19 June 2025 - 20 June 2025
09:00am - 5:00pm
Religions can play a crucial role in working towards the Common Good by addressing contemporary concerns about the environment.
This conference discusses how the concept of “the Common Good” can resonate across diverse faith traditions as they seek to address the current ecological crisis. What are the ethical and political consequences of a solidarity which, having its origin in the transcendent, extends in many contrasting ways beyond humans to non-human others, and can transform all? How is the Common Good understood by different faith communities as the enactment of environmental virtues and citizenship? Lectures will be focusing on the late Pope Frances’ ground-breaking encyclical Laudato Si, Christian voices from Anglican, Orthodox and non-conformist traditions and Jewish and Christian theologies of the land, striving for a generosity of vision in an often polarised and fractured world.
The conference is free to attend, and will take place in the Claggett Auditorium, Canterbury Cathedral Lodge. All welcome! However, booking your ticket(s) helps us to plan the event. Please ensure you select the correct day(s) you wish to attend.
For more information contact Dr Maria Diemling and Dr Simon Wilson.
Programme:
Thursday 19 June, 9am - 5pm
9 - 9.30am: Registration/Tea and Coffee
9.30 - 10am: Welcome
10 - 11am: Keynote Lecture 1:
Professor Michelle Becka: A Planetary Common Good? Inspirations from Catholic Social Ethics
11am - 12.45pm: Session 1:
Dr Ivan Khovacs: A Theology of Bread: The Book of Ruth
Dr Maria Diemling and Professor Larry Ray: Jewish Farming Communities and the Common Good
1 - 2pm: Lunch break
2 - 3.45pm: Session 2:
Dr Ralph Norman: Christianity, Idealism and the Metaphysics of Environmental Citizenship
Rev Dr Jeremy Law: Common Good as Common Future: Explorations in Moltmann’s Theology
3.45 - 4.15pm: Tea/Coffee
4.15 - 5pm: Session 3:
Dr Sarah Odhner: Swedenborg’s Doctrine of Correspondence and the Transcendentalist Landscape.
7 - 9pm: Conference Dinner (by invitation only)
Friday 20 June, 9am - 1pm
9.30 - 10am: Tea/Coffee
10 - 11am: Keynote Lecture 2:
Professor James Connelly: Faith, Community and Environmental Virtues
11am - 12.45pm: Session 4:
Dr Elizabeth Theokritoff: For a Broader "Common Good": Listening to the Words of all Creation
Dr Simon Wilson: The Common Good of the Heart: An Eastern Orthodox View
