Many evangelical theologians teach in universities, seminaries and colleges with little opportunity for dialogue, fellowship and encouragement from their evangelical brothers and sisters. The European Theologians Network has been designed to provide this context, and to make available an opportunity to interact with some of the world's leading evangelical scholars.

Applicants should be involved in full-time theological education (such as teachers, professors, and Theology PhD students). This Network will be led by Dr Peter (PJ) Williams, Warden at Tyndale House, Cambridge, and Dr Dirk Jongkind, Research Fellow in New Testament at Tyndale House and the John W. Laing Fellow at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. Also teaching in this Network are Dr Hans Bayer, Dr Wayne Grudem, Dr Gary Habermas, Stefan Lindholm, Andreas Matter-Tanski and Dr Erwin Lutzer. Prior preparation will be set for all applicants.

Peter (P.J.) Williams, co-leader of the Theologians Network, is the Warden (CEO) of Tyndale House. He received his MA, MPhil and PhD, in the study of ancient languages related to the Bible from Cambridge University. After his PhD, he was on staff in the Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge University (1997–1998), and thereafter taught Hebrew and Old Testament there as Affiliated Lecturer in Hebrew and Aramaic and as Research Fellow in Old Testament at Tyndale House, Cambridge (1998–2003). From 2003 to 2007 he was on the faculty of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, where he became a Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Deputy Head of the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy. In July 2007 he became the youngest Warden in the history of Tyndale House. He also retains his position as an honorary Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies at the University of Aberdeen and is a member of the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. 

Dirk Jongkind, co-leader of the Theologians Network, is a Dutch biblical scholar who finished his PhD at Cambridge University. His main scholarly interest is in the Greek text of the Bible and the Graeco-Roman backdrop of Acts and the letters. Currently, he is the Research Fellow in New Testament at Tyndale House and the John W. Laing Fellow at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. He is working on legal language in and outside the New Testament. The focus of his work includes textual criticism of the Greek Bible, with emphases on grammar and lexicography, epigraphy, papyrology, and archaeology of the Graeco-Roman world and the relation of New Testament background and exegesis.

Don Fairbairn, an American, became a devoted follower of Christ in 1982 while he was a university student. In the 1990s, Don did student ministry in Tbilisi, Georgia and then taught theology full-time at Donetsk Christian University in Ukraine. He married his wife Jennifer (who had ministered in Ukraine and Uzbekistan) in 1999, and they have two children, Trey (age 8) and Ella (age 6). In the 2000s, Don has taught modular courses on topics related to Eastern Orthodoxy and the early Greek Church in Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Belgium, England, and Canada, as well as the United States. His on-going positions are as professor of historical theology at Erskine Theological Seminary in South Carolina, USA (full-time) and Evangelische Theologische Faculteit in Leuven, Belgium (part-time). He holds an A.B. from Princeton University, an M.Div. from Denver Seminary, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. His books include Life in the Trinity (IVP Academic, 2009) and Eastern Orthodoxy Through Western Eyes (WJKP, 2002).  

Wayne Grudem became Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary in 2001 after teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for 20 years. He has served as the President of the Evangelical Theological Society (1999), as a member of the Translation Oversight Committee for the English Standard Version of the Bible, and as General Editor for the ESV Study Bible. He has written more than 100 articles for both popular and academic journals, and his books include: Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, The First Epistle of Peter and Business for the Glory of God. He has also edited, Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views.

Scott Manetsch serves on the church history faculty at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is ordained in the Reformed Church in America, and served as an Associate Pastor for several years before pursuing his doctoral studies in early modern European history under the direction of Heiko A. Oberman at the University of Arizona and in Geneva, Switzerland.  He is the author of Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572-1598 (Brill, 2000), and the co-editor of The Great Commission: Evangelicals and the History of World Missions (Broadman, 2008).  He is presently working on a monograph exploring the pastoral theology and practice of John Calvin and the ministers of Geneva from 1542-1609.  He is the associate general editor of the Reformation Commentary Series (InterVarsity Press; 28 volumes forthcoming) and a member of the Calvin Studies Society, the Sixteenth Century Studies Society, and the American Society of Church History.

