Cambridge attracts £1.2m funding for theological research

A £1.2 million donation to Cambridge University will be used to expand post-graduate study of the New Testament.

The cash from the Kirby Laing educational and cultural foundation will fund places at the University’s Faculty of Divinity.

It complements an earlier donation by the foundation which secured the future of the Lady Margaret Professorship in Divinity, the university’s oldest chair, which was founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, in 1502.

Mgr Mark Langham, head of the Cambridge University Chaplaincy said: “New Testament studies at Cambridge have a history which stretches back to St John Fisher, the first Lady Margaret Professor of Theology.

"This welcome and generous donation will ensure that theological research continues at Cambridge at the highest level, and in particular will enable many Commonwealth and foreign students, who have historically been unable to take up places because of the difficulty of financing their studies, to come to study here.”

Professor Judith Lieu FBA, the current Lady Margaret Professor, said: “New Testament Studies at Cambridge has an international reputation for its breadth and for the excellence of its scholarship and research supervision.

"We expect keen interest in the Kirby Laing Graduate Studentships, which will be offered for the first time this year.”