James Orr

Dr. Orr. James Orr, I'm an associate professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge. Wonderful to be with you all again and to be with new people too. Look, I think we're all agreed that there is something badly wrong at the heart of our culture.

Dr. Orr. James Orr, I'm an associate professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge. Wonderful to be with you all again and to be with new people too. Look, I think we're all agreed that there is something badly wrong at the heart of our culture.

I think if you said 15 years ago at the high noon of the new atheism that we'd be gathering around the table talking about these sacred texts, talking about Exodus, that it would have the impact that it has had, and what I think this series will have too, I'd have thought you were mad. But there is clearly a need for this. There's a yearning for it. There's an emerging coalition of atheists.

I think if you said 15 years ago at the high noon of the new atheism that we'd be gathering around the table talking about these sacred texts, talking about Exodus, that it would have the impact that it has had, and what I think this series will have too, I'd have thought you were mad. But there is clearly a need for this. There's a yearning for it. There's an emerging coalition of atheists.

Intellectuals, public intellectuals, Jordan at the forefront, John too, who maybe are not card-carrying Christians, but who recognize the power of Christianity and are beginning to realize that we can't keep running on empty, that it may be the case that we're cutting off, Western culture is cutting off the branch that it's been sitting on, and we're starting to get worried about this.

Intellectuals, public intellectuals, Jordan at the forefront, John too, who maybe are not card-carrying Christians, but who recognize the power of Christianity and are beginning to realize that we can't keep running on empty, that it may be the case that we're cutting off, Western culture is cutting off the branch that it's been sitting on, and we're starting to get worried about this.

And so I think what we're going to be looking at now, what we're going to be trying to do in a small way is to look for the taproot, to explore the taproot of Western culture, which is the gospel. It's not just the gospels, it's the gospel message. Paul says the gospel just is Christ crucified. It's a scandalous thought, Christ crucified.

And so I think what we're going to be looking at now, what we're going to be trying to do in a small way is to look for the taproot, to explore the taproot of Western culture, which is the gospel. It's not just the gospels, it's the gospel message. Paul says the gospel just is Christ crucified. It's a scandalous thought, Christ crucified.

Scandalous, he says to the Jews, and it's madness for the Greeks. And it was an offensive superstition for the Romans. And I think that is still true today very much in our culture. But Christianity, I think, has been tamed. It's been domesticated. We've become very used to it as something which is just part of the furniture. It's now expressed very often in the language of the therapeutic.

Scandalous, he says to the Jews, and it's madness for the Greeks. And it was an offensive superstition for the Romans. And I think that is still true today very much in our culture. But Christianity, I think, has been tamed. It's been domesticated. We've become very used to it as something which is just part of the furniture. It's now expressed very often in the language of the therapeutic.

We've moved from sin to syndrome, as one theologian has put it. So I hope what we can do here is to reflect on the scandalous nature of the gospel message, to reflect on why it seems like folly, why it seems so offensive.

We've moved from sin to syndrome, as one theologian has put it. So I hope what we can do here is to reflect on the scandalous nature of the gospel message, to reflect on why it seems like folly, why it seems so offensive.

And with that, try and inject new life into Western culture and to learn from the pages of the Gospels, to learn from the figure of Jesus, his teaching, to wrestle with who he claimed to be. Looking forward to it.

And with that, try and inject new life into Western culture and to learn from the pages of the Gospels, to learn from the figure of Jesus, his teaching, to wrestle with who he claimed to be. Looking forward to it.

He's making a meta-scientific claim.

He's making a meta-scientific claim.

Right, right. Well, this is what's so interesting. From the 19th century onwards up until relatively recently, maybe 10 years ago, the standard discussion on campuses that you would see a Christian union put on would be religion and science. How are they compatible? How do you reconcile the two?

Right, right. Well, this is what's so interesting. From the 19th century onwards up until relatively recently, maybe 10 years ago, the standard discussion on campuses that you would see a Christian union put on would be religion and science. How are they compatible? How do you reconcile the two?

When it's quite clear that the paradigm now, it's really the hard-boiled secularist or the hyper-progressive who is struggling to reconcile the constructive view of reality to religion. the discovered intelligibility of the natural world. So we've seen a huge change here and I think it unsettles the old materialist paradigm.

When it's quite clear that the paradigm now, it's really the hard-boiled secularist or the hyper-progressive who is struggling to reconcile the constructive view of reality to religion. the discovered intelligibility of the natural world. So we've seen a huge change here and I think it unsettles the old materialist paradigm.