outside the Radcliffe Camera

Today we had our first presentation on John Henry Newman and the locations around Oxford that were connected to him:  Brasenose, Lincoln, All Souls and The Queen’s College,  We also heard about the building of the Radcliffe Camera, the first round library.  The themes the group explored were:

• the shifts in religious fervor, here but also in the US
• why Newman attracted young students to his sermons and the changing face of Roman Catholicism today
• the architecture of colleges:  shutting one out vs. inviting one in–again some interesting contrasts between here in Oxford and our experiences of colleges in the US
• role of identifying with one’s college and how that signifies vastly different connotations

After our class session we went on a guided tour of the Bodleian Library.  Our guide

ceiling of the Divinity School

assumed a audience of devout Harry Potter fans and indeed some of the group resonated with her references.  We were caught by with Duke Humphries’ Library with its ancient texts, chained to the bookshelves, and the bordering on religious atmosphere of entering the holy of holies to get into the readings room.  Downstairs the Divinity School room offered a phenomenal ceiling which pulled together the earthy (the benefactors who helped pay for its construction) and the heavenly (the statues and symbols associated with Christianity.

Afterwards our team led us to University Church, St. Mary’s, where we noted the gorgeous stained glass windows at one end and the clear class of the Reformation at the altar end.  Here Archbishop Cranmer was accused and sentenced to death for refusing to return to Roman Catholicism under Queen Mary.

Today was a day to contemplate the changing face and passion of religion as well as to reflect on the role of education and how the educational systems differ here and in the US.

Christ Church College

St. Hilda’s College

What is so rare as a day in June?  And we can see both senses of ‘rare’:  rare in that June days are particularly lovely but also a sunny warm day in Oxford has been quite rare in my experience!

After a delightful flight (as any flight could be delightful if one is not in first class) 14 of us arrived in Heathrow airport outside of London, exhausted by exhilarated.  We met Dean and Karen, two of our students who traveled separately in Central bus station and zoomed off to Oxford.

We are staying at St. Hilda’s College.  The Oxford colleges rent out rooms during the

Magdalen College

breaks to help make money and our accommodations are lovely.  After getting our luggage settled we walked en masse up the High Street but then let the students go to get food and explore.

Few can sleep on an airplane so my faculty colleague and I let them rest up for the first day.  Walking around Oxford one realizes what a rarified place it is:  spires, scholars, tourists- all mingle and enjoy the lovely evening.

Blue Boar Street

Tomorrow we meet for our first class.  Our plan is to use a particular text by David Horan in the “Cities of the Imagination” series to explore the meaning of Oxford through the lens of individuals, real and imagined,  associated with it, from St. Frideswide to Oscar Wilde to Inspector Morse.