Last week, the McDonald Centre was honoured to host one of its most exciting events. Eleven leading scholars from top universities in the US and UK gathered to study the recent plight of universities.
It was the first time that these scholars, all of whom have been supported in various projects by the McDonald Agape Foundation, were together at a single event. They represent the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Duke, Notre Dame, Yale, Chicago, and Emory.
The conference, entitled Christianity and the Flourishing of Universities, explored a variety of questions, including:
- Can theology justify its place in the secular research university?
- Should theology be studied in universities rather than churches and seminaries?
- What is lost when governments decide what research is worth funding solely by economic-utilitarian measures of ‘impact’ or monetary pay-out?
This was the fifth major McDonald Centre conference, with previous events on justice, forgiveness, human enhancement technologies, and and an engagement with the work of Peter Singer. This year’s conference was attended by well over 100 scholars, students, clergy, and laity from across the UK and numerous other countries.
Videos of all conference sessions are now available.
L-R: Peter McDonald, Nigel Biggar, Nicholas Wolterstorff, John Witte, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Al McDonald, Paul Griffiths, Suzie McDonald, Miroslav Volf, David Ford, Sarah Coakley, Richard Hays, David Hempton, Mark Noll. Photo: Ralph Williamson.
