Centres of Learning
What Our Students Say
See More
Quick Links
Contact Us
Email courses@sarum.ac.uk
Tel 01722 424800Forthcoming Courses
Mon 18Mon 18Wash Your Hands and Keep Social Distance: Reading Biblical Purity Laws in a Time of COVID
Mon 18 January, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pmTue 19Exploring Theology: Exploring Modern Developments in Theological Conversations
Tue 19 January, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pmMeet the Academic Staff
Sonia Woolley
Scholar in Residence Read more
Paul Burden
Coordinator, Centre for Formation in Ministry and Director of Contextual Learning Read more
Jill Hopkinson
Tutor in Rural Ministry, Centre for Formation in Ministry Read more
All academic staff

- This event has passed.
Cocoa After Wine: A Day on Iris Murdoch’s Novels
- Course Dates: Thu 2 November 2017, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

This day will explore the theological and spiritual strands in some of the 26 novels of the late Dame Iris Murdoch.
She described herself as a Christian Buddhist and saw the value of religion and its future in believing in a non-transcendent God, and she was clearly fascinated by and drawn back to spiritual and religious ideas.
Her novels are full of priests, members of religious communities, gurus and spiritual guides, which are much more than either stock characters or figures of fun. Her philosophical interest in goodness as a moral imperative (see her Sovereignty of Good) is a constant in her writing but more than that her later novels seems to re-value and re-interpret some of the basic Christian doctrines of redemption, atonement, christology and baptismal re-generation.
Familiarity with some of Dame Iris’s works will be an advantage but is not essential, as some notes on and examples of the literature will be provided on the day.