We are very excited to announce our Fifth Annual Convivium Irenicum, gathering once again at Davenant House in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina. This event serves as a microcosm of the Davenant Trust’s mission, and, for many of our attendees, as the capstone to each academic year. For three days we do much more than present and listen to papers—we eat together, drink together, worship together, discuss abstruse philosophical questions, hard pastoral challenges, and our favorite new movies together as we walk through the woods or recline on the porch. We bring together not merely scholars and grad students, but pastors and other church leaders, and even businessmen and public servants. Together, we explore what it means to retrieve the wisdom of our Protestant and catholic past for the sake of our church and nation today.
In past years, we have explored themes of Reformed Irenicism, Creation and Redemption, Protestant Political Theology, and Confessionalism. This year, we will be exploring the immensely important topic of the Doctrine of God, using it as a lens through which to consider broader questions of how our biblical theology should inform our systematic theology and vice versa, and how to teach key tenets of classic Christian dogmatics in a 21st-century context of pragmatism, emotivism, and disdain for history. Our plenary speaker will be Dr. Fred Sanders of the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University, author The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (2nd ed., Crossway, forthcoming 2016) and The Triune God (Zondervan, 2016).
We can report with both pride and regret that due to the great popularity of this event, all available slots were taken within 48 hours of registration opening last week. However, if you are interested in attending, and especially if you are interested in presenting a paper (please view the full Call for Papers here), go ahead and register at the bottom of this page to get on our waiting list, as there are usually several cancellations. We may also see about doing a follow-up event later in the summer, or facilitating some kind of live-stream participation, for those who wish to attend but are unable to, so it would be helpful to get an sense of additional interest.