Fri 25 Jan: Charles Curran

Human Rights and the Roman Catholic Tradition

Charles Curran is a Catholic moral theologian and Elizabeth Scurlock Professor of Human Values at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He has questioned the Church’s teaching on a number of moral issues including abortion, homosexuality and euthanasia and co-authored a response to Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae (encyclical on contraception) of 1968. He was dismissed from The Catholic University of America as a dissident in 1986. He is the author of The Catholic Moral Tradition Today: A Synthesis (1999), Catholic Social Teaching 1891–Present: A Historical, Theological and Ethical Analysis (2002), The Moral Theology of Pope John Paul II (2005), and Loyal Dissent: Memoirs of a Catholic Theologian (2006).

Tue 29 Jan: Simon Schama (Sheldonian Theatre)

Race, Faith and Freedom in American and British History

Simon Schama CBE is Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University, New York. His many works on history and art include The Embarassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (1987), Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (1989), Landscape and Memory (1995), A History of Britain (3 vols., 2000–2002), Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution (2006), and The Power of Art (2007). He is one of the great communicators of his subject and has worked extensively as a television presenter, most notably on the BBC’s award-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary series, A History of Britain.

Wed 30 Jan: Asma Jahangir

The Tolerance Policy: Way Out or Compromise?

Asma Jahangir is Pakistan’s most celebrated human rights activist and lawyer. Her life has frequently been threatened, notably after she defended Christians and Muslims accused of blasphemy. She is the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. A former Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, she is also a founding member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (an independent body of lawyers and activists) and the Women’s Action Forum. She has spent most of her career defending the rights of Pakistani women, religious minorities, prisoners and children. She is the author of Children of a Lesser God: Child Prisoners of Pakistan (1992).

Wed 6 Feb: Tariq Ramadan

Islam and Human Rights

Tariq Ramadan is a Muslim academic and theologian with a broad concern for the position of Islam in the modern Western world. He is Professor of Islamic Studies and currently Senior Research Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, at Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan), and at the Lokahi Foundation (London), and a Visiting Professor at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. He is currently President of the European Muslim Network, a Brussels-based think tank. Ramadan is the author of The Messenger: The Meanings of the Life of Muhammad (2007), Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (2004), To Be a European Muslim (1999), and Islam, the West, and the Challenges of Modernity (2001).

Thu 7 Feb: Ronald Dworkin (Sheldonian Theatre)

Terrorism, Religion and Human Rights

Ronald Dworkin is Bentham Professor of Jurisprudence at University College, London, and the Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at New York University. A former Oxford Professor of Jurisprudence, he is one of the world’s most widely respected figures in both legal and political philosophy and has written on many subjects related to religion, including abortion, tolerance and the limits of free speech. He is the author of Taking Rights Seriously (1977), A Matter of Principle (1985), Law’s Empire (1986), Philosophical Issues in Senile Dementia (1987), A Bill of Rights for Britain (1990), Life’s Dominion (1993), and Freedom’s Law (1996).

Wed 13 Feb: Chantal Mouffe

Can Human Rights Accommodate Pluralism?

Chantal Mouffe is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Westminster in London. In her most recent works, she suggests that the desire for consensus politics is undermining our ability to understand and respond to extremism. She is currently elaborating a non-rationalist (‘agonistic’) approach to political theory and engaged in research projects on the place of Europe in a multi-polar world order. She is co-author of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985) and author of The Return of the Political (1993), The Challenge of Carl Schmitt (1999), The Democratic Paradox (2000), and On the Political (2005).

Wed 20 Feb: Stanley Hauerwas

Pentecost: Learning the Language of Peace

Stanley Hauerwas is a theologian, ethicist and Professor of Law. He is currently Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at the Divinity School of Duke University. A powerful proponent of non-violence and pacifism and a critic of patriotism, he was named ‘America’s Best Theologian’ by Time magazine in 2001. His book, A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic (1981), was selected as one of the 100 most important twentieth-century books on religion. He is the author of Performing the Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Non-Violence (2004), and A Better Hope: Resources for a Church Confronted with Capitalism, Democracy and Post-Modernity (2000).

Thu 21 February: Debate

Freedom of Belief, Freedom from Belief: Religion and Rights

Featuring A. C. Grayling, the Rt Revd John Pritchard, Andrew Brown, Imam Monawar Hussain and other faith-representatives

A. C. Grayling is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a supernumerary Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He is the author of The Meaning of Things: Applying Philosophy to Life (2001), Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life without God (2004), and Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness (2007).

John Pritchard was ordained in 1972. A former Warden of St John’s College, Durham, he has been Archdeacon of Canterbury and Bishop of Jarrow; he was inaugurated as the 42nd Bishop of Oxford in June 2007. He is the author of many books including Beginning Again (2005), How to Explain Your Faith (2006) and Practical Theology in Action (new ed., 2006).

Andrew Brown works for the Guardian, writing long profiles for their Saturday review section, and a weekly column for the web site, as well as leaders, book reviews, features, and short cuts. For 10 years he was the Religious Affairs Correspondent for the Independent. He also writes and presents Analysis programmes for BBC Radio 4. His chief interests are biology, religion, and technology, especially where they overlap.

Imam Monawar Hussain is the Muslim Tutor at Eton College. He read Theology at the University of Oxford and trained as an Imam at the Muslim College, London, under the late Shaykh Dr. Zaki Badawi KBE. He is also a Commissioner on the Commission for the Future of Volunteering. Monawar has spoken at many educational institutes and forums throughout the UK, and has featured in a number of television documentaries about Muslims in Europe.