John Owen Convention (24-26 June 2024) Draft Schedule
New Directions in Owen Studies (24-25 June)
Monday 24 June
9.30-10.30am – Registration and coffee
10.30-11.30am – Plenary lecture in the Chapel:
“Owen and Judaism," Prof Philip Alexander, FBA (Emeritus professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester)
11.30am-1pm – Seminar options:
Option 1 in Room 4: Owen and the cultures of dissent
“Looking for Sir John Hartopp: patron, patriot and ‘pillar of dissent’,” Dr Lesley A. Rowe (Independent historian, lecturer, and author)
“‘I Answer in the Words of Dr. Owen’: Nehemiah Coxe’s Use of Owen in Vindiciae Veritatis (1677),” Jared Mays (PhD student, Queen's University Belfast)
Option 2 in the Chapel: Owen, scholasticism, and the covenant of redemption
“John Owen’s ‘Theo-Christo-Pneumatology’: anti-Scotist or anti-scholastic?” Rev Dr Sam Bostock (Union Theological College, Belfast)
“The Pactum Salutis as a Communication of Divine Goodness,” Rev Dr R. Jason Pickard (Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Westminster Seminary CA)
1-2pm – Lunch in the Dining Room
2-3pm – Plenary lecture in the Chapel
“Pastoral and Literary Caregiving: Richard Baxter, ‘Puritan Man of Letters’,” Dr Alison Searle (Associate Professor of Textual Studies at the University of Leeds)
3-3.30pm – Afternoon tea in the Dining Room
3.30-5pm – Seminar options:
Option 1 in the Chapel: Owen and Catholicism
“Medieval Parallels to Owen’s Trinitarian Theology,” Dr Ryan M. McGraw (Professor of Systematic Theology, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary)
“Owen, Cane, and the Transatlantic History of Anti-Catholic Books,” Dr Zachary McCulley (Visiting Assistant Professor of History, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg VA)
Option 2 in Room 4: Owen and the Song of Solomon
“‘I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine’: John Owen on Union with Christ in the Song of Songs,” Richard Patton (PhD student, Union Theological College)
“John Owen’s exegesis of the Song of Songs in Communion with God in its seventeenth-century context,” Nathan W Parsons (PhD student, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
5-6pm – Screening of short film on Crossway works of Owen and panel discussion in the Chapel
6.30pm – College Closes
Tuesday 25 June
9.30-11am – Seminar options:
Option 1 in Chapel: Owen, Scripture, and the freedom of the will
“The Hebrew Text and the Septuagint: John Owen in the Reformed Tradition,” Levi Berntson (Assistant Professor of Theology, Reformation Bible College, Sanford FL)
“John Owen on the Freedom of the Will,” Dr Benedict Bird (Westminster Seminary, Newcastle)
Option 2 in Room 4: Receptions of Owen
“The Puritan and the Prelate: John Owen, Thomas Barlow and the Conformist Reception of Dissenting Literature,” Dr Adam Quibell (PhD Queen’s University Belfast)
“Contemporary reception of John Owen in Latin America: The formation of a new theological tradition,” Jaime Daniel Caballero Vilchez (PhD Student Queen’s University Belfast)
11-11.30am – Coffee
11.30am-1pm – Seminar options:
Option 1 in Room 4: Owen’s Θεολογουμενα παντοδαπα and human flourishing
“Cultivating Happiness and Virtue through Spiritual Affections: Exploring Human Flourishing in John Owen's Theology,” Dr Sam Hyeong Rae Jo (PhD Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Independent Scholar)
“The nature, rise, and progress of the Covenant of Grace: Petrus van Mastricht’s use of Owen’s Θεολογουμενα παντοδαπα in the Theoretico-Practica Theologia,” Dr T. M. Rester (Associate Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary PA)
Option 2 in the Chapel: Owen and the atonement
“What is the significance of Owen’s change of mind on the necessity of Christ’s satisfaction?”, Tim Laurence (University of St Andrews)
“Sacrifice in Hebrews - John Owen's commentary of Hebr 9 and 10 in the light of newer research,” Prof Dr Hans Burger (Professor of systematic theology, Theological University Utrecht)
1-2pm – Lunch in the Dining Room
2-3.30pm – Seminar options:
Option 1 in the Chapel: Owen and the beatific vision
“For Though We See in Part: John Owen's pastoral apprehension of blessedness in the Beatific Vision,” Wesley Lassiter (Lead Pastor of The Rock Church and student of Union Theological College and the BibleMesh Institute)
“John Owen, the Trinity, and the Beatific Vision,” David Driver (Lead Pastor of Forest City Bible Church, London ON)
The Thomistic Vision of Owen: A Remedy for Contemporary Revisions of John Owen's Account of the Beatific Vision, Josh Tinkham (PhD Student, Southern Evangelical Seminary)
Option 2 in Room 4: Owen and the covenants
“Reconsidering Owen’s Early Pastorate: Discovering New Covenant Theology,” Dr Ryan Shelton (PhD Queen’s University Belfast)
“An inconsistent Congregationalist? Examining the Connection Between the Covenant theology, Congregational ecclesiology, and Paedobaptism of John Owen,” Mike Anderson (Preaching Pastor, Citylight Church Center City, Philadelphia PA)
3.30-4pm – Afternoon break in the Chapel
4-5pm – Visit to the Special Collection of the McClay Library at Queen's University
5-6pm – Plenary lecture in the Chapel
“‘All Things Summed up in Christ’: Karl Barth and John Owen on Christocentrism,” Dr Ty Kieser (Assistant Professor of Theology, Criswell College TX)
7-7.30pm – Gamble Library exhibition
7.30pm – Conference gala dinner in the Dining Room
John Owen: Theology For Life and Ministry
Wednesday 26 June
9.30-10am – Registration and coffee in the Chapel
10-11am – Introduction and first session in the Chapel
Prof Crawford Gribben - John Owen’s spheres of reformation: individual, family, church, nation
11.00-11.30am – Morning coffee in the Dining Room
11.30am-12.15pm – Second session in the Chapel
Dr John Tweeddale - The increase of divine knowledge: John Owen on the goal of pastoral ministry
12.30-1.15 – Third session in the Chapel
Principal Michael McClenahan - The pathology of sin and pastoral care
1.15-2.15pm – Lunch in the Dining Room
2.15-3pm – Fourth session in the Chapel
Dr Martyn Cowan - John Owen the preacher
3-3.45pm – Afternoon tea
3.45-4.30pm – Final session in the Chapel
Dr Lee Gatiss - Why are you so dull? John Owen on the causes and cures of spiritual sloth
4.30-5pm – Panel discussion and Q&A in the Chapel
5-5.30pm – Bookshop will remain open.