Lent Course
Creation: Hope for the world that God has made with The Rev Dr Alexander S. Jensen
After the Sunday Eucharist
in Powchers Hall
In this Lent course we are going to explore what it means for the world to be God’s good creation. Does it make a difference to our understanding of the world around us (and the challenges it faces) if we believe that the world is God’s creation? We will discuss this question from five different angles.
Sunday 26 February
Creation and science
Many people see a tension between science and the Christian belief in creation. However, Christianity at its best (and Judaism before and alongside it) has always thought about creation in dialogue with the best available science. We shall look at a few highlights of these discussions, from the present back to the biblical authors.
Sunday 5 March
Creation and time
The question of the relationship between the eternal God and the temporal creation seems like a rather abstract theme to discuss. But once we scratch the surface we will find that this has enormous implications for the way in which we understand God’s activity in the world, and therefore God’s ability to keep God’s promises.
Sunday 12 March
Hope for creation
The question of God’s activity in the world is crucial for Christians. Building on our discussion the week before we will discuss if what hope there is that God’s purposes are being fulfilled in the history of the world. Surely, God will not abandon God’s good creation to human devices. But how about creaturely freedom then? And how do we see God’s purposes realised in the world?
Sunday 26 March
Caring for creation
What we discussed in previous weeks has implications for the way in which we care for creation. How does our responsibility fit with God’s promise to maintain his good creation? What is the relation between God’s providence and our responsibility to work for social and environmental justice.
Sunday 2 April
The new creation
One of the great promises in the Bible is that those who are in Christ are a new creation. But what does it mean that in the Church we are part of the new creation? And how does the new creation relate to the old one?
No pre-booking is required for these sessions.
Alex Jensen is Principal of the Eastern Region Ministry Course. A native of Germany, Alex studied at Tübingen, Durham and Oxford. He was a curate in Stockton-on-Tees, later lecturing in Dublin and Australia before moving to ERMC in 2016. Alex’s PhD was in New Testament (hermeneutics and John’s Gospel), his teaching and most publications are in the area of systematic theology. He is currently writing a book on the incarnation.