Gresham College Lectures

One of the great theological debates in the early church arose from Gnosticism. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-matter-evil

It was movement in late antiquity which held that the material world was evil. Salvation was understood in terms of deliverance from the material world into a spiritual realm. Early Christian writers resisted the idea, holding that the material world was not evil. Yet many questions remain unresolved, particularly the question of how human beings are able to transcend the material order.

This lecture explores such questions in dialogue with Philip Pullman's complex Dark Materials trilogy which provides a framework for discussing how human beings relate to the material world, and the origin of evil.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-matter-evil

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) and the Afrikaner people it served had, since the 17th century drawn a distinction between white ‘Christians’ and the apparently unconvertible ‘heathen’ peoples around them. The Afrikaners’ identity as a covenanted people was reinforced by the British conquest of 1899-1902. In the effort to maintain a white-ruled South Africa, some Afrikaners flirted with Nazism, but from 1948 the National Party chose a different path: a doctrine of ‘apartheid’ or ‘separate development’, which drew deeply on the DRC’s theology. Theology legitimised apartheid, but was also instrumental in bringing it to a sudden and remarkably peaceful end.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-gospel-of-apartheid

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

The annual consumption of electricity in the UK is 300 TWh https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/energetic-mathematics

It is supplied over a complex network starting, usually, with power being generated at a power station. This is then transmitted over a high voltage network, before being reduced in voltage and distributed to commercial, industrial and residential consumers. Mathematics is vital in ensuring that the lights stay on as the planners of the grid need to solve non-linear differential-algebraic equations to work out how much electricity can be generated, distributed and stored. These challenges will increase in the future.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/energetic-mathematics

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

This lecture will explore vulnerable parties and children in the Family Court. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/two-point-one-children-why-there-is-no-typical-family-in-the-family-court

The common denominator is frequently one of poverty - in education, income and expectations. The range of disabilities that can be involved in court will be considered, and the way that law and practice responds to seek to protect an affected person's rights. The general principles which the court has to address if it is to deliver a fair system to the most vulnerable will be outlined.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/two-point-one-children-why-there-is-no-typical-family-in-the-family-court

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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By the twelfth century the West could be imagined as a soundscape of Latin plainsong and be given a name: Latinitas. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/singers-in-the-making-of-europe

The Gregorian chants for the Mass figured prominently in this body of shared material, and were spread by many different methods of colonisation and conquest. This was both internally by the foundation of new houses in abandoned or waste areas and externally by crusade in Spain, eastern Europe and Livonia. The singers of the Latin churches were therefore masters of an art that belongs with other aspects of medieval culture that helped to impel what may be called 'the making of Europe'.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/singers-in-the-making-of-europe

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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Eradicating an infectious disease for all time is one of the greatest gifts a generation can give to all subsequent ones. To date only one human disease, smallpox, has been eradicated, with two more (polio and Guinea worm) being tantalisingly close. Several other major diseases are talked about as eradication targets. Eradicating diseases is however very difficult for scientific but also political reasons. Many eradication attempts have been tried and failed. This lecture will examine the opportunities and difficulties of eradication.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-eradication-of-infectious-diseases

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Is it possible to build software so that you know that it is correct? How could this be done? Has anyone tried? What would it cost?

This lecture discusses the Tokeneer experiment conducted by the US National Security Agency, and casts some light on these questions.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/making-software-correct-by-construction

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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George VI was the unexpected king. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/king-george-vi

As the second son of George V, he had no reason to believe, until less than a month before his accession, that he would succeed to the throne. He reigned in an atmosphere of almost perpetual crisis – confrontation with the dictators, war, decolonisation and the difficult economic problems of the immediate postwar years. His human qualities reinforced the spirit of social solidarity which helped Britain to victory in war and recovery in peace.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/king-george-vi

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

For most of the period since we have had records, the UK has held a positive net international investment positions versus the rest of the world. But the UK is now a net debtor versus the rest of the world. We shall examine the reasons for this extraordinary reversal and what it means for the exchange rate and whether it implies constraints on the current account, and ultimately on output growth.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-external-financing-position

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

South Africa's Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) and the Afrikaner people it served had, since the 17th century drawn a distinction between white 'Christians' and the apparently unconvertible 'heathen' peoples around them. The Afrikaners' identity as a covenanted people was reinforced by the British conquest of 1899-1902. In the effort to maintain a white-ruled South Africa, some Afrikaners flirted with Nazism, but from 1948 the National Party chose a different path: a doctrine of 'apartheid' or 'separate development', which drew deeply on the DRC's theology. Theology legitimised apartheid, but was also instrumental in bringing it to a sudden and remarkably peaceful end.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-gospel-of-apartheid

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show