Andreas Matter-Tanski is a lawyer and economist, practicing economic law at the Supreme Court of Switzerland. Besides his professional activity, he has specialised in the fields of sociology and history of law and conflicts. He is particularly interested in the way society tries to restrain violence and uses conflicts, as well as their settlement in different arenas (law courts, mass media, political and economic institutions, etc.), to continually redefine the possible spheres and the unavoidable limits of order and peace, shared values and acceptable antagonisms. A few years ago, he has expanded his interests towards a cultural anthropology of conflicts and violence (mainly through the French anthropologist René Girard) and a social, legal and economic anthropology of the Gospel of Luke (especially a cultural history of violence, indifference and compassion rooted in the Parable of the Good Samaritan). Andreas is married with Friederike, a German cardiologist.

Pavel Hanes was awarded an MA in theology by the Lutheran Theological Faculty in Bratislava (1977-1982). He became a Baptist pastor in August 1982 and served for nearly 11 years in the north of Slovakia (1982-1993). In 1993, he was invited to teach at the Theological Mission Seminary (now Chair of Evangelical Theology and Mission) in Banska Bystrica. He first taught Church History, Greek and Missiology and later began to teach the Old Testament and Philosophy. In 2002 he received his PhD (Systematic Theology and Old Testament) from the Lutheran Theological Faculty.

Dana Hanesova received her Bachelor’s and first Master’s degree in Information and Librarian Science at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia (1983).  A second Master's in Pedagogy and Teaching English Language in 1995 was followed by her PhD in 2003 in the Art of Teaching Languages and in 2004 a mini Doctorate in Religious Education (R.E.). Being a Christian and a pastor’s wife she was forbidden to work as a professional in Slovakia until the fall of Communism in 1989. After the Velvet Revolution she was allowed to start teaching at a primary school. Since 1993 she has been teaching at the Department of Evangelical Theology and Mission (DETM) at the University of Matej Bel in Banská Bystrica. She is married to Pavel, a former Baptist pastor and a current teacher at DETM. They have two children.

Day 1

The Trinity and Salvation in Modern Eastern Orthodoxy

Dan Fairbairn

This seminar outlines the modern Eastern Orthodox understanding of the Trinity in contrast to a typical modern Western understanding, with the filioque as the crucial issue dividing the two views. It then explains the concept of theosis (the Christian’s union with God the Trinity) that lies at the heart of Eastern Orthodox theology, focusing on the idea of theosis as participation in God’s energies. The session further explains the historical development of this modern Orthodox understanding of the Trinity and of theosis (looking in particular at Gregory of Nyssa, Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, and Gregory Palamas) and deals with some of the problems inherent in this understanding. Finally, the seminar closes with the claim that this modern Orthodox teaching reflects only one strand of thought in the early Greek Church, a strand that is (in the speaker’s opinion) not the best and most biblical strand.

The Trinity and Salvation in the Early Greek Church

Dan Fairbairn

Building on the previous seminar, this session examines the strand of Greek patristic thought that he believes is most biblical and most fruitful for evangelicals to learn from. Focusing in particular on Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, the session describes the early patristic understanding of the Trinity as a fellowship of three persons who are a single God, on the way the incarnation and the atonement bring this fellowship to us, and on salvation as Christians’ participation in the fellowship that unites the persons of the Trinity. Although this strand of thought unfortunately did not win out in Orthodoxy, it may actually have been the consensus of the early Greek church, as it is thoroughly biblical (and especially Johannine), and it in fact describes the truths than undergird the modern evangelical focus on “personal relationship with Christ.”

