Since 1957, the Church of Ireland have organised annual lectures at Queen’s to stimulate and contribute to the discussion of public theology on campus.
Guest lecturers, typically eminent thinkers in their field, have ranged from theologians to scientists, authors to Archbishops.
The Church’s Board of Education remain grateful to Queen’s University for their contribution in hosting the lectures each year.
Below, you may view recordings of some recent lectures, along with a complete list of the lectures given over 65 editions and counting.
Recent Lectures
2023: ‘The Church and Public Education: A Missionary Encounter?’
Delivered by Professor Trevor Cooling
2022: ‘Theology: Why it matters to the academy and the churches’
Delivered by Dr Alister McGrath
2020: ‘Talking Climate: Why Facts Are Not Enough’
Delivered by Prof. Katharine Hayhoe
2019: ‘Science, Religion and the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence’
Delivered by the Rev. Prof. David Wilkinson
2018: ‘Religion, Equality & The Constitution’
Delivered by Prof. Julian Rivers
From the press release:
Professor Rivers observes, ‘In recent years, religious individuals and groups have been found on a number of occasions to have acted in breach of new legal obligations designed to secure equal treatment for all. A Jewish school is told that it cannot select pupils according to an orthodox test of Jewish identity; Christian hoteliers are fined for refusing a room to a same-sex couple; an Islamic school is held to have acted unlawfully in segregating boys and girls. In this lecture I will consider these, and other, examples of new legal tensions between religion and equality. When are we right to insist on the requirements of equality even in the face of deeply-held moral or social convictions to the contrary? When can the claims of religion justify a departure from principles of equality? If equality has, in some sense, become a fundamental constitutional requirement, what does this ‘equality’ mean and require of us? And if there is a balance to be struck, is the law helping us to get that balance right?’
2017: ‘Sola Scriptura’
Delivered by Professor Mark Noll.
Report by Paul Harron, Church of Ireland Press Officer
The first of this year’s annual Church of Ireland Theological Lectures at Queen’s University, Belfast, on Monday 6th February, took the theme of examining Martin Luther’s ‘Sola Scriptura’ – the focus on the Bible as above every other authority – as Churches of various traditions reflect on the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. In a creative move, the organisers – the joint Church of Ireland and Methodist Chaplaincy at QUB – brought the renowned American scholar Professor Mark Noll to speak to a large audience at Riddel Hall, and invited Bishop Brendan Leahy, Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick, to respond and the following evening engaged both in a follow-up dialogue responding to a wide range of questions from the audience. In this way, a shared conversation was brought about, Bishop Leahy encouraging ‘ecumenical enrichment 500 years on’.
Professor Noll’s lecture was attended by a number of senior figures including Bishop Alan Abernethy, Bishop Noel Treanor and Bishop Donal McKeown, and he was welcomed to Queen’s by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Paddy Johnston. Professor Noll described himself as a Presbyterian who had recently retired from one of the USA’s great Catholic Universities, Notre Dame. Opening with Martin Luther’s famous words at the Diet of Worms, ‘My conscience is captive to the Word of God’, he argued that ‘Sola Scriptura’ was both ‘a blessing and a curse’ inasmuch as while ‘the Bible alone’ brings a message of hope and liberation, and an ethical guide and a blueprint for holiness, there has also been ‘unprecedented strife over what it has meant to follow the Word of God’. He referenced the eminent Evangelical theologian J.I. Packer, who had observed that Protestants have sometimes neglected other aspects of Christian discipleship by an overemphasis on the maxim.
