Forming a Christian Mind

Fellows Programme Information

Fellows Programme 2025-26
Information for Applicants

Programme Introduction

Fellows gather for 90 minutes per week in term-time (from January to June). The programme is organised as a partnership between Forming a Christian Mind and the UCCF and IFES Europe’s Good News for the University ministry. Weekly discussions will be led primarily by our range of guest seminar leaders, with continuity provided by Jacob Hargrave and Emma Diez (co-hosts), as well as Anja Lijcklama a Nijeholt and Tim Laurence. We will engage with significant texts and ideas from the Christian intellectual tradition which encourage the re-integration of the Christian faith with scholarship, teaching, and the intellectual life. We will provide individual support in preparing the essays and talks below, and a book grant of £250 per fellow.

Expectations and Outcomes

Fellows are required to attend the “away day” on 24th January 2026 and the Cambridge Apologetics Conference from 12-13th June 2026 in Cambridge plus a pre-meeting the afternoon of 11th June,* and are expected to not miss more than three of the weekly Tuesday sessions (if more are missed this will result in a reduction of the bursary, as will late submission of the essay and/or talk without prior agreement of an extension, which can be requested up to a week before the deadline). Fellows in Cambridge are expected to join in person, with those based elsewhere joining online. The programme is open to those in the UK or mainland Europe.

Outcomes of the programme include:

(1) the preparation of a brief essay (approximately 2,500-3,000 words) on the implications of a Christian worldview for your discipline and;

(2) the presentation of a brief practice talk (approx. 15 mins) to the other Fellows that engages a public audience through your research commending the plausibility and relevance of the Christian faith. 

*Some need-based travel bursaries are available for those coming from mainland Europe.

Vision and Values

  1. Shared mission 

We seek to help one another understand and pursue what it means:

  • to study excellently with a Christian ethos and worldview – bringing the light of the gospel to bear on our academic work; and, conversely, 
  • to use what we study for cultural apologetics and mission – showing how the nature of reality points to the relevance and plausibility of the gospel. 

2. Shared confession

We want to pursue our shared vision together from what we hope will be a position of generous, humble confidence in the historic truths of biblical Christianity as summarised in the doctrinal statement below, placing us within a classical Protestant evangelical tradition with respect to our understanding of ‘the gospel’ and ‘the Christian worldview’ as it is referenced in our vision statement above (‘Shared Mission’). We do this in recognition of our weaknesses and those of our tradition, but also with the desire to develop and celebrate approaches to our shared mission which are made distinctive by this shared confession

3. Shared Ethos 

We want to support one another and interact with a generosity and integrity consistent with our shared confession, including, in particular, the implications of the entire trustworthiness of Scripture as the word of God. This means that when we spur each other on in the pursuit of truth in our academic work, we recognise that we all do so humbly under the authority of Scripture, and so where there is a perceived tension between the norms of our faculty and the norms of Scripture, we do not rush to conclusions, and we reserve the right to hold some questions unresolved as we continue to pursue truth together in humility and gentleness. Conversely, we are confident that as we listen to the world and listen to God’s word, Scripture can provide fresh insight and direction for our work.

Doctrinal Statement

The doctrinal statement we use is the UCCF Doctrinal Basis.

The basis of the Fellowship shall be the fundamental truths of Christianity, as revealed in Holy Scripture, including:

  1. There is one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
  2. God is sovereign in creation, revelation, redemption and final judgement.
  3. The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired and infallible Word of God. It is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and behaviour.
  4. Since the fall, the whole of humankind is sinful and guilty, so that everyone is subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
  5. The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son, is fully God; he was born of a virgin; his humanity is real and sinless; he died on the cross, was raised bodily from death and is now reigning over heaven and earth.
  6. Sinful human beings are redeemed from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death once and for all time of their representative and substitute, Jesus Christ, the only mediator between them and God.
  7. Those who believe in Christ are pardoned all their sins and accepted in God’s sight only because of the righteousness of Christ credited to them; this justification is God’s act of undeserved mercy, received solely by trust in him and not by their own efforts.
  8. The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners, enabling them to turn to God from their sin and to trust in Jesus Christ.
  9. The Holy Spirit lives in all those he has regenerated. He makes them increasingly Christlike in character and behaviour and gives them power for their witness in the world.
  10. The one holy universal church is the Body of Christ, to which all true believers belong.
  11. The Lord Jesus Christ will return in person, to judge everyone, to execute God’s just condemnation on those who have not repented and to receive the redeemed to eternal glory. 

Curriculum

PART 1: Thinking Through our Theological Foundations

  1. Introduction to the doctrine of God and its interdisciplinary implications – 25 November
  2. The relevance of the Creator-creature distinction for academia today- 2 December
  3. Augustine and the intellectual impact of the fall – 16 December
  4. Redemption of Creation: Christ as the Last Adam – 20 January
  5. Away Day: Revelation, Scripture and hermeneutics – 24 January
  6. Twofold Mission as Christians in the University – 27 January 
  7. Intro to Philosophy in Relation to Theology – 3 February

PART 2: From Christ to our Work: Christian Scholarship

  1. Contributing to our faculties (a): Ethics – 10 February
  2. Contributing to our faculties (b): Critical Theory – 17 February
  3. Contributing to our faculties (c): AI and Tech – 24 February
  4. Contributing to our faculties (d): Science and Religion – 3 March
  5. Contributing to our faculties (e): Social Sciences – 10 March
  6. Contributing to our faculties (f): Humanities – 17 March
  7. Ultimate Ends: Seeing Christ as the Subversive Fulfilment of Our Faculty’s Culture – 28 April
  8. Discussion of Fellows’ essays – part 1 – 5 May
  9. Discussion of Fellows’ essays – part 2 – 12 May

PART 3: From our Work to Christ: A Persuasive Cultural Apologetic

  1. Case Study and Advice for Giving Talks – 19 May
  2. Commending the Gospel in a Postmodern Culture – 26 May
  3. Effective oral communication for public engagement – 2 June
  4. Evangelism as Postgraduate Students – 9 June
  5. Cambridge Apologetics Conference and Fellows’ public presentations – 12-13 June
Exit mobile version