Augustinian Resemblances

Augustinian Resemblances (AR) is a project of the Faculty of Theology and Religion. The project seeks to renew common purpose across patristics, systematics, and ethics through the shared reception of Augustine's theology and authority. Inter-ecclesial in orientation and grounded in an ethos of scholarly friendship, the project examines how Augustine and the Augustinian traditions furnish Anglican, Roman Catholic, Reformed, and Orthodox confessions with a shared lingua franca and a stable set of doctrinal and pastoral affinities. 
 
Borrowing Wittgenstein's image of family resemblances, it traces these "Augustinian resemblances" through their interlocutors and into contemporary academic, political, social, and ecclesial life. The current phase establishes a rigorous historical and exegetical foundation and its bearing on systematic theology and ethics, before extending outward to the arts, sciences, and broader humanities.
People Involved

Project Affiliates and Associates

Rev. Prof. Oskari Juurikkala — Professor of Fundamental Theology, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome; Visiting Scholar at Oxford, 2026. 

Dr Marie-Ange Rakotoniaina — Lecturer in Early Christianity, Fordham University, New York.

Nathaniel Hudson, DPhil student in Christian ethics, University of Oxford. 

Activities and Events

Events

1. Pusey House Annual Theology Conference: 'Receiving Augustine' (November 2026)
Augustinian Resemblances is the academic partner for the 2026 Pusey House annual theology conference. Details, speaker announcements, and registration coming soon. 
 
2. European Academy of Religion Panels (2026)
 
Ars Dei and the Word Through Whom All Things Were Made: Christology and Creation in the Augustinian Tradition
 
3. Beyond Language 2026 – University of Vienna (26–27 June 2026)
 
Keynote: "Realities Signified Are to Be Valued More Highly Than Their Signs": Augustine on Signification, the Inner Teacher, and the Intimacy of Meaning 
 
Dr David A. C. Bennett (University of Oxford)

 

 

3. An Augustinian Resemblances Symposium

Location: Pusey House, Oxford

Date: Thursday, 4 December 2025

The Christological motif of the wounded healer or Christus medicus is a conceptual catalyst for reflection and prayer, in an epoch marked by political and social fragmentation and a desire for therapeutic transformation. For this Augustinian Resemblances symposium, we invite contributions which explore the therapeutic and aesthetic aspects of Augustine’s grand metaphor, as extant both in the Augustinian corpus and its later reception.

Papers of 20 minutes in length will examine the Augustinian motif of ‘medical Christology’ from a historical, systematic, or ethical angle, and encompass such topics and fields of enquiry as the doctrine of God, grace, love, sanctification, ecclesiology, political theology, technology, the ethics of environmental care, sexuality, gender, disability, mental health.

While registered places for lunch are now full, but a limited number of spaces remain to attend. To register, please email david.bennett@theology.ox.ac.uk by 1 December 2025.

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Lectures

 

There are no upcoming lectures at the moment. 

 

Please check back soon. 

 

Past Events and Lectures

A chronological record of AR's symposia, lectures, panels, and major engagements. 

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  • December 2025 — Wounded Healer Symposium, Pusey House. Inaugural AR symposium 'Christus Medicus' on Augustine's Christology of the Great Physician. 50 attendees; 9 papers; keynotes from Dr Susan Griffith and Professor Anthony Dupont; interview with Associate Professor Mark McInroy. 
  • Spring 2024/2025 — Reality San Francisco. Heresy lecture series on Augustinian theology: love and salvation, Christology, the Trinity, and anthropological heresies, and problematising the development of Eastern and Western traditions. 
  • European Academy of Religion 2025 — 'The Metaphysics of Beauty and Love in Augustine'. Five papers. 
  • Public lecture, Pusey House, by Dr David Bennett. 'Humilitas and the Seed of a Christian Humanism: Returning to Augustine's Incarnational Ethics of the City of God.' 

  • Four public lectures on Augustine and Augustinian theology — Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. Delivered in cooperation with the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome. Speakers include Professor Lewis Ayres. Attendance 30–50+ per lecture. 
  • Two Cities Podcast. Episodes on an Augustinian theology of love and on Christology ('The Last Temptation'). 

  • AR launch — Oxford Patristics Society. Launch panel; papers to appear in a forthcoming Studia Patristica special issue (2026).