June 21-23, 2023
A hallmark of the nineteenth-century Oxford Movement was its recovery of the early and medieval Christian tradition, including the re-establishment of monasticism in 1841 when Marion Hughes vowed poverty, chastity and obedience. This moment was the result of much work by John Henry Newman and, in particular, Edward Bouverie Pusey. Pusey was convinced of monasticism’s antiquity and saw it as a natural corollary to a proper understanding of the Scriptures and the Patristic Fathers on the spiritual life. He believed that monasteries must exist in Anglicanism in order to be a “great relief” for those looking to experience union with God. Thus, the 2023 James Lloyd Breck Conference on Monasticism and the Church seeks to investigate Pusey’s theology in order to see how he understood the Church and her “system” in such a way as to require monasticism.
THE REV. DR. GREG PETERS
Servants of Christ Research Professor of
Monastic Studies & Ascetical Theology, Nashotah House
Fr. Peters joined Nashotah House in 2018 and oversees the annual James Lloyd Breck Conference on Monasticism and the Church and teaches courses in monasticism and ascetical theology. His research interests include the history and theology of Christian monasticism, the history of Christian (especially monastic) theology, and ascetical theology. He has presented papers regularly at the International Congress on Medieval Studies and the Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting. His published articles have appeared in the American Benedictine Review, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, Tjurunga: An Australasian Benedictine Review, and the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, alongside articles in other peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. His most recently published books are Thomas à Kempis: His Life and Spiritual Theology (Cascade Books, 2021) and The Monkhood of All Believers: The Monastic Foundation of Christian Spirituality (Baker Academic, 2018).
Fr. Peters is also Professor of Medieval and Spiritual Theology in the Torrey Honors College of Biola University and a Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College in the University of Cambridge. In the past, he has also served as a visiting professor at St. John’s School of Theology. He serves (since 2012) as vicar of the Anglican Church of the Epiphany in La Mirada, California. Ordained in 2009 in the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), he served from 2009-2012 in part-time ministry at the Diocese of Western Anglicans’ All Saints Cathedral, Long Beach, and until 2020 as a diocesan examining chaplain.
DR. SERENHEDD JAMES
Tutor, Ecclesiastical History
St. Stephen’s House, University of Oxford
Dr. Serenhedd James holds degrees in theology from the Universities of Durham and Oxford, where he was an organ scholar and choral exhibitioner. He worked in the United States and London before returning to academia, and has been Tutor in Ecclesiastical History at St. Stephen’s House, Oxford, since Michaelmas 2012. Between 2017 and 2019 he also served as Tutor in Theology and Junior Dean at Oriel College.
James takes an ecumenical view of late-modern church history; his output includes George Errington and Roman Catholic Identity in Nineteenth-Century England (OUP, 2016) and The Cowley Fathers, a history of the Anglican Society of St. John the Evangelist (Canterbury Press, 2019). He has written most recently on nineteenth-century religious satire, and a chapter on Victorian religious attitudes to animal welfare is due out in 2023.
With a particular interest in the history of missionary endeavors in the British Empire he is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, and also of the Royal Historical Society. He served as Secretary to the trustees of British Catholic History from 2018 to 2022, and sits on its Awards Committee. Between 2014 and 2021 he was a regular contributor to the Church Times; he now writes for the Catholic Herald.
THE REV. DR. TOBIAS A. KARLOWICZ
Author, The Sacramental Vision of Edward Bouverie Pusey
The Rev. Dr. Tobias A. Karlowicz is the author of The Sacramental Vision of Edward Bouverie Pusey (T & T Clark, 2021), the first comprehensive introduction to Pusey’s theology. He has published in Ecclesiology, and has served on the writing and revisions committees of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism and on the Theological Task Force on Holy Orders of the Anglican Church in North America. He holds degrees from Oberlin College, Nashotah House, and the University of St. Andrews, and has taught Church History and Liturgics at Nashotah House. He is active in diocesan and parish ministry as Canon Theologian of the Diocese of Quincy, assisting priest at St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church in Peoria, Illinois, as a supply priest, and as past vicar or assistant at several parishes around central Illinois.
Fr. Karlowicz is currently assembling a devotional from the writings of Dr. Pusey – a project suggested by the late Dr. Geoffrey Rowell – as well as a “reader-friendly” introduction to Pusey’s theology and spirituality. His current research involves the development of “rationalism” in English theology and the ways in which responding to it shaped Tractarian thought, and the evolution of covenant and communion models of ecclesiology in High Church Anglican thinking through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The Breck Pre-Conference will dive deeper into the Oxford Movement’s emphasis on monasticism and Pusey’s sacramental theology, demonstrating that Pusey was not unique in his desire to recover monasticism in the life of the Church and that his desire to see the re-introduction of monasticism was the result of his robust sacramental theology.
Pre-Conference: $120 per person
Conference: $200 per person
We’re glad to offer the 2023 Breck Conference and Pre-Conference to remote participants this year. Remote participants will engage in all sessions synchronously. Scroll down for the full conference schedule.
The Breck Conference is also available for credit this year. Students interested in taking the conference for credit must attend Breck in-person. Request an application to take the conference for credit here:
Nashotah House will be offering a limited number of scholarships for the upcoming 2023 Breck Conference. The scholarship includes conference registration (including meals) and up to four nights of housing at Nashotah House. It does not cover the cost of travel or attendance at the pre-conference. Interested applicants can submit a request to the Rev. Dr. Greg Peters (gpeters@nashotah.edu) with the following details no later than Friday, March 31: Name Mailing Address Phone Number Parish/Church Affiliation Responses (no more than 500 words total) to the following questions: 1) Why do you want to attend the 2023 Breck Conference? and 2) What is your understanding of the role of a “prayer book spirituality” in the life of a local parish?
CONTACT