Tutorials
When selecting your tutorials, please consult the Theology Faculty website, which contains detailed information about the courses available. You can request first year courses (prelims), or second/third year courses (final honour schools).
Please note that as visiting students are not matriculated, they are not eligible to sit university examinations, therefore students will be assessed on their weekly essays submitted and their contributions in tutorials.
Bespoke LMH Tutorials
COURSE I: The Face of God in Visual Arts
Christianity has been a source of inspiration for countless artists throughout almost two thousand years and the Church was a major patron for the arts throughout centuries. Representations of Jesus abound, from the Good Shepherd in early Christian art (Dura-Europos) to contemporary representations (Emmanuel Garibay, Emmaus, 2000) wrestling with the artistic challenge of representing a body both fully human and fully divine. In this course, we explore how artists addressed this challenge: some seeking to represent the historical Jesus, some combining both natures in one image, some illustrating the theological implication of Jesus dying for the whole of humanity.
The approach is not chronological. We first focus on painters and writers who have highlighted the limitations of white Western Christian Art and have questioned the narrowing of God to white (male) representations. We then look at Western art being the product of inculturation, beginning with the early Christian period and how Christian art emerged and adjusted to pagan iconography in the Roman Empire. We finally look at artworks offering representations of God beyond the human face, mostly through abstract art.
Course Tutor: Rev'd Dr Stephanie Burette
COURSE II: God in Wartime: Visual Explorations from 1912 to 1946
In the midst of extreme situations, such as wars, what does art have to offer, especially in relation to faith? This course is not about theodicy, though it inevitably raises the question of the presence of God in the midst of wars. Instead, it explores how artists, especially British painters in the two-world war period, revisited Christian imagery to incorporate or respond to the lived experiences of their contemporaries.
This course offers an in-depth analysis and exploration of a series of artworks in chronological order, highlighting overlaps, recurrences, as well as innovations and breakthroughs. What we observe is not a linear process. We begin with World War I examples of war painters, both at the front and at the rear, and end with artworks commemorating individuals and the collective suffering. We continue with the inter-war period, with both its puzzlement, revival, hopes and anticipation of another world conflict. We close with World War II, both in Britain and in the Far East, focusing on arts created in Prisoner-of-War camps and concentration camps.
Course Tutor: Rev'd Dr Stephanie Burette
A Typical Week
Each week, students studying Theology devote much of their time to essay writing and doing the necessary in-depth reading and thinking in preparation for this. When completed, the essay will be discussed with a Tutor, either in LMH or with an external Tutor at another College. Students are also expected to attend the appropriate university lectures and classes recommended by their Tutor; these are often held in the Examination Schools, but may also be in the Theology faculty centre or elsewhere.
Advice on submitted written work
Please submit 2 recent essays which are relevant to the topics you are interested in pursuing at LMH.
Tutors and lecturers
Prof Jan Westerhoff is Fellow & Tutor in Theology and Religion
The Rev'd Dr Stephanie Burette is the College Chaplain