Dr. Oliver O’Donovan, professor of Christian ethics and practical theology at the University of Edinburgh, will present the address “Pride’s Progress: Some Aspects of New Testament Discussions of Sin” as the 2014-15 Danforth Lecture at Hope College on Monday, Oct. 27, at 4 p.m. in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
O’Donovan has written on the ethical theory of St. Augustine, on the theological basis of moral concepts, on contemporary bioethical dilemmas, on political theology and on the ethics of war. He has served the Church of England as a member of the Board for Society Responsibility, the Doctrine Commission, the Faith and Order Advisory Group and the General Synod. He is a past president of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics, and has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2000 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh since 2007.
He has been with the University of Edinburgh since 2006. He was previously Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology and Canon of Christ Church at the University of Oxford from 1982 to 2006, before which he taught at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford (1972-7) and at Wycliffe College in the University of Toronto (1977-82).
Born in 1945 in London, he was educated at University College School, Hampstead, at Balliol College and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and at the University of Princeton. He was ordained an Anglican priest in Oxford in 1972.
He is married to Joan Lockwood O’Donovan. They have two sons.
The Danforth Lecture is sponsored by the Hope College department of religion with support from an endowment established by the Danforth Foundation of St. Louis, Mo. The program was established by the foundation “to deepen and enlarge the religious dimension of the campus family through speakers who can reflect on the broad, interdenominational and yet positive sense of the Judaeo-Christian perspectives of life and existence.”
Some of the many distinguished scholars who have visited the campus through the program in the past include theologian Dr. Martin E. Marty of the University of Chicago Divinity School; Dr. Phyllis Trible of Union Theological Seminary; Dr. Jon D. Levenson of Harvard University; Dr. Daniel Maguire of Marquette University; Dr. Allen Verhey of the Divinity School at Duke University; and John Webster of the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy of King’s College of the University of Aberdeen; Dr. John L. Esposito of Georgetown University; and Dr. David Nirenberg of the University of Chicago; Dr. James VanderKam of the University of Notre Dame; and Dr. Luke Johnson of Emory University.
Graves Hall is located at 263 College Ave., between 10th and 12th streets.