Over the summer 46 Heads of Religious Education from the diocese attended their annual conference in the crypt of
St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place.
The keynote speaker was Fr Brian Davies OP, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, New York, and a world authority on St Thomas Aquinas.
The teachers had used Fr Brian’s books on Aquinas in their own studies and now use his material teaching A Level Religious Studies – Philosophy and Ethics, which draws heavily on the writings of the thirteenth-century Dominican philosopher and theologian.
Fr Brian gave two stimulating lectures, one on ‘Aquinas on God and Evil’ and the second on ‘Aquinas on Teaching and Learning’. In the latter, he reminded his audience of the significance of their role in their students’ lives. ‘Aquinas holds that teachers should be proud of themselves since they share in God’s work … “The minds of teachers … are watered by the things that are above in the wisdom of God, and by their ministry the light of divine wisdom flows down into the minds of students.” (from Aquinas’s inaugural lecture as a Master of Theology at Paris, 1256)’.
