The Christian Heritage Centre

Newman 101:
Why Newman Still Matters Today
[online conference]

Saturday 31 October @4pm

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Beatification
and the 1st Anniversary of Canonisation

An informal, online colloquium exploring a range of themes from Newman’s legacy, with some of the U.K.’s leading Newman scholars!

J.H. Newman is the latest English person to be made a saint. Considered to be one of the leading intellectuals of his day, he made a remarkable conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism through his study of Scripture and the history. In an increasingly politically- and scientifically-oriented world, his search for truth and reason resonate strongly today and carry incisive lessons for the 21st century.

Join Dr Giuseppe Pezzini, Dr Rebekah Lamb, Dr Jacob Philips and Leonie Caldecott in a fascinating exploration of Newman’s world!

The colloquium will include:

  • A 15-minute paper by each scholar – see below
  • Roundtable discussion
  • General Q&A with the opportunity to present your own questions
Dr Giuseppe Pezzini
Paper 1 - Newman on Imagination: Callista Revisited

Dr. Giuseppe Pezzini is Senior Lecturer in Latin at the University of St Andrew’s, and from August 2021 Tutorial Fellow in Latin Language and Literature at Corpus Christi College Oxford. He came to St Andrews in 2016 after research fellowships at Magdalen College, Oxford and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He worked as an assistant editor for the Oxford Dictionary of Medieval Latin, and has published especially on Latin language and literature, philosophy of language, and the theory of fiction, ancient and modern, including above all Tolkien’s views on the ‘mystery of literary creation’. He is an Associate of the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Art in St Andrews and the Tolkien Editor of the Journal of the Inklings Studies. He is a member of the RSE Young Academy Scotland, the Young Academy of Europe, and a collaborator of the Meeting of Rimini, for which he has curated exhibitions on John Henry Newman (2011, 2014), Oscar Wilde (2015) and JRR Tolkien (2021).

Paper 2 - Newman's Marian Turn

Dr. Rebekah Lamb lectures at the School of Divinity, University of St. Andrew’s. She specialises in Religion and Literature from the long-nineteenth century to the present, with  emphasis on the Pre-Raphaelites and their affiliate circles. She joined the School of Divinity in 2018. Prior to St. Andrews Rebekah was an inaugural Étienne Gilson Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) in the University of Toronto and also taught Literature and Humanities Studies at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College (SWC) in the Ottawa Valley. She received her PhD in Victorian and Twentieth-Century British and Irish Literature as well as her Masters in English Literature from Western University (London, Ontario, Canada).

Dr Jacob Philips
Paper 3 - Newman on Why Culture Matters

Jacob Phillips is Director of the Institute of Theology and Liberal Arts at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. He joined St Mary’s as a lecturer in theology in 2016, has headed-up the Institute of Theology since its inception in August 2018, as well as overseeing its merger with the humanities to create the new Institute of Theology and Liberal Arts in September 2020.

Jacob holds a first-class degree in Theology from Heythrop College, where he was awarded the Marcus Ward Prize for New Testament studies, and a distinction in his MA from King’s College London, where he was awarded the Relton Prize for Christian Doctrine. He completed his PhD at King’s College on Human Subjectivity in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Leonie Caldecott
Paper 4 - Newman: Friend & Pastor in the Work of Meriol Trevor

Léonie Caldecott, MA (Oxon.), was educated at Hertford College, Oxford, where she read French and Philosophy. In the early 1980s she won the Catherine Pakenham Award for Young Women Journalists, and has since written for both secular and religious publications, including the Guardian, the Sunday TimesVillage Voice, the New York Times Book ReviewCommunioCatholic World ReportInside the Vatican, the Tablet, the Catholic HeraldTouchstone, and Parabola. She has written on Blessed John Henry Newman and St Therese of Lisieux for CTS. She is the UK editor for Magnificat and Humanum Review, and directs the annual Second Spring summer school.

***Admission is free. We kindly request a donation to support the costs of our activities.***

Recommended donation for this event is £15. Please donate here:


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