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SUMMARY:Plagues &amp\; Metaphor - Dr Rowan Williams\, University of Cambri
 dge
DTSTART:20140307T173000Z
DTEND:20140307T183000Z
UID:TALK46750@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Janet Gibson
DESCRIPTION:Abstract\n\nLanguage about 'plague' rather than - say - 'epide
 mic' introduces elements of moral and theological interpretation into our 
 view of a situation: plague is something 'inflicted'\, and is conceived ag
 ainst the background of certain kinds of biblical and classical narratives
  (the plagues of Egypt\, Oedipus at Thebes\, etc.).  While this is by no m
 eans defunct (with some very unpleasant recent applications) the overall c
 limate has changed.  But it is still possible to reach for this language a
 s a metaphorical structure - Camus\, Garcia Marquez - which highlights asp
 ects of the moral urgencies and ambiguities of a situation.  The lecture w
 ill look at both the background usage and its modern transformations so as
  to draw out some thoughts on the nature of human limits and human respons
 ibilities.\n\nBiography\n\nDr Williams is Master of Magdalene College. He 
 was educated at Dynevor Secondary Grammar School in Swansea\, he came up t
 o Christ's College in 1968. He studied for his doctorate at Christ Church 
 and Wadham College Oxford\, working on the Russian Orthodox theologian Vla
 dimir Lossky. His career began as a lecturer at Mirfield (1975-1977). He r
 eturned to Cambridge as Tutor and Director of Studies at Westcott House. A
 fter ordination in Ely Cathedral\, and serving as Honorary Assistant Pries
 t at St George's Chesterton\, he was appointed to a University lectureship
  in Divinity. In 1984 he was elected a Fellow and Dean of Clare College. D
 uring his time at Clare he was arrested and fined for singing psalms as pa
 rt of the CND protest at Lakenheath air-base. Then\, still only 36\, it wa
 s back to Oxford as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity for six years\, be
 fore becoming Bishop of Monmouth\, and\, from 2000\, Archbishop of Wales. 
 He was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2003. He was awarded the O
 xford higher degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1989\, and an honorary DCL de
 gree in 2005\; Cambridge followed in 2006 with an honorary DD. He holds ho
 norary doctorates from considerably more than a dozen other universities\,
  from Durham to K U Leuven\, Toronto to Bonn. In 1990 he was elected a Fel
 low of the British Academy. Dr Williams is a noted poet and translator of 
 poetry\, and\, apart from Welsh\, speaks or reads nine other languages. He
  learnt Russian in-order to read the works of Dostoevsky in the original. 
 This led to a book\; he has also published studies of Arius\, Teresa of Av
 ila\, and Sergii Bulgakov\, together with writings on a wide range of theo
 logical\, historical and political themes.\n
LOCATION:LMH\, Lady Mitchell Hall
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