Within Protestantism there has been fracture and fragmentation and even the misuse of the Bible in Imperialism and political aggression, Noll said; however, he stressed that the fragmentation of Protestantism because of ‘Sola Scriptura’ was not as extensive as some might suggest and that the Bible ‘reshapes people into holiness’ – it is ‘a pathway to purification’. He called, in this 500th anniversary year, for Protestants to examine ‘Sola Scriptura’ ‘with searching scrutiny’ and for others to do so ‘with charity’. He used as the framework for his talk, a number of texts: William Chillingworth (‘The Religion of Protestants as a Safe Way of Salvation’, 1637); Robert Baird (‘Religion in America’, 1844) and Philip Jenkins (‘The New Faces of Christianity: Believing in the Bible in the Global South’, 2006); as well poems by Brooks Hinton and Emily Dickinson. Professor Noll went on to discuss a number of critiques of ‘Sola Scriptura’ by Brad Gregory (‘The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society’, 2012) and Christian Smith (‘The Bible Made Impossible’, 2012), the latter (also author of ‘How to Go from Being a Good Evangelical to a Committed Catholic in 95 Difficult Steps’, 2011) questioning the ‘Biblicism’ and ‘rampant interpretive pluralism of Evangelicalism at its worst’.
Bishop Leahy responded by recommending that there is room for exploration of ‘Sola Scriptura’, with Roman Catholics coming to the Bible – ‘a common treasure’ – in different ways. Bishop Leahy spoke about Pope Francis’s recent declaration of gratitude for what was positive in the Reformation and that, especially since the Second Vatican Council, there has been a greater encounter amongst Catholics ‘with the Word of God in its written form’. He stressed that ecclesiology has changed from the institutional to a greater sense of community in the Body of Christ, drawing on Augustine’s view that the Word proclaimed brings a community to life. Bishop Leahy also praised the ‘rich’ ecumenical work of ARCIC (the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission) and spoke of the need to ‘re-receive our traditions in the light of the Word of God … something relevant to all Christian traditions’.
2016: ‘Reconciliation’
Delivered by the Rt Revd Justin Welby
On Monday 8th February 2016, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt Hon Justin Welby, delivered the annual Church of Ireland Theological Lecture at Queen’s University, Belfast. Speaking to students, university staff, clergy and members of the public, Archbishop Justin encouraged the packed Elmwood Hall audience to focus their hearts on reconciliation. The topic is a high priority for the Archbishop, who has worked and written extensively on reconciliation and mediation projects.
The Archbishop then engaged in a lively question and answer session, discussing a diverse range of topics including Northern Irish society, conflict, human behaviour and theology. Earlier in the evening, the Archbishop was warmly welcomed by the Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s, Professor Patrick Johnston, and the Bishop of Connor, the Rt Revd Alan Abernethy. He also proved popular with local students when visiting the Church of Ireland and Methodist Chaplaincy on Elmwood Avenue, taking time to see the café and church which the students call home.
2015: ‘The Mission of the Church in Northern Ireland in 2015: Obstacles and Opportunities’
A joint lecture with contributions from Most Revd Richard Clarke; Revd Dr Heather Morris; Very Revd Dr Stafford Carson and. Fr Eddie McGee to mark the 60th anniversary of the annual lectures.
Previous Lectures
The following is a list of all previous Theological Lecture(s) at Queen’s.
- 1957 – Rt Revd William Wand
‘The Character of Anglicanism – Historical, Doctrinal & Spiritual’ - 1958 – Revd Canon Leonard Hodgson
‘Church and Sacraments in Divided Christendom’ - 1959 – Revd Canon Kenneth Sansbury
‘The Anglican Communion and the Bible’ - 1960 – Rt Revd Ian Ramsey
