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Passings

Philosopher Antony Flew, who renounced his belief in atheism late in life, died 8 April 2010 in Reading, England. Born 11 February 1923 in London, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, studying Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies from 1942 to 1943, before joining RAF Intelligence until the cessation of hostilities in 1945. Following the war, he took a first class degree from St John’s College, Oxford, in 1947. He did his PhD research under Gilbert Ryle, following which he served as a lecturer in philosophy at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1949 to 1950. From 1950 to 1954, he was a lecturer in moral philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, and then he became a professor of philosophy at Keele University in Staffordshire, where he remained until 1973, at which point he moved to the University of Reading. He retired in 1982 and took up a part-time post at York University, Toronto. He gave the 1986–1987 Gifford Lectures, titled “The Logic of Mortality,” at the University of St Andrews. He is survived by his wife, Annis Harty, and two daughters.

Links

St Andrews now has a Gifford Lectures page, which presently has a detailed description of Roger Scruton’s upcoming Lecture series.

Upcoming Gifford Lectures

University of Edinburgh

In February 2011 Professor Peter Harrison will give a lecture series titled “Science, Religion and the Modern World.” Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch has been named lecturer for the 2011/2012 series. Dates for Professor MacCulloch's lectures, titled “Holme's Dog: Silence in the History of the Church,” have not yet been announced. Lord Sutherland of Houndwood is scheduled to give a single lecture on 25 October 2011. Further details will be posted as they become available.

University of Glasgow

Gianni Vattimo, professor of philosophy at Turin University, will deliver the 2010 Gifford Lectures, titled “The End of Reality,” on 7–10 June 2010. The lectures are titled “Tarski and the Quotation Marks of His Principle,” “Beyond Phenomenology,” “Being and Event,” and “The Ethical Dissolution of Reality.” For more information, contact Angela Hair.

Recent Gifford Lectures

University of Aberdeen

Professor Alister McGrath, Chair in Theology Education and Head of Centre for Theology Religion & Culture at Kings College, London, delivered a series of six Gifford lectures entitled: “A Fine-Tuned Universe: Science, Theology and the Quest for Meaning” in February 2009. For a synopsis of these lectures or to download lecture notes go to www.abdn.ac.uk/gifford/synopsis.shtml. For the book published from these lectures, see below.

University of Edinburgh

Professor Patricia Churchland gave a lecture titled “Morality and the Mammalian Brain” on 11 May 2010.

Terry Eagleton’s Gifford Lecture, “The God Debate,” given 1 March 2010, can be seen on YouTube.

Alexander Nehamas, Edmund N Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor in Humanities, Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University, delivered a series of Gifford Lectures, “‘Because it was he, because it was I’: Friendship and Its Place in Life,” in March 2008. Abstracts and podcasts of his lectures are now available.

Robert M. Veatch, Professor of Medical Ethics and the former Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, delivered a Gifford Lecture titled “Hippocratic, Religious and Secular Medical Ethics: The Point of Conflict” in August 2008. An abstract and podcast of the lecture are now available.

Diana Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies and Frederic Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry, Harvard University, presented a series of Gifford lectures on “The Age of Pluralism” through 7 May 2009. For abstracts and videos of the lectures go to: http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/giffordexemp/2000/details/ProfessorDianaEck.html.

Michael Gazzaniga delivered a series of six Gifford lectures at the University of Edinburgh in October 2009. A professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he heads the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, Professor Gazzaniga is also the director of the Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience, president of the Cognitive Neuroscience Institute, and a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. For abstracts and videos of his lectures, go to: http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/giffordexemp/ProfessorMichaelGazzaniga.htm.

“Why Does Faith Survive?” was the title of the Gifford lecture presented by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks in November 2008. For an abstract and video of this lecture go to: http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/giffordexemp/2000/details/ChiefRabbiSirJonathanSacks.html.

University of Glasgow

On 21 May 2009 Professor Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus at McGill University in Montreal, gave a single lecture on “The Necessity of Secularist Regimes.”

Professor David Fergusson, Professor of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, gave a series of six Gifford lectures titled “Religion and Its Recent Critics” in April 2008.

University of St Andrews

The 2009–2010 Gifford Lectures, “The Face of God,” were delivered by Professor Roger Scruton, FBA, formerly professor of aesthetics in Birkbeck College, London University, and professor of philosophy and university professor at Boston University. Audio of those lectures is now available.

