2008 Speakers

The seminars feature lectures by some of the world’s foremost scientists and theologians. In addition to their formal presentations, the speakers engage in question and answer sessions and informal discussions with the fellows, often well into the evening.

Denis R. Alexander

  • Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion
    Cambridge, UK
  • Senior Affiliated Scientist
    The Babraham Institute, Cambridge, UK
  • Fellow, St. Edmund’s College
  • Author, Rebuilding the Matrix

John D. Barrow FRS

  • Professor of Mathematical Sciences
    Director, Millennium Mathematics Project
    Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
    University of Cambridge, UK
  • Fellow, Clare Hall
  • Author, Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science

Dame Gillian Beer

  • Emeritus King Edward VII Professor of English Literature
    President of Clare Hall
    University of Cambridge, UK
  • Author, Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot, and Nineteenth Century Fiction

Alasdair Coles

  • Lecturer in Neuroimmunology
  • Associate, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion
    University of Cambridge, UK

Noah Efron

  • Chair, Program on Science, Technology & Society
    Bar Ilan University    , Israel
  • President, Israeli Society for History & Philosophy of Science
  • Author, Judaism & Science: A Historical Introduction

Julie Exline

  • Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
    Case Western Reserve University

John Gray

  • Emeritus School Professor of European Thought
    London School of Economics, UK
  • Author, Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia

Sir John Houghton, CBE, FRS

  • Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Physics
    University of Oxford, UK
  • Chair of the John Ray Initiative
  • Author, Global Warming: The Complete Briefing

Edward Kessler

Alister McGrath

  • Professor of Historical Theology
    University of Oxford, UK
  • Author, The Open Secret: A New Vision for Natural Theology

Simon Conway Morris FRS

  • Professor of Evolutionary Paleobiology
    University of Cambridge, UK
  • Author, Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe

Baroness Neuberger DBE

  • Liberal Democrat Peer, House of Lords
    Trustee, Booker Prize Foundation; Chair, Commission on Future of Volunteering; and President, Liberal Judaism
  • Author, The Moral State We’re In

Michael Northcott

  • Professor of Ethics, New College School of Divinity
    University of Edinburgh, UK
  • Author, The Environment and Christian Ethics

Ken Pargament

  • Professor of Psychology
    Bowling Green State University, US
  • Author, The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, and Practice

Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne FRS

  • President Emeritus
    Queens’ College
    University of Cambridge, UK
  • Author, Science and Theology

Jamil Ragep

  • Canada Research Chair in the History of Science in Islamic Societies
    Institute of Islamic Studies
    McGill University    , Canada
  • Author, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi’s Memoir on Astronomy

Tariq Ramadan

  • Visiting Professor, St. Anthony’s College
    University of Oxford, UK
  • Senior Research Fellow, Lokahi Foundation, UK
  • Author, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam

Steven Rose

  • Emeritus Professor, Department of Life Sciences,
    The Open University, UK
  • Author, Lifelines: Life Beyond the Gene

John Teasdale

  • Emeritus Research Scientist
    UK Medical Research Council
  • Author, The Mindful Way through Depression

Keith Ward

  • Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus
    University of Oxford, UK
  • Professor of Divinity
    Gresham College, UK
  • Author, Pascal’s Fire: Scientific Faith and Religious Understanding

Michael Welker

  • Professor of Dogmatics
    University of Heidelberg, Germany
  • Author, The End of the World and the Ends of God: Science and Theology on Eschatology

In Memoriam

portrait: Fraser Watts

The late Peter Lipton, Hans Rausing Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, lectured each year at the Templeton–Cambridge Journalism Fellowships Program, until his untimely death in November 2007. His lectures, a model of clarity and spiced with humour, were exceptionally popular with Fellows. He had a unique way of using the philosophy of science to explore philosophical issues about religion. The University of Cambridge has created a page in his honor.

Lectures

  • Denis Alexander
    Overview of the history of science and religion
  • John Barrow
    Simplicity and complexity
  • Gillian Beer
    Darwin’s “Filthy Heraldries”: Why did Darwin’s theories cause scandal?
  • Alisdair Coles, Fraser Watts
    The brain and religion
  • Noah Efron
    Science, religion, and everyday life
  • Julie Exline
    Anger Against God and Emotional Atheism
  • Owen Gingerich
    The 400th Anniversary of the telescope: Raising the curtain on Newton’s century
  • John Gray
    The relationship between atheism and science
  • John Houghton & Michael Northcott
    The future of the planet
  • Edward Kessler
    Reflections on Jewish–Christian–Muslim Relations
  • Simon Conway Morris
    Evolution and convergence
  • Alister McGrath
    Science, religion, and the meaning of life: Why is natural theology back in fashion?
  • Julia Neuberger
    The political, ethical, and religious debate around organ donations, cybrids, chimeras, and other scientific advances
  • Ken Pargament
    Sacred matters: The links between religion and mental health
  • Jamil Ragep
    The historical roots of the relationship between Islam and science
  • Tariq Ramadan
    Implications of contemporary scientific culture for Islam
  • Steven Rose
    Being human and becoming a person; what the brain sciences can and cannot say about mind and memory
  • John Teasdale
    Mindfulness and its clinical applications
  • Keith Ward
    Can we still talk about the soul?
  • Fraser Watts
    Theology in scientific context
  • Michael Welker
    The science and religion dialogue within a global network