Day 2

Stand Firm in the Faith (1 Cor. 16:13-14)

Wayne Grudem

How can the teaching of Scripture and the courage and faith of Christians such as Paul, Athanasius, and William Tyndale encourage us to stand firm today in the face of doctrinal drift, false teaching, hostility from government and the media, and even violent persecution? This session will enumerate some of the most significant threats we are facing that oppose biblical doctrine and morality. It will then suggest reasons why God allows Christians to be tested and why he wants us to stand firm, as well as how to know when compromise is preferable to intransigence, and, finally, how God promises to strengthen and reward those who will stand firm when tested.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan: A short history of its reception, rejection, and distortion 

Andreas Matter-Tanski

This parable has been called the world's most famous short story. Its message of compassion permeated the Graeco-Roman culture then contributed to transform all subsequent societies exposed to biblical Christianity. Its ethos has influenced many thinkers (among them Arthur Schopenhauer and Emmanuel Levinas) and inspired men like William Wilberforce, Henri Dunant, and Oskar Schindler. But in all eras, it has also been violently rejected by some, especially by Friedrich Nietzsche. Some scholars have even claimed that the parable is anti-Semetic and should thus be ousted from the Bible. Over the centuries, there have also been numerous distortions, many of them stemming from a rigid legalistic spirit. In our time, this type of legalism is a common ground for several "politically  correct" reshapings of the parable's meaning. 

Day 3

The Temptations and Vices of Academia

Dirk Jongkind

Christians are, like any other people, curious by nature. We want to know things, investigate the world around us, investigate ourselves and our history. The university is a place that confesses to be the institution in which we can pursue our quest for knowledge in the most objective and honest manner possible. This is the great Academic Dream, a common pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake by people who value one another for this reason only, regardless of someone's own opinions or personal convictions.

Yet, people within the university are not perfect, our aims are not always as unselfish as the Academic Dream requires, and there are quite a few less pleasant aspects of the academic life. Christians face serious dangers of being lured away from the Christian way—not so much by the pieces of information we study, but by the hidden aspects of the academic package that are not mentioned on the label. From a biblical perspective we will have a look at the following topics:

• The Christian and the privilege of being an academic ('What are the dangers of being different from others in the church?')

• The Christian and knowing prestigious things ('What are the dangers of studying, what does it do to what we are, to our personal life?).

• The Christian and knowing more prestigious things than my colleague does ('The dark side of trying to get higher up in life').

Is the Reformation Over?

Scott Manetsch

Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the Roman Catholic Church has undergone significant changes and has engaged in intense ecumenical discussions with Orthodox, mainline Protestant, and Evangelical churches, seeking to discover new grounds for unity and collaboration.  Some commentators in North America have even suggested that the essential differences separating Catholic and Protestant Christians since the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation have now been redressed.  In this session, an historian of early modern Europe examines the question “Is the Reformation Over?” in light of historical analysis of the primary concerns and contributions of sixteenth century reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. 

Day 4

Educational Paradigms in Europe and the Status of Religion/Theology in Education

Dana Hanesova (with Pavel Hanes)

The aim of the session is to present participants with some comparative data about educational paradigms functioning in some European countries. Special attention will be paid to their approach to the inclusion of belief and theology into various levels of education. Firstly, the presenters will focus on comparison of state schools versus confessional (church) elementary and secondary schools in specific countries. Secondly, the status of religious education and some models of its practical application by various churches and religious groups will be introduced. Thirdly, various approaches to the tertiary (university) theological education in Europe in the context of various confessions/churches will be discussed.

How to Develop New Apologetic Arguments

Peter Williams

Most sophisticated evangelical apologetics nowadays are not actually apologetics for the historical reliability of the Scriptures. It appears that philosophical and worldview apologetics have made more advances recently than biblical apologetics and that many of the arguments that are used in evangelism by Christians have shown little progress over a number of decades. This talk considers how new arguments have been developed by individuals such as K.A. Kitchen and Richard Bauckham, the case that there exists a very large number of arguments for the Bible which have not yet been discovered. It then sets out a method for how to discover, develop, refine and present new arguments for the truth of the Scriptures.