New Books Based on Gifford Lectures

Eight new books derived from the Gifford Lectures are available . . .

John D. Barrow, New Theories of Everything. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Paperback. ISBN: 13: 978-0-19-954817-0ISBN10: 0-19-954817-X. $18.95.

Will we ever discover a single scientific theory that tells us everything that has happened, and everything that will happen, on every level in the Universe? The quest for the theory of everything - a single key that unlocks all the secrets of the Universe - is no longer a pipe-dream, but the focus of some of our most exciting research about the structure of the cosmos. But what might such a theory look like? What would it mean? And how close are we to getting there?

In New Theories of Everything, John D. Barrow describes the ideas and controversies surrounding the ultimate explanation. Updating his earlier work Theories of Everything with the very latest theories and predictions, he tells of the M-theory of superstrings and multiverses, of speculations about the world as a computer program, and of new ideas of computation and complexity. But this is not solely a book about modern ideas in physics - Barrow also considers and reflects on the philosophical and cultural consequences of those ideas, and their implications for our own existence in the world.

Far from there being a single theory uniquely specifying the constants and forces of nature, the picture today is of a vast landscape of different logically possible laws and constants in many dimensions, of which our own world is but a shadow: a tiny facet of a higher dimensional reality. But this is not to say we should give up in bewilderment: Barrow shows how many rich and illuminating theories and questions arise, and what this may mean for our understanding of our own place in the cosmos. —from the publisher

David Daube, The Deed and the Doer. Edited and compiled by Calum Carmichael. Philadelphia: Templeton Press, 2008. Paperback. ISBN: 978-1-59947-134-1. $27.96

David Daube’s The Deed and the Doer is comprised of Daube’s first ten Gifford lectures, delivered in 1962. The overall theme of Daube’s Gifford Lectures is law and wisdom in the Bible. His wide-ranging deliberations reveal how complicated and profound the biblical text is. He analyzes deeds described in the Bible and considers, for example, what causes people to act in a certain way, the role of intent, why unintended deeds are sometimes punishable, and how the origin of a deed is determined. His lectures are aimed at professionals in the fields of biblical criticism, biblical history, ethics, and the history of law with respect to its roots in Old Testament traditions. Daube is a recognized master in these fields, and there are substantial applications to modern ethical and legal issues.

David Fergusson, Faith and Its Critics: A Conversation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Cloth. ISBN: 978-0199569380 $35.00

Heralded as the exponents of a “new atheism,” critics of religion are highly visible in today’s media, and include the household names of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris. David Fergusson explains their work in its historical perspective, drawing comparisons with earlier forms of atheism. Responding to the critics through conversations on the credibility of religious belief, Darwinism, morality, fundamentalism, and our approach to reading sacred texts, he establishes a compelling case for the practical and theoretical validity of faith in the contemporary world. An invitation to engage in a rich dialogue, Faith and Its Critics supports an informed and constructive exchange of ideas rather than a contest between two sides of the debate. Fergusson encourages faith communities to undertake patient engagement with their critics, to acknowledge the place for change and development in their self-understanding whilst resisting the reductive explanations of the new atheism. —from the publisher

Peter van Inwagen, The Problem of Evil: The Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of St. Andrews in 2003. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Paperback. ISBN: 978-0-19-954397-7. $30.00.

It is generally supposed that the fact that the world contains a vast amount of suffering, much of it truly horrible suffering, confronts those who believe in an all-powerful and benevolent Creator with a serious problem: to explain why such a Creator would permit this. Many reflective people are convinced that the problem, the problem of evil, is insoluble. The reasons that underlie this conviction can be formulated as a powerful argument for the non-existence of God, the so-called argument from evil: If there were a God, he would not permit the existence of vast amounts of truly horrible suffering; since such suffering exists, there is no God. Peter van Inwagen examines this argument, which he regards as a paradigmatically philosophical argument. His conclusion is that (like most philosophical arguments) it is a failure. He seeks to demonstrate, not that God exists, but the fact that the world contains a vast amount of suffering does not show that God does not exist. Along the way he discusses a wide range of topics of interest to philosophers and theologians, such as: the concept of God; what might be meant by describing a philosophical argument as a failure; the distinction between versions of the argument from evil that depend on the vast amount of evil in the world and versions of the argument that depend on a particular evil, such as the Lisbon earthquake or the death of a fawn in a forest fire; the free-will defense; animal suffering; and the problem of the hiddenness of God. —from the publisher

Alister McGrath, A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. Cloth. ISBN-13: 9780664233105. $39.95.

