Wrestling with God: Clare Amos kicks off Readers' Conference with study of Jacob and the Angel




As preaching and interpreting the bible is a central feature of the ministry of Reader, it was appropriate that one of the keynote speakers at the Diocesan Readers' Conference held in Cologne from 15 to 18 June was a biblical scholar, Dr Clare Amos. Clare is the Programme Director for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation at the World Council of Churches, a theological educator, and has taught Old and New Testament studies in Jerusalem, Beirut, Cambridge, London and Kent. She was also a former editor of the national journal The Reader. One of her most recent works is a commentary on Genesis.

Clare led a bible study on Genesis 32 and 33 (the story of Jacob wrestling with the Angel) and another on the Transfiguration. She also led a plenary session on some issues in biblical hermeneutics, particularly apt for this conference of lay theologians and preachers. (Indeed she thought our Readers should be called hermeneuts!)

Clare inspired the participants at the conference with the vision of Archbishop Michael Ramsey: "to be a theologian is to be explosed to the vision of heaven and the tragedies of mankind".

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