Professor John Barclay: “Paul, grace and gift: does the best gift have no strings attached?”

Professor John Barclay Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham on Saturday 21st January. His title is Paul, grace and gift: does the best gift have no strings attached? Thinking with Paul about giving and receiving gifts.

For a number of reasons (Western) Christians have become champions of the notion that the ‘pure’ gift is unilateral, expecting no return and with no strings attached. We will explore together whether this is in fact the best theological model of gifts, and we will mine in particular the letters of Paul to help us think about gifts, reciprocity, community and what difference it makes to put all human giving in the framework of divine giving to us. We will explore what this means for models of charity, for the relationship between the church and the rest of society, and for the goals we set for the local and global social action that engage many churches today.