THE S. PAUL'S STUDY GROUP
THE OMEGA COURSE
Thursdays on ZOOM, 8.30 -10pm.
All are welcome.
What is the OMEGA COURSE?
Fr Paul, the Rector of SPD, began 'The Omega Course' during the Covid lockdown as a way to encourage Christian education in the parish. It is named from the last letter in the Koine Greek Alphabet, ('as far away from Alpha as is possible', let the reader understand.)
The Course on ZOOM is also what some might call a 'Home' or 'Fellowship' Group, where we catch up with one another, offer support, prayer and solidarity, as well as doing some participatory theological study together. The Course is lively and enjoyable! Please do login and join the Course. We look forward to your contribution.
Next Omega Group online : THURSDAY, 18th June 2025, 8.30pm - 10pm when we will continue our discussion of
God’s Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible‘ by Candida Moss.
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The Group will then take a break until the Autumn. Date TBC.
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About God’s Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible‘. For the past two thousand years, Christian tradition, scholarship, and pop culture have credited the authorship of the New Testament to a select group of men: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. But hidden behind these named and sainted individuals are a cluster of unnamed, enslaved coauthors and collaborators. These essential workers were responsible for producing the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament: making the parchment on which the texts were written, taking dictation, and refining the words of the apostles. And as the Christian message grew in influence, it was enslaved missionaries who undertook the arduous journey across the Mediterranean and along dusty roads to move Christianity to Rome, Spain, and North Africa—and into the pages of history. The impact of these enslaved contributors on the spread of Christianity, the development of foundational Christian concepts, and the making of the Bible was enormous, yet their role has been almost entirely overlooked until now.
Filled with profound revelations both for what it means to be a Christian and for how we read individual texts themselves, God’s Ghostwriters is a groundbreaking and rigorously researched book about how enslaved people shaped the Bible, and with it all of Christianity.
Candida Moss is Edward Cadbury Chair of Theology at the University of Birmingham, prior to which she taught for almost a decade at the University of Notre Dame. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford and an MA and PhD from Yale University. The award-winning author or co-author of seven books, she has also served as Papal News Commentator for CBS News and writes a column for The Daily Beast. She has written for and had her work reported on in the New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, Times Higher Education Supplement, The Guardian, Slate, New Scientist, BBC.com, Chronicle of High Education, CNN.com, POLITICO, POLITICO Europe, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Christian Century, The Daily Mail, and Le Monde. In addition to regularly commenting on religious affairs for CBS, Dr. Moss has also served as an on air expert for CNN and Fox News, and presented or appeared in documentaries for CNN, NBC, National Geographic, History Channel, Discovery Channel, CNN, Travel Channel, Lifetime, BBC, PBS, E!, and the Smithsonian Channel. She lives in New York.
The website for this book can be found here.
Further info in the Rector’s Weekly Email. All welcome
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Previous studies on the OMEGA COURSE (most recent at the bottom of the list)
Fratelli Tutti, the recent social encyclical by Pope Francis.
Silence and Honey Cakes: The wisdom of the 4th & 5th century desert fathers and mothers, by Bishop Rowan Williams,
JESUS: AN HISTORICAL APPROXIMATION, by Fr José A. Pagola, Convivial Press
The Story of Christianity: A History of 2,000 Years of the Christian Faith,” by David Bentley Hart, Published by Quercus, 2009
THE REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE by Julian of Norwich.
A History of the Bible, by Revd Professor John Barton.
Loving and Hating the World: Ambivalence and Discipleship, by Fr James Lawson
Dogmatics in Outline‘‘ by Karl Barth
The Ecclesiastical History of the English Church', by the Venerable Bede, c. 731 CE
The Bampton Lectures 2024: Rowan Williams - Recognizing Strangers: Solidarity and Christian Ethics
‘All Christians Are Monks: The Monastery, the Parish and the Renewal of the Church,’ by Fr George Guiver CR, Sacristy Books, 2024.
‘The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist Dorothy Day’ (1897 - 1980), “Servant of God”, co-founder with Peter Maurin of the Catholic Worker Movement, published by HarperCollins, (1952)
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