of treating early Christian texts as simple historical narratives, while at the same time highlighting their importance as documents of faith. Henri Gagey, from the Institut Catholique in Paris, is an expert on Bultmann's theology and presents an introduction to it here.

Most English-speakers, when they think of Christianity, think only of its Latin, western forms - be they Catholic or Protestant. But this is only half the story: there are also all the churches of the East, often collectively referred to as 'the Orthodox'. In this video, Mary Cunningham, and expert on Orthodoxy, introduces them.

Henry Gagey, an expert in fundamental theology from the Institut Catholique in Paris, discusses why people take up the study of theology and how it can affect their approach to life and belief.

Two eminent modern church historians, Prof. Alan Ford and Dr Frances Knight, discuss the nature of their discipline exploring how it sits between the aims of historians and theologians: belonging both to disciplines, it has a distinctive task and voice.

Icons – religious images from the eastern Churches – are far more than religious images as seen in western churches: they enable an encounter between the observer and the mystery. In this video, Mary Cunningham, and expert on Orthodoxy, introduces them.

Islam is one of the world’s great religions and references to it are constantly in the media, but it is also little understood in the west. Islamic Studies is a branch of religious studies that seeks to understand Islam and promote dialogue between cultures. Jon Hoover, an expert on Islam, describes what is involved in Islamic Studies and why it is of importance today.

Rabbinic Judaism is the name given by scholars to the form of Judaism that emerged in the second century of the Common Era, after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 C.E. and the later revolts. Holger Zellentin is an expert in this period of Jewish history and introduces it in this video.

Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328 C.E.) was an Islamic thinker who has exerted, and continues to exert, an enormous influence within the Islamic tradition. Ibn Taymiyya was often quoted by the late Osama Bin Laden and in this video, Dr. Jon Hoover, who has studied his theology and his importance in Islam, introduces Ibn Taymiyya and his thought.

Judaism is one of the world’s great religions, and it has exerted an enormous influence through some of its off-shoots such as Christianity. In this video, Agata Bielik-Robson, the Professor of Jewish Studies in the University of Nottingham, looks at why the study of Judaism and its theology is important today.

In this episode of the ‘Why Study’ series, Dr.Frances Knight, an expert in history of Anglicanism, shows how a single book from the early nineteenth century – a copy of the Book of Common Prayer – can be the key to understanding the religious culture of a period.

In this episode of the ‘Why Study’ series, Professor Thomas O’Loughlin argues that a single, short, first-century Christian text, known as the Didache (‘the training’) can provide a valuable window into the lives of the earliest Christian communities and enhance our reading of their better known writings such as the gospels.

In this episode of the ‘Why Study’ series, Thomas O’Loughlin is an historical theologian who studies the life and theology of the churches in the early and medieval periods. In this film he explains how an undertstanding of the life of those communities in inseparable form an appreciation of their thought.

In this episode of the ‘Why Study’ series, Dr.Simon Oliver discusses why he devotes so much attention to the medieval Dominican theologian, Thomas Aquinas (1225-74); and argues that when someone today comes to grips with his thought, that learning experience trains one to think theologically.

In this episode of the ‘Why Study’ series, Dr.Karen Kilby is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the work of the German theologian Karl Rahner (1904-84) whose work had a profound influence in the later decades of the twentieth century. Here she identifies key elements of his thought and suggests that these are still valuable insights for Christian thinkers.

In this episode of the ‘ Why Study’ series, Dr Simon Oliver, an expert in systematic theology, explains what is meant by ‘systematics’ within the field of theology, how it relates to other parts of the discipline, and its relevance in today’s culture.

In this episode of the ‘Why Study’ series, Dr.Karen Kilby, an expert in systematic theology, explains what is meant by ‘systematics’ within the field of theology, and how it emerges out of the questions that believers ask in seeking to make sense of their faith.