Short summer courses
'What is God?'
Philosophical, Christian
and Islamic Approaches
22nd - 25th August 2025
Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? What theological grounds for dialogue are there between the two faiths?
In partnership with
In considering concepts of God, this course will first differentiate between the knowledge of God that is attainable naturally, by human reason, and the knowledge of God that comes from Divine revelation, and so provide a brief, philosophical account of the Divine.
From this basis, the concept of God as formulated in the Islamic tradition will be examined, before providing a study of the Christian accounts of the Trinity and of the Incarnate Son of God, as synthesised in Thomas Aquinas’ writings. A final lecture will draw a comparison between the two monotheistic accounts.
The lectures will be interspersed with workshop sessions in which participants will be able to further discuss and unpack the lecture material.
The course requires no prior qualification or knowledge, but is intended to serve as an introduction or primer to Catholic, Thomistic philosophy and theology.
The course is offered to anyone wishing to engage in this area. It may be of special interest to future, current or former students of philosophy and theology, and secondary-level teachers of the same.
For queries about the course content or requirements, please contact Dr George Corbett at [email protected]
CEPHAS courses are built around a combination of philosophical and theological lectures and workshops, with plenty of discussion.
A guest talk, accompanied by good wine, is offered on one of the evenings.
The course is framed by opportunities for Mass during the day and communal prayer in the morning and evening.
Dr Fernando Cervantes is a historian of early modern Europe specialising in the intellectual and religious history of early modern Spain and Spanish America. Between 2005 and 2008 he was principal investigator of a major Leverhulme Research Project entitled The Celestial and the Fallen: Angels and Demons in the Hispanic World. With Dr Andrew Redden of Liverpool University, he is currently completing work on a co-authored monograph. A co-edited collection of essays entitled Angels, Demons and the New World was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013. His most recent book, Conquistadores: A New History, was published by Allen Lane/Penguin in 2020 and by Viking in 2021. Longer term projects include a study of the literary imagination of early modern Europe that seeks to place the works of Montaigne, Cervantes and Shakespeare in the wider context of early modern humanism and the epistemological crisis of the early seventeenth century. Dr Cervantes was the John Coffin Memorial Lecturer in the History of Ideas at the University of London in 2005 and has held fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA, and the Liguria Study Centre for the Arts and the Humanities, Bogliasco, Italy. In the Spring quarter of 2009 he held the Tipton Distinguished Visiting Chair at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was also Series Editor for Pickering and Chatto’s (now Routledge) “Religious Cultures in the Early Modern World” until 2018.
Prof. George Corbett (Director of CEPHAS) is Professor of Theology at the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews. Previously, he held positions as Junior Research Fellow in Philosophy, Trinity College, and affiliated lecturer, University of Cambridge. He received his BA (double first), MPhil (distinction), and PhD (AHRC-funded) from the University of Cambridge. He has also studied in Pisa (as an Erasmus-Socrates exchange scholar at La Scuola Normale Superiore), Rome (Institutum Pontificium Alterioris Latinitatis), and Montella (Vivarium Novum).
He teaches and researches in historical and systematic theology (with specialisms in medieval theology, Aquinas’s theology and its influence, and Catholic theology) and theology and the arts (with specialisms in Dante studies, sacred music, and theological aesthetics).
Prof. Corbett is the author of Dante’s Christian Ethics: Purgatory and Its Moral Contexts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Dante and Epicurus: A Dualistic Vision of Secular and Spiritual Fulfilment (Oxford: Legenda, 2013), and is co-editor of Vertical Readings in Dante’s Comedy, 3 vols (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2015-17), an international collaboration by thirty-four scholars on a reappraisal of the whole poem. He has also published on Aquinas, sacred music, medieval theology, and the arts.
Sr Valery Walker, O.P. is a Dominican Sister of the Stone Congregation. In the early 1970s, she was introduced by Fr Romuald Horn O.P. to a particular method of studying the Summa Theologica of St Thomas Aquinas. Since then, she has run numerous study days on Saint Thomas study days and weekends.
Sr. Magdalene Eitenmiller, O.P. is a Dominican sister of the Stone Congregation.
