The 2026 Pluscarden Pentecost Lectures to be given by Fr Simon Francis Gaine OP Professor of Theological Anthropology, Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, Rome.
26th–28th May 2026 at Pluscarden Abbey, near Elgin
Tuesday 24th May at 3.00 pm Lecture 1
Wednesday 25 May at 10.30 am Lecture 2
Wednesday 25th May at 3.00 pm Lecture 3
Thursday 26th May at 10.30 am Lecture 4
Each year the Abbot and Community of Pluscarden Abbey sponsor a series of four lectures by an invited Theologian on an aspect of Catholic Theology. Previous Lecturers have included Fr Aidan Nichols OP, Fr Martin Boland, Fr Anthony Meredith SJ, Fr Paul McPartlan, Prof. Carol Zaleski, Prof. Tracey Rowland and Fr Ian Kerr. The Lectures are held on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after Pentecost in St Scholastica’s Retreat House at the Abbey. They are open to all who wish to attend and are free (donations are always welcome). Limited accommodation is available at the Abbey and those who wish to stay should book as soon as possible. There are also many places to stay in the Elgin area: contact the local tourist office: 01343 542666.
The Lecturer
Fr Simon was born in 1968 and after leaving school studied theology in Oxford. He joined the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) in 1995 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2001. From 2001 to 2003 he was Catholic Chaplain to the University of Edinburgh, after which he taught fundamental and dogmatic theology at Blackfriars, Oxford, where he was also a member of the University’s Faculty of Theology and Religion. In 2020 he moved to the Angelicum, the Dominicans’ University of St Thomas Aquinas, in Rome, where he holds the Servais Pinckaers Chair in Theological Anthropology in the Angelicum Thomistic Institute. He is currently teaching courses for the University’s Faculty of Theology on the Theology of Grace and Mariology. He is a member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission and the Pontifical Academy of St Thomas Aquinas, and is also President of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain. He is the author of Will There Be Free Will in Heaven? Freedom, Impeccability and Beatitude (2003) and Did the Saviour See the Father? Christ, Salvation and the Vision of God (2015). His forthcoming book on Dominican history will include a chapter charting the medieval relations between the Dominicans in England and Scotland.
The Lectures
Heaven, Earth and Jesus: The Mysteries of Christian Eschatology
The Pluscarden Pentecost Lectures will address some of these questions.
Jesus Christ: Heaven on Earth
Jesus Christ preached that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, that it had come among those where he acted by God’s Holy Spirit. Does that mean that heaven, the ‘last things’ that Christians call ‘eschatological’, had already arrived on earth? But if heaven had already come, then why did suffering and evil persist in the world? Why was there no victory over the enemies of God’s people? It is often said that in the ministry of Jesus, there was both a ‘now’ and a ‘not yet’, that heaven had both arrived and not arrived. But even before we consider how Jesus brought heaven to earth in his ministry, we can think of Jesus himself as Heaven on earth. To do this we need to explore not only Jesus’ identity as God, not only the role of his earthly flesh, but the blessings of his human soul.
Opening the gate of heaven
Did Jesus’ actions during his earthly lifetime bring heaven to earth? Was heavenly salvation found in the events of his life, in his birth, in his baptism, in his healings, in his teaching? But if all these mysteries of life brought heaven to earth, why did he have to die? Can there be anything heavenly in his sufferings and crucifixion? Does his Cross, his death rather than his life, bring us heaven? And if Jesus died for us, why should that not be enough? Why did he need to rise from the dead and ascend from the earth? How could these things add anything to his greatest act of love? To answer these questions, we need to attend to the nature of the humanity God created, our human need for heaven and salvation, so that we can explore how the one who was Heaven on earth truly touched the point of our human need.
Why does Jesus judge us?
Eschatology is traditionally not just about heaven and hell; it’s about death and judgement too. But why do we die if Jesus has already conquered death? And what happens to us when we die? What is the soul and how does it survive death? Does Jesus meet us after death? Do we get judged by him and why would Jesus want to judge us? Is judgement a good thing or bad thing and should we want it? Do we go to purgatory? Why would anyone need to go to purgatory? Has Jesus got anything to do with purgatory? Is Jesus in purgatory and do we meet him there? Answers to these questions can only come by understanding the depth of our human need for healing and for the heavenly healing that God brings to us in Christ.
Is heaven a place?
Is eschatology just about individual souls and what happens to them after death? If our souls are all judged at death, why did Jesus talk about a judgement at the end of time? Why would we be judged twice? What’s the point of bodies being raised up for judgement? If our souls are truly happy in heaven, why would it be for bodies as well as souls? Is heaven a place, and if it is, where is it and could we travel there? Is Jesus there now? What will it be like and what can we do there? And why did Jesus talk so much about hell? Is there a resurrection for hell as well as for heaven? What does this all mean for us while we are still on earth? We can only begin to answer these questions by thinking about the very nature of human beings and what kind of heaven can satisfy the kind of creatures God has created and called us to be.
The Lectures are free of charge and all are welcome to attend.
To register and for further information use web form to contact the Abbey;
and to book accommodation at the Abbey contact the Guestmaster via web form. Early booking is advised. There are also many places to stay in the Elgin area; contact the local tourist office: 01343 542666.