‘Religion and Science: Some Philosophical Reflections’ - 1961 – Revd Dr Owen Chadwick
‘Faith and Reason’ - 1962 – Canon C.F.D. Moule
‘Christ and the Critics: New Testament Christology Today’ - 1963 – Dr William B. Stanford
‘Religion and Politics in the Western World’ - 1964 – Rt Revd Richard Hanson
‘The Bible and Tradition’ - 1965 – Dr Kathleen Bliss
‘The Ecumenical Movement’ - 1966 –Sir D.G. Christopherson
(Title unknown) - 1967 – Canon Sydney Evans
‘Faith and Morals’ - 1968 – Rt Revd Stephen Neill
‘The Challenge of Humanism’ - 1969 – Rt Revd Hugh Montefiore
‘Man’s Dominion’ - 1970 – Sir J. Norman Anderson
‘Christianity Among the World’s Religions’ - 1971 – Rt Revd Trevor Huddleston
‘Christianity and Race’ - 1972 – Revd Prof. Christopher Evans
‘The Christian Past – Tradition; Present – Existentialism; Future – Eschatology’ - 1973 – Rt Revd John Taylor
‘Enough is Enough: The Economics of Excess; The Biblical Ideal; The Lifestyle of Protest’ - 1974 – Revd Dr John McQuarrie
‘The Question of God: The Centrality of the God Question; How Can We Think of God?; God and the World’ - 1975 – Dr Frank Lake
‘Pastoral Concern in Urban Society’ - 1976 – Canon John N.D. Kelly
‘Aspects of St Jerome: the Man; the Bible; the Spiritual Life’ - 1977 – Rt Revd Michael Ramsey
‘The Holy Spirit in Christian Belief and Life’ - 1978 – Canon Douglas Webster
‘Christianity in the Third World’ - 1979 – Revd David Edwards
‘Where in the World is God?’ - 1980 – Revd Prof. Barnabas Lindars
‘A Biblical Scholar Looks at Jesus’ - 1981 – Revd Prof. Peter Ackroyd
‘The Book of Isaiah’ - 1982 – Most Revd Henry McAdoo
‘Reformed and Catholic – The Unity of the faith in Anglicanism’ - 1983 – Prof. Desmond Bowen
‘History and the Shaping of Irish Protestantism’ - 1984 – Prof. Harold Rodgers
‘Medicine and Morals’ - 1985 – Rt Revd Stuart Blanch
‘The New Reformation’ - 1986 – Prof. Oliver O’Donovan
(Title unknown) - 1987 – Rt Revd Colin Buchanan
‘Children and Communion’ - 1988 – Dame Mary Tanner
(Title unknown) - 1989 – Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali
‘The Vocation of Anglicanism’ - 1990 – Most Revd Richard Holloway
(Title unknown) - 1991 – Rt Revd Hugh Montefiore
‘A Theology of Mission for a Decade of Evangelism; Salvation – From What to What?’ - 1992 – Revd Canon Herbert O’Driscoll
(Title unknown) - 1993 – Rt Revd Richard Harries
‘Christianity and The Arts: Has Christianity a Place for Beauty?; Is Art Spiritual?’ - 1994 – Revd John Wenham
‘Can the Gospels Be Relied On to Tell Us About Jesus?’ - 1995 – Revd Canon Michael Green
‘Credible Christianity and its Proclaimation’ - 1996 – Prof. Alister McGrath
‘Rediscovering the Attraction of Christianity’ - 1997 – Rt Revd Graham Cray
‘The Church in a Changing World’ - 1998 – Rt Revd John Finney
‘Recovering the Past: A Challenge for the New Millennium’ - 1999 – Canon Dr Christina Baxter
‘Service and Authority in Corinthians’ - 2000 – Rt Revd Michael Marshall
‘The Return of Religion at the Close of the Millennium?’ - 2001 – Rt Revd Prof. Stephen Sykes
(Title unknown) - 2002 – Revd Dr Paul Zahl
(Title unknown) - 2003 – Revd Prof. Anthony Thiselton
‘The Bible and the Postmodern World’ - 2004 – Dr Elaine Storkey
(Title unknown) - 2005 – Rt Revd N.T. Wright
‘St Paul in the 21st Century’ - 2006 – Prof. Oliver O’Donovan
‘What Kind of Community is The Church?’ - 2007 – Prof. Richard Bauckham
‘The Gospels and Eyewitness Testimony’ - 2008 – Dr David Wenham
‘St Paul and Jesus’ - 2009 – Dr David Wilkinson
‘Dawkins, Hawking and the Accelerating Universe: Science and Theology in Contemporary Dialogue’ - 2010 – Most Revd John Sentamu
‘Conflict and Reconciliation: A Thelogical Perspective; A Ugandan Perspective on Mission’ - 2011 – Prof. Michael Ward
‘C.S. Lewis: Imagine There’s No Heaven; Above Us Only Sky’ - 2012 – Rt Revd Graham Tomlin
‘Church and the Crisis of Character’ - 2013 – Dr Elaine Storkey
‘Living in a Material World’ - 2014 – Rt Revd Graham Cray
‘The Mission-Shaped Church: 10 Years On’