She received a Master’s degree in Theology (Ave Maria University, Florida), and the Licentiate in Sacred Theology in Thomistic Studies (Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C.), and has obtained her doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome. She is the author of “On the Separated Soul according to St. Thomas Aquinas,” Nova et Vetera 17.1 (2019):57-91 and “Grace as Participation according to St. Thomas Aquinas” New Blackfriars (2017): 689-708, among other publications.
Sr. Magdalene teaches courses on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas online, and has developed a website called Thomisticstudies.org, as well as a Youtube channel, Facebook, and Instagram pages.
Theodore House offers a wonderful venue for any residential course. The tranquil and beautiful surroundings of the Stonyhurst estate offer a peaceful setting with endless opportunities for walks. Guests will enjoy the comfortable recreational spaces and a beautifully lanscaped garden.
For more information about Theodore House, please click here.
- Arrivals from 3pm (Friday)
- Course commences with dinner at 7pm (Friday) and introductions; lectures commence Saturday at 9:15am.
- Departures after lunch (Monday)
Cost
Single room: £350 p.p.*
Twin room (sharing): £285 p.p.*
Non-residential, (includes lunch and dinner): £190 p.p.
*Costs include full board from Friday dinner to Monday lunch inclusive.
Bursaries are available for anyone (whether employed or not) who would like to come but would benefit from financial assistance. Please contact us at [email protected] for further information.
“My first Cephas event has been excellent and I would recommend to everyone to attend. Hope to book for next year’s. Great learning environment, relaxed and no pressure, which I really appreciated.“
“It’s a real tribute to everyone who has been involved in pulling off such a huge topic brilliantly. Well done!“
Please register below (includes £50 p.p. deposit payment):
Venue & Getting to us:
If you are reliant on public transport, please consider traveling by train to Preston train station. From there, we aim to co-ordinate minicab shares or lifts amongst participants of any given event. If you require further advice or assistance, email us: [email protected]
Stefan and Ella Kaminski both have Licentiates from the John Paul II Institute for Studies in Marriage and Family Life, having dedicated their studies to the themes of human love and sexual complementarity. Stefan serves as Director of The Christian Heritage Centre, where he has been creating and delivering Catholic formation content for the last five years. Ella previously worked at the John Paul II Institute in Rome, before joining Stefan in Lancashire following their marriage. She is engaged in teaching dogmatic theology to seminarians on the one hand, and 5-year-olds on the other. Together, they offer marriage preparation courses and ongoing formation for catechetists.
Fr Roger Dawson SJ is a Jesuit priest, previously Director of St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre. He is trained as a clinical psychologist and has a long experience as retreat and spiritual director. He is currently the Superior of the Jesuits in Scotland.
Fr Emmanuel Mansford is originally from a small village in Bedfordshire. He joined the Franciscan of the Renewal in the Bronx, NY in 1998 and made his solemn vows in 2003. Ordained a priest in 2007, he lived for several years in the friary in the East End of London where he served as the local superior. In 2014 he became the vocation director for the friars and lived in New York City where he was involved in the friars apostolates of preaching the Gospel and serving the needy. He has a passion for preaching and people and loves to see God’s people encounter Him and come to life through the Gospel. He also enjoys playing and watching football and is a boyhood fan of Luton Town FC. He recently moved back to the UK to serve with the friars in their mission in Bradford.
Fr Matthew Jarvis is Prior of 
Born and brought up in Greater Manchester, Mgr John Allen trained for the priesthood at the Venerable English College, studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He served as archivist at the Venerabile and trained in the Scuola Vaticana di Paleografia e Diplomatica at the Vatican Archives. Present in St Peter’s at the opening of the Second Vatican Council on 11 October 1962, he was ordained priest that same month. He has served in the diocese of Salford as curate and parish priest and for eighteen years was secretary to Bishop Thomas Holland. Pope St Paul VI appointed him a papal chaplain in 1977. In 1982 Pope St John Paul II named him a prelate of honour. Elected to the Old Brotherhood of the English Secular Clergy in 1999, he has been president since 2014. Publications include The English Hospice in Rome (ed.), The International Eucharistic Congresses: A Spiritual Odyssey 1881-2016, Palazzola 1920-2020, A Popular History of the Salford Diocese and Pilgrims of Hope: Out and About in the Salford Diocese.
