Other speakers include Hanna Lerner (Politics, Tel Aviv), Sian Lazar (Anthropology, Cambridge), Ajay Gudavarthy (Politics, Nehru University), Nigel Dower (Philosophy, Aberdeen), and Tamas Gyorfi (Law, Aberdeen).

Notions of political community are implicit in many or most contemporary debates – academic and public – of citizenship, civil society and rule of law, as well as of democracy, multiculturalism and human rights. But they are seldom made explicit and subject to analysis and reflection. Having debated and discussed aspects of citizenship, civil society and rule of law in a series of events since our founding in 2009, we have identified political community as a topic that crosscuts the three but which we have yet to comprehend fully.

The workshop is free to attend, including food. View the programme for full details, including registration instructions. The event is coordinated by Dr Trevor Stack.

The Horror or the Glory? Malik’s The Thin Red Line

The original Journal of Medical Ethics article generated an outcry of opposition from physicians, philosophers, and even on the floor of the United States Congress. The journal’s editor, Julian Savulescu, issued a statement defending the article’s publication, while also affirming his own opposition to infanticide. Now, the journal has released a special edition on the debate, which includes both pro-choice and pro-life responses. For the next month, access to the special edition is free.

Also available is a brief but engaging interview with Nigel Biggar on the topic, conducted by the BBC’s David Edmunds. Download directly from the JME or listen here:

Finally, the issue includes an exchange between Charles Camosy, former McDonald Visiting Fellow, and Princeton’s Robert George—both of whom oppose abortion under any circumstances, but who disagree about how best to engage those who differ. The question of how best to make the public case for or against abortion was previously addressed on this site by the McDonald Centre’s John Perry.

Political Affections: Civic Participation & Moral Theology

by Joshua Hordern

June 4, 1.15pm, Philosophy Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building

Free lunch provided; RSVP politicalaffections@gmail.com

View launch invitation or book flyer offering a 20% discount

Religion, Intolerance, and Conflict

with a critical commentary by John Perry & Nigel Biggar

June 13, 6.45pm, New Ryle Room, Radcliffe Humanities Bldg

Wine and refreshments; remarks by Nigel Biggar

RSVP rachel.gaminiratne@philosophy.ox.ac.uk

• Christian Love and Forgiveness in the Context of Human Conflict
• The Role of Religious Ethics in Contemporary Liberal Society

The event was covered in local press, including the Charlotte Observer and Davidson News. Videos of the lectures are available below.

• 16-17 May 2013 at the University of Oxford
• View or print the poster to help us spread the word
• Email us with a question

For centuries, atheism was suppressed because of its supposed amorality. Now, New Atheists such as A.C. Grayling and Sam Harris argue that decent, liberal morality is perfectly possible without religious belief—indeed, that it is only possible without it. Others, such as Jürgen Habermas, acknowledge that Christianity has had a peculiar capacity to articulate humanist values and norms, but that these can be extracted without loss from their theological roots. This May, the McDonald Centre, together with the Department of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of Exeter, gather ten philosophers and theologians—both believers and unbelievers—from the UK, the USA, and New Zealand to address questions such as these:

• Even if morality in general does not need religion, might specific moralities nonetheless need it?
• Might morality be better off without religion? Is it better off without any religion or only certain kinds?
• When notions of human dignity or rights are extracted from theological language, is anything important lost in translation? Are such notions really sustainable apart from a theological worldview?
• Are religious believers more, or less, moral than others? Or are such questions philosophically irrelevant?

Speakers include: David Baggett (Liberty), Julian Baggini (The Philosophers’ Magazine), Nigel Biggar (Oxford), John Cottingham (Reading), John Hare (Yale), Terence Irwin (Oxford), Michael Hauskeller (Exeter), Tim Mulgan (Auckland), Keith Ward (Oxford), Mark Wynn (Leeds).

In order to test the truth of the SNP’s claim, the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life held a colloquium at Christ Church on 26 February, in which interested parties from north and south, Left and Right, gathered to consider answers to the question, “What’s the Good of the Union?” Participants included the theologians Nigel Biggar and Iain Torrance, the historians Alvin Jackson and Chris Whatley, the journalists Martin Kettle and John Lloyd, and others. View the complete programme and list of speakers.

The Fourth Chatham House-McDonald Centre Colloquium on Issues in International Affairs was held on 1 February 2013.

There is growing interest in the potential of cyber capabilities, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and ‘autonomous’ weapons to revolutionise the way we wage war. As parts of a military arsenal these capabilities can be deployed to deter, to make pre-emptive strikes, and to reduce the need for large armed forces. However, these remarkable developments in military technology raise novel and difficult ethical questions, for which traditional just war thinking lacks ready answers:

• When does cyber-aggression constitute ‘war’? What kinds of retaliation are proportionate?
• Does the mere presence of a terrorist change a peaceful territory into a war-zone and justify the aggressive use of UAVs across the borders of a sovereign state?
• When may we use UAVs to carry out assassinations?
• Is remote warfare ‘unchivalrous’?
• Are military personnel safely removed from the battlefield more likely to take disproportionate risks?
• What does it do to the moral characters of military personnel to conduct warfare in a manner virtually indistinguishable from playing a video-game?
• How ‘autonomous’ are programmed weapons? Can they

  discriminate?

  Who is responsible for their operation?

Under the Chatham House Rule, the identities of those present may not be revealed, but participants included scholars of international relations, politics, philosophy, and theology, as well as leaders in the intelligence community.

The Orthodox Church in the New Russia:
A Force for Political Democratization?

• Monday 4 March, 5.15pm at University College London, 16 Taviton Street, WC1H

• Wednesday 6 March, 5pm at Christ Church (Lecture Room 1)

The Orthodox Church and National Identity in Post-Communist Russia

• Thursday 7 March 5pm at Christ Church (South West Lodgings)

Download a flyer with full details.

Led by Mike Higton and David Ford from the University of Cambridge, the study asks, “What place does religion have in the Western research university?” Visit their website, The Idea of a University,  for resources or to join the discussion.