Professor Janet Soskice will preach on 'Death and Hope' at St Bene't's Church at 11.45 on Tuesday, 23 April 2019.
Janet Soskice is a Fellow of Jesus College and Professor of Philosophical Theology Emerita. A Canadian, she took her BA degree at Cornell, an MA at Sheffield and then did doctoral work on the philosophy of religion at Oxford, where she held a research fellowship and was a lecturer at Cuddesdon, teaching philosophy of religion, ethics and doctrine. She has also taught philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London.
A past President of the Catholic Theological Association in Britain and of the Society for the Study of Theology, she has held visiting chairs in Canada, Sweden, the United States and at the Gregorian University in Rome. A Director of the recent Bible and Classical Antiquity in 19th Century Culture Project conducted through CRASSH, Janet Soskice has been active in interfaith and oecumenical dialogue, including membership of the Building Bridges Seminar, an initiative originated by George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury and then continued by Rowan Williams, which promotes Christian-Muslim relations.
Her publications include 'Metaphor and Religious Language' (1984) and 'The Kindness of God' (2007), and she has edited 'Medicine and Moral Reasoning' (1994) with Grant Gillett and K.W. Fulford, and 'Feminism and Theology, Oxford Readings in Feminism' (2003) with Diana Lipton. An international conference she initiated to examine creation ex nihilo produced 'Creation and the God of Abraham' (2010), edited with Carlo Cogliati, David Burrell and W. Stoeger, and in 2013 she guest edited a special edition of the Journal Modern Theology on the topic. Her acclaimed 'Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Lost Gospels' (2009) was Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 and entered several Best Books of the Year listings.
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, which is to be preached by the Vice-Chancellor or their nominee.
This is now given on the first Tuesday of Full Easter Term and 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 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 the College 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.