At the Threshold
At the Threshold

The Films

Judith Wolfe

Begin With the End

“We have to take seriously the claim that we do not yet live in the world as it will be, and as we will be, and that we have to live towards an eschaton, a presence of God in the world, which is not only not yet apparent, but is not even comprehensible to us. So how do we live authentically in this life?”

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Judith Wolfe, Professor of Philosophical Theology, University of St Andrews, Scotland.

Lieven Boeve

The Open Narrative of Love

“For Christians, professing Christ is the interruption par excellence of history. It is this God and this interruption to which the Christian narrative bears witness. A witness that never attempts to completely grasp or contain this God. Belief in the resurrection is the sharpest expression of this. When narratives are forced shut, even unto death, God nevertheless still breaks them open.”

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Lieven Boeve, Professor of Theology at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium, and Director-General of Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen, the Flemish Office for Catholic Education.

David Brown

The Greater Part

“Christians are often reluctant to talk about the Bible as fallible because it looks as though it’s being disrespectful to a text. But Christianity doesn’t actually primarily believe in a text, it believes in a personal reality that is God. Those who place very heavy emphasis on the text and may even treat it as infallible, what they don’t realize is that they’re actually indulging in a form of idolatry.”

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David Brown, Emeritus Professor St Andrews, Scotland. David taught at the universities of Oxford, Durham, and St. Andrews before retiring in 2015.

Garrick Allen

To Imagine That

“The Book of Revelation is a place that you go when you want to learn about the doctrine of the end times. For me, the Book of Revelation is about how to live in a system that is unjust. The only thing that’s the future about Revelation is the New Jerusalem in Chapters 21 and 22. This is John’s response to this oppressive system, and it gives us space to rethink what a just system would look like in our world — to begin to imagine that.”

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Dr Garrick Allen, Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies (New Testament), University of Glasgow

Perry Schmidt-Leukel

The Radiance

“Why are there so many religious traditions in the world? Why is there such a diversity of astonishing truths and insights? Global religions resemble each other within their differences. By studying a different religious tradition, you can experience how different kinds of light will fall on certain elements of your own tradition. How can we illuminate each other, for the benefit of the whole of humanity?”

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Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Professor of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology at the University of Muenster, Germany, and Director of the Institute for Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology.

Ann Loades

Danseuse

“There were very few women employed in universities when I got my job, and hardly any in theology. The one thing I had going for me was determination to survive. You don’t have to accept all the things that you see around you, I mean, there are things that you can actually do a great deal about. You don’t get change unless you’re willing to stick your neck out, even if somebody’s gonna chop your head off.”

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Ann Loades was Honorary Professorial Fellow of St. Chad’s College and Professor Emerita in Divinity at the University of Durham, UK, where she was the first woman to be given a chair personal to herself. She was also one of only two people ever to be awarded a CBE by the Queen for services to theology.

Ann passed away on Dec 6, 2022.

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