The Scripture and the University Seminar begins a three-year study of Scripture as place in the 21st century university. The very concepts of place and placemaking have experienced something of a popular-level resurgence during the first quarter of the 21st century; however, the scholarly conversation surrounding the idea has a long and rich history. Scholars from a variety of specialties have considered the idea of “place” and the importance of placemaking to the human experience. While many of those discussions have focused on the physical, others have broadened the field to consider the more nebulous, including the emotional, relational, and spiritual. This long-term study aims to develop an appropriate inter-disciplinary lexicon that presses into the development of “Scripture Producing Place” in a university setting where Christians and the spiritually-interested can find a home. The 2024 meeting aims to begin the conversation, with theologians, philosophers, and biblical scholars providing unique insights. The questions arising from the 2024 seminar will then be used to focus the meetings for the following two years (2025, 2026).

Our presentations are:

• “Futurespace and the University”
  David Larsen (PhD, St Mary’s University, Twickenham), Director of The Scripture Collective, The Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge
• “The Audible Word as a Place: Recovering the Natural Habitat of Scripture”
  Dru Johnson (PhD, University of St Andrews), Visiting Professor of Religion, Hope College; Director of The Center for Hebraic Thought
• Theodramatic Critical Realism: A Canonical-Linguistic Philosophy of Science” (via Zoom)
  Trevor Yoakum (PhD, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), Professor of Theology at ESBTAO Seminary Lome, Togo; Theological Education Consultant with International Mission Board
• Response (via Zoom)
  Craig Bartholomew (PhD, University of Bristol), Director of The Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge