Between 1 and 10 March 2016 the Department of Theology and Religion was very pleased to welcome Professor Grace Davie, University of Exeter, to speak on ‘Religion in Public Life: Levelling the Ground’.
Grace is one of the leading academics in the world working in the field of sociology of religion and it was an honour to have Grace share her expertise at the 2016 Edward Cadbury Lectures.
Grace delivered four lectures in the series, with each lecture taking a incrementally broader geographical view of the topic. The lecture on 1 March started with investigating what religion in public life meant to local communities and we ended the series hearing how the topic is represented on an international level. These insightful lectures drew a large audience and the opportunities at the end of the lectures to discuss the topics with Grace stimulated varied and thought provoking conversations.
Grace also delivered a small afternoon workshop for undergraduates and local sixth form students on the same theme, which was very well received and enabled students at different stages in their education to engage with the topic from their own perspectives and explore what religion in public life looked like in the modern world.