About the Centre
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About the Centre | |
The Network for the Study of Implicit Religion arranged the Denton Conferences between 1978 and 2005, the Church Study Days from 1983 to 2005, and short courses for Religious Educationists in 1983 - 2003. Its work has now been taken over by the Centre for the Study of Implicit Religion and Contemporary Spirituality (CSIRCS).
The Centre was registered as a charity (1047179) in 1995, in order to facilitate the ongoing study of implicit religion, particularly within higher education. Its trustees then were Edward Bailey, Graham Howes, and Ian Munro. Located at Middlesex University in 1997, Ken Goulding and Christopher Lamb then joined the trustees. Cut-backs in Religious Studies (and in Social Studies) at Middlesex University in 2001 required that the envisaged additional locations should succeed, rather than supplement, the original location. These are now at the University of Wales at Bangor, the Queen’s Foundation (Birmingham), and the Department of Theology, Leiden (Netherlands). Professor Leslie J. Francis, Dr Israel Selvanayagam, Dr Meerten ter Borg, and Professor Christine King CBE, became Trustees therefore in 2003. In 2006 Meerten ter Borg was appointed to a personal Chair at Leiden in Non-Institutional Religion.
The post of Assistant Director of Research (Implicit Religion), within the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies (CARTS) in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, was endowed, and the Revd Dr T.D. Jenkins was appointed, in 2001. Dr Jenkins also became a trustee of CSIRCS in 2002.
It is envisaged that CSIRCS will continue to arrange the annual Denton Conference and to further contact between these (and any other) local Centres.
Canon Prof Edward Bailey PhD, The Old School, Church Lane, Yarnton, OXFORD OX5 1PY