Are there viable pathways from nature to God? Natural theology is making a comeback, stimulated as much by scientific advance as by theological and philosophical reflection. There is a growing realization that the sciences raise questions that transcend their capacity to answer them—above all, the question of the existence of God. So how can Christian theology relate to these new developments? In this landmark work, based on his 2009 Gifford lectures, Alister McGrath examines the apparent “fine-tuning” of the universe and its significance for natural theology. Exploring a wide range of physical and biological phenomena and drawing on the latest research in biochemistry and evolutionary biology, McGrath outlines our new understanding of the natural world and discusses its implications for traditional debates about the existence of God. Alister E. McGrath is Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education, and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion, and Culture at King’s College, London. —from the publisher

Raimon Panikkar, The Rhythm of Being. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010. Cloth. ISBN-978-1-57075-855-3. $50.00.

Twenty years after he delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures, Raimon Panikkar's The Rhythm of Being is finally published. It is a tour de force of profound insights gleaned from a lifetime of connecting the worlds of religion, philosophy, science, and revelation. In describing his work, Panikkar says, “I am not trying to say something new. I do not wish to contribute to the alienation produced by the obsessive search for novelties. My originality, if any, will be that of going to the origins—not to do archeology, or to make anachronistic interpretations…but to perform the task of a latter day hunter gatherer, re-collecting life from the stupendous field of human experience on Earth…The ideas here expressed are the fruit not of a dialectical mind making use of induction or deduction from the sources of ancients and contemporaries, but, having paid respect to them, they are the fruit of a personal experience which has been later checked and criticized by the wisdom of all those whom I have had the privilege to hear or to read.” The Rhythm of Being offers scholars and students, philosophers and seekers a challenging and breathtaking voyage into the very heart of human belief and meaning. —from the publisher

Stephen Pattison, Seeing Things: Deepening Relations with Visual Artefacts. London: SCM Press, 2008. Paperback. ISBN: 9780334041498. £19.99

Seeing Things is a highly original book that will have appeal across humanity departments including visual studies, theology, art history, sociology, anthropology and ethics. The book considers in detail, the experience of perceiving visual objects, from high art to everyday artefacts. It looks in particular at the problems encountered with the ways we in Western culture look upon the world and things, and encourages and argues for ways to look and visualise the world more critically, broadly and widely. Sight is one of the main ways we perceive and relate to the world, and yet it is mostly assumed rather than actively reflected on. Objects designated as art and the realm of aesthetics attract some active attention and reflection, but most of the visible world is ignored in the context of what Pattison describes as our ‘ordinary blindness’. The book argues that the range of things we choose to see and value is arbitrary and limited and the ways in which we relate to things and objects are mostly crude and un-nuanced. Pattison argues that it is desirable to consider more person-like relationships with all manner of visibly perceived objects, from classical sculptures to tennis rackets. If we begin to apply this person-like relationship with things, we transgress the Western secular and religious practice and belief that maintains that the realm of the manufactured is ‘dead’ and so can be treated by humans exactly as they wish without consideration. Pattison argues that this person-like relationship does not mean re-animating or re-sacramentalising the world, rather he argues for observation and exploration of the actual phenomenology of the object. —from the publisher

Clement C. J. Webb, Divine Personality and Human Life: Being the Gifford Lectures in the Years 1918 and 1919. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2008. Paperback. ISBN: 978-1436560054. $43.95.

In Divine Personality and Human Life, volume 2 of Webb’s Gifford Lectures, the author examines ideas of personality and persons and their relation to broadly theistic conceptions of God. The volume explores the notion of personality in ‘man’ in light of the conclusions drawn in the first volume, and how the ‘divine personality’ figures in spheres of human activity such as the economic, scientific, aesthetic, moral, political and religious lives. He then criticizes Naturalism and Absolute Idealism, bringing in considerations regarding the value of persons and concluding with a consideration of personal immortality.