17 January 2019 | 6-8PM | Priors Hall | Durham Cathedral | Durham | DH1 3EH
We warmly invite you to celebrate the launch of Hearing Voices, Demonic and Divine: Scientific and Theological Perspectives by Professor Chris Cook (Co-Investigator, Hearing the Voice) at Prior’s Hall, Durham Cathedral on Thursday 17 January 2019, 6-8pm.
Featuring an introduction by John Swinton (Professor in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care and Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen), our panel of experts will explore the experience of hearing voices from scientific, spiritual, theological and personal standpoints. Chaired by Charles Fernyhough (Director and PI, Hearing the Voice).
Wine and canapes will be provided.
All welcome. If you would like to attend this free event, we kindly ask (for catering purposes) that you register through Eventbrite.
About this book
Experiences of hearing the voice of God (or angels, demons, or other spiritual beings) have generally been understood either as religious experiences or else as a feature of mental illness. Some critics of traditional religious faith have dismissed the visions and voices attributed to biblical characters and saints as evidence of mental disorder. However, it is now known that many ordinary people, with no other evidence of mental disorder, also hear voices and that these voices not infrequently include spiritual or religious content. Psychological and interdisciplinary research has shed a revealing light on these experiences in recent years, so that we now know much more about the phenomenon of ‘hearing voices’ than ever before.
Hearing Voices, Demonic and Divine considers biblical, historical, and scientific accounts of spiritual and mystical experiences of voice hearing in the Christian tradition in order to explore how some voices may be understood theologically as revelatory, proposing that in the incarnation, Christian faith finds both an understanding of what it is to be fully human (a theological anthropology), and God’s perfect self-disclosure (revelation). Within such an understanding, revelatory voices represent a key point of interpersonal encounter between human beings and God.
The open access version of Hearing Voices, Demonic and Divine can be found here.
