Sarum College is an ecumenical study and research centre with an international reputation for excellence in theological education and spiritual reflection.
Sarum College offers a distinguished location for meetings, conferences, events and functions with full catering services.
Sarum College Bookshop is Salisbury's most established independent Christian and theological bookshop.
The Sarum College Library has an outstanding academic theological collection of more than 40,000 books covering all denominations.
Meet the Academic Staff
Paul BurdenCoordinator, Centre for Formation in Ministry and Director of Contextual Learning Read more
Tim HarleCoordinator for the Centre for Leadership Learning Read more
Karen O’DonnellCoordinator, Centre for Contemporary Spirituality Read more
All academic staff
May 2020
God, Beauty and the Imagination
This course aims to explore how God, beauty and imagination have found expression in art, literature and music and how these themes have been reflected in theology. In so doing the module will provide an introduction to some major art-historical epochs and subjects and examine how artists have engaged with and have rendered Christian dogmas, such as the life, death and resurrection of Christ, the Trinity, Mary, the church etc through various means from the Renaissance to the twentieth century.… Read more
June 2020
Worship, Art and Architecture
The space in which Christian worship takes place is influenced by the culture of the age and place as well as ecclesiology. This module will investigate church buildings and their art in significant historical periods to highlight the way each artefact is the result of a confluence of variables. The theoretical notion of ‘sacred space’ will be explored and students will be encouraged to reflect upon the use of liturgical space in specific contexts. There will be a guided tour… Read more
October 2020
Theology and Human Culture
Engage with the ‘texts’ and practices of human culture and explore the nature of the relationship between theology and culture through creative and critical perspectives. Students will be given the opportunity to refine and update their knowledge of theologians and key theological debates as they relate to human culture, show how central themes in theology are expressed through different forms of culture in history and today, and be given the opportunity to critically reflect on human culture through a variety… Read more
November 2020
Text, Interpretation and Imagination
The images, stories, myths and teachings of the Bible have served as a foundation for the Western cultural imagination. The Bible, when read in each new cultural context, both challenges the readers’ cultural assumptions and is challenged by new ways of reading which spring forth from the readers’ distinct perspective. The discipline, art and craft of hermeneutics require that one become sensitive to both the reading of the text and the act of being read by the text. During this… Read more
February 2021
Relocating Religion: Cultural and Spiritual Realignments
In a so called ‘secular age’ has religion and more specifically Christian faith and belief simply disappeared from public view altogether? Do modern people no longer require the ‘sacred canopy’ of religion to feel at home in the world? Has the idea and practice of religion become so tarnished with notions of religious fundamentalism and extremism or institutional irrelevance and corruption that by and large, in Europe at least, most people leave it to a small minority of others to… Read more
April 2021
Re-imagining Church in a Changing Culture
Much has been written about the dramatic decline in Church membership and attendance as evidence of ‘the death of Christian Britain’ since the 1960s to the present day, raising questions about the future of the institutional church in particular and ‘organised religion’ in general. This module aims to go beyond such ‘headlines’ to equip students to understand and critique patterns of decline and growth which are characteristic of the church in the 21st century using both theological and sociological tools.… Read more
May 2021
Mass Culture: Theological Engagement and Spiritual Practice
This module considers the phenomenon of mass culture as that which approximates to the actual ‘lived culture’ of millions of people today. The module will explore and discuss topics such as changing patterns of leisure and travel in today’s world as well as technological and media mediated culture which forms the backdrop to spirituality and ‘doing’ theology in our age. In this respect modern mass culture frequently mimics religious modes of orchestrating emotion and creating identity while at the same… Read more
Sarum College 2019-20 Courses and Events Brochure
