Conference Programme

Beyond Paley: Draft Conference Programme
All lectures take place in the main lecture theatre, University Museum, Oxford, unless otherwise stated

Last updated: Saturday 14 June. Please watch for further updates

Sunday 22 June
Afternoon: arrive in Oxford, check in to accommodation, register at St Anne’s College.

Conference registration will be open from 4.00pm-6.00pm at the Mary Ogilvie Foyer at St Anne’s College

Monday 23 June

8.00 - 8.45 Conference registration at the University Museum
9.00  Professor Alister McGrath: Renewing the Vision for Natural Theology
10.00 Professor Richard Swinburne: The Aim of Natural Theology
11.00 Coffee break: Museum Gallery
11.30 Professor Christopher Rowland: Natural Theology and the Christian Bible
12.30 Lunch: St Anne’s College
14.00 Professor Peter Harrison: Reading the “Book of Nature” in the Early Modern Period.
15.00 Professor John Hedley Brooke: Did Paley go beyond Paley? The Historical Development of English Natural Theology
16.00 Break

16.30 - 18.00 Short Papers, St Anne's College (to be confirmed)
20.00 – 21.30 Conference Reception, University Museum

Tuesday 24 June
9.00 Professor Jeremy Begbie: On the Naturalness of Natural Theology: Learning from Rameau and Rousseau
10.00 Professor Hilary Fraser: Natural Beauty and Natural Theology in Nineteenth Century Writers
11.00 Coffee break: Museum Gallery
11.30 Dr Joanna Collicutt: The Psychology of Perception and Natural Theology.
12.30 Lunch: St Anne’s College
14.00 Dr Justin Barrett: How “natural” is natural theology? Insights from the cognitive science of religion
15.00 Professor Simon Conway Morris: Darwin’s compass: evolutionary biology and natural theology.
16.00 Break
16.30- 18.00 Short papers, St Anne’s College (to be confirmed)
20.00 Professor Keith Ward, The Arthur Peacocke memorial lecture: the future of natural theology. This lecture will take place at the University Church, Radcliffe Square, Oxford.

Wednesday 25 June
9.00 John Haught, Deeper than Design: A Place for Natural Theology after Darwin
10.00 Richard Swinburne: The probability of theism in a multiverse
11.00 Coffee break: Museum Gallery
11.30 Alister McGrath: Natural theology and anthropic phenomena
12.30 Lunch: St Anne’s College

CONFERENCE ENDS