Professor Ian McFarland will preach on 'Knowing Your Place' at St Bene't's Church at 11.45 on Tuesday, 25 April.
The Regius Professor of Divinity and a Fellow of Selwyn College, Professor McFarland graduated in Classics at Trinity College, Hartford, studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary, New York and the Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, and obtained his PhD at Yale. After teaching at the University of Aberdeen 1998-2005 he was the first occupant of the Bishop Mack B and Rose Stokes Chair in Theology at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and also served as Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs before moving to Cambridge in 2015.
Professor McFarland focuses on contemporary articulations of Christian doctrine, both within the catholic tradition, broadly conceived, and also drawn from voices not consistently represented there. He researches around Christology and particularly the merits of the Chalcedonian definition against post-Enlightenment alternatives, but is also interested in the doctrine of creation, in theological anthropology, the use of the Bible in theology and in the theology of Maximus the Confessor.
Ian McFarland's publication include 'From Nothing: A Theology of Creation' (2014), 'In Adam’s Fall: A Meditation on the Christian Doctrine of Original Sin' (2010), 'The Divine Image: Envisioning the Invisible God' (2005), 'Difference and Identity: A Theological Anthropology' (2001) and 'Listening to the Least: Doing Theology from the Outside In' (1998). He edited (with David Fergusson, Karen Kilby and Iain Torrance) 'The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology' (2011).
The Commemoration of John Mere
John Mere, who died in 1558, was a member of King's and Corpus Christi Colleges, an Esquire Bedell and also Registrary of the University. He left property in the parish of St Bene't's, partly to pay for an annual sermon in his memory on particular subjects. This is to be preached either by the Vice-Chancellor or their nominee and is now given on the first Tuesday of Full Easter Term.
Certain University Officers, including the Registrary and the two Bedells, receive token payments for attending, as do the Vicar and the Clerk of the Parish. Flowers are placed on Mere's tombstone beforehand and afterwards payments are also made to the inhabitants of the almshouses of St Anthony and St Eligius.
The modern custom is for Corpus Christi College to propose the preacher and Corpus has a strong links with St Bene't's, where it is patron of the living and maintains seats for the Master and Fellows. After the service the Master offers refreshment to those attending.
All are welcome. Members of the University should wear their gowns.