Both speakers are prominent figures in the national and international conversation about religion in public life. Nigel Biggar is a prominent author and speaker on the contribution of religion to the health of liberal societies, including the development of a concept of ‘public reason’ that permits the engagement of metaphysically contradictory positions. Timothy Winter is a leading British Muslim scholar who has lectured and written widely on Islamic topics including on the contribution of Islam in the West.

When: Tuesday, 7 February, 4.30 for 5.00

Where: Roy Griffiths Room, Keble College, Oxford OX1 3PG

RSVP: Open to all, but limited to 60 participants so book early by emailing KebleTheology@googlemail.com (send one email for each person attending)

The present system preserves both the integrity of the medical profession and the general prohibition of killing, but at the same time makes room for rare exceptions via the prosecutor’s discretion. That’s messy, imperfect—and probably just about right.

The Falconer Report was funded by the author Terry Pratchett. In the latest issue of Triple Helix, Dr Richard Hain offers this thoughtful review of Pratchett’s much-discussed BBC documentary, Choosing to Die.

When: 23rd November 2011, 6-8pm

Where: Abraham Lecture Theatre, Green Templeton College, Oxford

Registration: All welcome. No need to register, no charge. Enquiries to Charles Foster

The book was recently featured by the journal Political Theology.

Reviews

“This elegant and tightly-reasoned tract offers a striking new reading of John Locke’s theories of church and state, religion and politics, conscience and command. Though Locke is often seen solely as a secular prophet of modern liberalism, Perry shows that he is also a subtle political theologian who saw the need to harmonize our spiritual and temporal loyalties in public and private life. If Perry is right on Locke, our conventional constitutional histories and political theories will need ample revision, and Perry shows us the way.”—John Witte, Center for the Study of Law & Religion, Emory University

“Have you ever wondered whether it’s possible for a liberal democratic state to accommodate all the diverse loyalties of its citizens, especially all their diverse religious loyalties? If so, then this is the book for you. In a fresh reading of the entirety of John Locke’s writings on toleration, Perry shows how Locke moved from an anti-toleration position to the view that almost all religious loyalties should be tolerated and can be tolerated if we establish ‘just bounds’ between religion and a government. Skillfully negotiating the vast literature on this topic, Perry argues that no liberal theorist has ever succeeded in formulating these just bounds, and that it’s a mistake to think in terms of a boundary between a neutral state and the loyalties of the citizens. He concludes by asking, ‘What then?’ Altogether an illuminating, thoroughly informed, compelling and bracing argument.”—Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University

Publisher’s Description

From the story of Antigone to debates about homosexuality and bans on religious attire, it is clear that liberalism’s promise to solve all theo-political conflict is a false hope. The philosophy connecting John Locke to John Rawls seeks a world free of tragic dilemmas, where there can be no Antigones. Perry rejects this as an illusion. Disputes like the culture wars cannot be adequately comprehended as border encroachments presided over by an impartial judge. Instead, theo-political conflict must be considered a contest of loyalties within each citizen and believer. Drawing on critics of Rawls ranging from Michael Sandel to Stanley Hauerwas, Perry identifies what he calls a ‘turn to loyalty’ by those who recognize the inadequacy of our usual thinking on the public place of religion. The Pretenses of Loyalty offers groundbreaking analysis of the overlooked early work of Locke, where liberalism’s founder himself opposed toleration.

Perry discovers the problems we face were not unknown to our early-modern ancestors founders. Liberal toleration is thus more sophisticated, more theologically subtle, and ultimately more problematic than has been supposed. It demands not only governmental neutrality (as Rawls believed) but also a reworked political theology. Yet this must remain under suspicion for Christians because it places religion in the service of the state. Perry concludes by suggesting where we might turn next, looking beyond our usual boundaries to possibilities obscured by the liberalism we have inherited.

• How does the Big Society acknowledge its dependence on a wider Nature?
• Can the Big Society restrain the anti-ecological practices of the modern state?
• Are we free, as humans, to volunteer Nature as a participant in the Big Society?
• What is the relationship between civil society and economic markets?
• Will attention to civil society obscure the moral responsibilities of the modern state?
• Should citizenship trump participation in the Big Society?
• What is the relevance of Catholic Social Teaching to the Big Society?

The conference is October 1. For full details, visit the conference website.

The Theology Faculty’s lectures will include John Perry, speaking on What’s Wrong, and Right, with Mixing Religion and Politics? at 11.30 on 16 September 2011. Diarmaid MacCulloch will also speak on the topic of church history.

For full details, or to register, click here.

The conference dealt with a cluster of questions: Is forgiveness ever appropriate at a political, rather than an interpersonal, level? Do Christians actually agree about what forgiveness is, and when it is appropriate? And how do Christian views look to philosophers? Of those who made formal presentations, Thomas Brudholm is a philosopher who had written critically of certain Christian views of forgiveness and its political role; Nigel Biggar and Stephen Williams are Christian theologians who had already disagreed in print over the role of forgiveness in post-Troubles Northern Ireland; Anthony Bash and Geoffrey Scarre are the authors of, respectively, important theological and philosophical work on forgiveness; and Philip Barnes is a Christian philosopher, who has written on forgiveness and justice in Northern Ireland. The final and additional paper on this theme has been contributed by the Reformed theologian, Michael Beintker, whose study of redeeming the past sheds light on the problem of forgiveness in the German context.

Standpoint: We have just been attending a conference in Oxford entitled Christian Ethics Engages Peter Singer. Perhaps we should kick off with a question that you, Nigel, asked at the end of the conference. On what grounds, Peter, would you give greater weight to the interests, the preferences, theneeds of the Jewish victims in the Holocaust, rather than the Nazi perpetrators? …  Read the debate in full.