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The 30 Years' War (1618-48) and the Second Defenestration of Prague

Professor Wilson will examine the causes, conduct and consequences of the Thirty Years’ War, Europe’s most destructive conflict prior to the two 20th-century world wars.

China: Art, Power and Revolutions, 1950-1976

The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 gave Chinese artists a government that had explicit policies for the arts, seeing them as an essential part of the creation of ‘new China’.

Facts Matter, But They Aren't Enough: Science, Faith and Meaning in Life

Recent psychological research has looked at the importance of meaning to human beings, and how this works out in core questions about the relation of science and faith.

The Philosophy of Time: Does Physics Have The Last Word?

Professor Tallis seeks to rescue time from the jaws of physics, examining the claims that time is merely the fourth dimension of space-time, that there is a ‘passage’ of time or that time has a direction or arrow.

Are We Lost In The Cosmos?

What are the implications of the Big Bang for our understanding of ourselves? Is the universe meaningless? or is there some way of developing a ‘big picture’ of reality that helps us decide our place and purpose in the universe.

Slave Stories: Aesop and Walter Crane

The lecture asks how the ancient fables address power relations in a slave society. Were they primarily stories for and by slaves, or did they serve ruling-class interests?

If Humans Are So Great, Why is the World Such a Mess?

This lecture looks at our changing understanding of ourselves, focussing on Charles Darwin’s theory of human origins and the religious, scientific and ethical questions raised.

China: Art, War and Salvation, 1933-1949

After the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, many artists and intellectuals in China saw the overthrow of ‘tradition’ as the means to rescue the nation from poverty and backwardness.

The Clockwork God: Isaac Newton and the Mechanical Universe

Isaac Newton saw his demonstration of the regularity of the universe as having great religious significance. Newton’s ideas were initially seen as very supportive of religion; yet within 50 years, they were being seen in a very different light.

Watching the Heavens: Astronomy and the Meaning of Life

What did the sky-watchers of the ancient world think about the night sky, and its implications for human existence? Moving on to the great discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, we will consider the basic science and ask about the deeper significance of these discoveries.

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