Theological Reading Group

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Everyone is welcome to join our bi-monthly Theological Reading Group. We will be coming together on a Sunday to illuminate scripture through a selection of texts that span a breadth of history and textual types. There will be a theme for each session and collection of texts.

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  • Getting There

    For those who attend the 11am Eucharist at St James’s Piccadilly, you would be welcome to join us on the short walk from the church to St Pancras after the service. Otherwise, the church is accessible from Euston, King’s Cross and St Pancras stations.

    • The Theological Reading Group will be held at our partner church, St Pancras, Euston Road. Each 2-hour session will remain grounded in scripture and discussion stimulated by one pre-Reformation theological text, one modern theological text, and one non-theological text, typically a work of poetry. In each instance, pre-determined chapters will be scanned as a PDF and uploaded on the church website in advance of the session.

    For each session, we will gather for coffee, tea, and biscuits at 1pm, with our discussion beginning at 1.15pm and concluding no later than 3pm. These sessions are an exciting opportunity to listen to and learn from each other respectfully. All are welcome, and each session will remain mindful of the Code of Conduct to ensure that we can discuss a broad range of works and themes in a way that is both stimulating and safe.

    March

    This month’s is:

    • Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror – A single chapter of your choice (c.20 pages)
      • I have tossed and turned with this, but there is not a single chapter in this book I wouldn’t recommend:  in choosing for everyone, I would be doing us a great disservice. Instead, I would encourage people to look at the titles of the chapters, which identify key Biblical women, and selecting a passage which you might have some familiarity with. This should allow you to learn something new about ground already trodden.
      • These chapters outline themes such as slavery, rape (of multiple varieties), and murder, with Trible deconstructing the application of the Hebrew describing these acts of physical violence suffered by these women.
      • We can often shy away from Biblical texts that do not affirm our world view: a great deal of modern theology selects scripture that encourages you to feel better about yourself. However, this is one of my favourite books owing to the fact that Trible does not remove the discomfort, but , instead, challenges it to better our understanding. By reading different chapters we are asked to be challenged by different subjects, which should make for an interesting conversation.

     

     

    • Nawal el Saadawi, The Hidden Face of Eve– Opening (5 full pages)
      • I first read this text in a massive Penguin volume on “feminist writing.” Whilst so many of the texts were idealistic or theoretical,  this opening, a brutal anecdote from el Saadawi’s own childhood on her experience of genital mutilation, has remained with me and meant I then bought the book proper.
      • This is an uncomfortable read. It may only be 5 full pages, but this is a truly graphic account of the horror el Saadawi was made to withstand.
      •  It is worth people baring in mind that what el Saadawi describes is still, for large swathes of the world (particularly in Africa), considered to be a normal rite of passage. So, whilst we may be shocked by the account, this is still a very real reality for many. People might find this webpage enlightening re the prevalence of the practice today: https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/female-genital-mutilation/

     

    In light of the feedback comments, I have suggested no more than 50 pages (1 key chapter from Trible and el Saadawi and 9 much smaller chapters from de Pizan). Of course, you do not have to read all of the pages to participate, likewise, you are welcome to read other parts of the texts – I will leave this is very much up to you.

     

    Copies

     

     

    • For el Saadawi, I cannot find an online copy. I had trouble scanning my clean copy because it was too thick for my printer, so I have taken iPhone “scans” of the relevant pages and these are attached. I appreciate that these are not the highest quality, apologies, but if anyone else has a copy and has better luck with scanning the pages, please do share these with us.
    Email Caroline Programme Code of Conduct