Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion, University of Oxford
Director, Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion.
This lecture considers the views on science and religious faith of John Habgood, Archbishop of York from 1983 to 1995. The lecture explores Habgood's conversion to Christianity at Cambridge University, his early promise as a research scientist, and his decision to enter the ministry of the Church of England. In addition to exploring the intellectual framework Habgood developed to allow him to hold science and faith together, the lecture will deal with Habgood's role as a public intellectual, including his 1992 debate with Richard Dawkins, and his public ministry as Archbishop of York.
ALISTER MCGRATH holds the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, and is Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion. His main research interest at present is the area of thought traditionally known as “natural theology”, a theme of his Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen (2009), and his Hulsean Lectures at the University of Cambridge. A former atheist, he is also known for his opposition to New Atheism and his advocacy of theological critical realism. Among his best-known books are The Twilight of Atheism, The Dawkins Delusion?, Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life, and A Scientific Theology. This lecture draws on an academic study of Habgood's views, published this month.
