5/4/2021 0 Comments Alister Mcgrath Video
Its an important topic, but I admit that it is being written partly to meet the requirements of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
Alister Mcgrath Video Full Academic DressIm chairman of Oxfords Final Honour School of Theology examiners this year; so Ive spent the past fortnight wearing full academic dress, making my way to the Examination Schools to ensure that the examinations go smoothly.I feel a complete fool wearing this kit in such hot weather, yet find consolation in delighting the Japanese tourists, who stop me to ask for a selfie.Science and religion is a growing field at Oxford, and its exciting to develop new initiatives, especially connecting up with Churches ministries.Weve just got a major grant for the reinvigoration of natural theology in the life of the Churches from the Issachar Fund. We hope to show Churches that taking nature very seriously is really important for Christian theology, and encourage Christians who are engaged with these issues. I also direct the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, which has a particular interest in helping schools and churches think through the implications of new scientific and technological developments. Science and religion will be the most popular optional paper next year in Oxfords Final Honour School of Theology. My personal spiritual life is focused more on home and the parishes in which I minister and preach on Sundays, in a rural benefice on the western borders of Oxford diocese. Leading worship in 900-year-old Cotswold churches gives you a strong sense of a tradition of faith and an unsettling sense of responsibility for ensuring this continues in the future. ![]() I grew up in rural Northern Ireland, and Ive fond memories of long summer afternoons in our family garden in the early 1960s. The world seemed much more stable and optimistic about the future. Advertisement I studied natural sciences, believing then that science entailed atheism, and treated religion with the supercilious dismissiveness of a teenager. ![]() ![]() I arrived at Oxford in 1971 to study chemistry, then research in molecular biophysics. Brooding misgivings and suppressed doubts about the reliability of atheism led me to discover Christianity. I found myself asking a new question: how could I hold together science and my new love of the Christian faith Were they separate things, incapable of speaking to each other Or might there be a way of bringing them together The only way to sort this out was to immerse myself in theology. Although I loved it, and even served as Oxfords Professor of Historical Theology, my concern was to understand the relation of Christian theology and the natural sciences. This demands immersion in two different communities, and learning their different languages and methods. In Inventing the Universe, and The Great Mystery, I argue for the mutual enrichment of theology and science, seen in the right way. Its not a new idea. Ive simply picked up a Renaissance theme, and updated it, but its difficult to present it within a culture which is tone-deaf to the nuances of scholarship, and prefers simplistic slogans above all the long-discredited mantra of the warfare between science and religion. As I belong in both the scientific and theological communities, I find their borderlands intellectually interesting and culturally significant, and enormously important for Christian theology, spirituality, and apologetics. Im currently working on a rather dull academic monograph on rationality in science and religion, to be published by Oxford University Press in 2018.
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