On the evening of Thursday 19th January, 1900-2100, Castle Street is hosting a special Church at Castle event for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The evening will include worship, a talk, discussion, and puddings; the speaker will be Revd. Alexander Jensen, Principal of the Eastern Region Ministry Course since January 2016. The title of his talk is “The Reformation between Religious Renewal and Power Politics”.
The Reformation of the sixteenth century changed the religious landscape in Western Europe completely and all Churches in Western Europe changed beyond recognition as a result. The identity of all Western European Churches is shaped by the reformation in one way or another. Unfortunately, the way in which this did happen is obscured by the myths the different denominations tell about the Reformation. The speaker will explore the Reformation as a religious renewal movement responding to specific problems and issues that arose in the late Middle Ages, and also as a response to a specific political situation in the sixteenth century, the rise of the House of Habsburg. Whilst in itself an interesting piece of history, it will also help us to look beyond the denominations’ foundational myths and understand a bit better where we are coming from.
A native of Germany, Alexander Jensen studied theology at the universities of Tübingen, Durham and Oxford. After serving as a parish priest in Stockton-on-Tees, he became Lecturer in Divinity at the Church of Ireland Theological College with Trinity College, Dublin. In 2005 he took up the position of Lecturer (from 2008 Senior Lecturer) in Systematic Theology at Murdoch University with Perth Theological Hall in Perth, Western Australia, from 2006 to 2012 serving as Principal of the Theological Hall. Alex’s PhD was in New Testament (hermeneutics and John’s Gospel); his scholarly interests lie in theological hermeneutics, doctrine of God, Christology and secularisation. His publications include Divine Providence and Human Agency: Trinity, Creation and Freedom (Ashgate, 2014), Theological Hermeneutics (SCM, 2007) and John’s Gospel as Witness: The Development of the early Christian Language of Faith (Ashgate, 2004). Alex has a great passion for teaching, and was awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning by the Australian Teaching and Learning Council in 2011.