Conversational Theology

In the kitchen this morning I met Onesimus who, in addition to having a fantastic name, is also doing some interesting research into the history of marriage in the church. Apparently, the notion that marriages should happen in churches, performed by ministers, is a mediaeval one. Thomas Aquinas made the case for marriage to be included in the list of sacraments and it was this which brought the ceremony into the church. Maybe everyone else already knew this but I was really surprised to hear that this was such a late development. What’s interesting, of course, is that although Protestant churches no longer accept marriage as a sacrament in the way that Aquinas did, we still continue the practice of church marriages.

At coffee after chapel I met someone who works at St Andrew the Great who was very enthusiastic about my work on the Song of Songs after hearing Mark Ashton preaching on the Song and referring to my MTh thesis, so that was nice. (There were also exceptionally good cakes after chapel today. Here, virtue is clearly not its own reward, we have cakes instead.)

And at tea I was talking to someone who is working on the links between Job and Psalms, but whose MLitt thesis had included a section on wisdom themes in the Song of Songs. Very interesting indeed.