Archbishop introduces Professor Bernard McGinn

Archbishop and Professor Bernard McGinn

Addressing the audience at the Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge University, during his visit for the Cambridge Consultations, the Archbishop said, "It's a huge personal pleasure to be able to introduce professor McGinn - we've known each other for I think for about twenty-five years now. And I've learnt more than I can easily say from Bernie's writings, conversation and example. As you've heard, he has made particularly his own the field of Christian mysticism with also some very important primary reflection on this subject. In the field of late medieval mysticism in particular, not least the Ecartian legacy he has carved out of a particularly important place, and this evening we're going to hear about, well, you often hear the phrase "An unjustly neglected text". Sometimes it's truer than in the other. Readers of Kingsley Amis's 'Lucky Jim' may remember Jim's master's thesis on economic influence on ship-building techniques in the 14^th Century in considering the strangely neglected topic! And he thinks to himself "this what neglected topic" but I think in this case you will find every reason to believe that is an unjustly neglected text there's a great deal we can hear about it, a great deal we shall learn from it".