Professor Steve Fuller Turns up in Church

Picture 0047Here’s a picture of St Mary’s Church in Warwick, UK.  I was wandering around waiting for my wife and thought I’d take a couple of quick snaps using my phone.  It’s possible to go up the tower for £2 so maybe next time I’ll go and have a look.

When I got home St Mary’s was entered into Google to see what could be found.  Here’s a couple of paragraphs paragraph from the website:

‘Our church enshrines much of the history of England, and has great architectural beauty and significance. It is a home of prayer and worship, with a strong musical tradition.

‘St Mary’s was founded on its present site in 1123 by Robert de Newburgh, the Earl of Warwick. The Crypt still remains from the original Norman building, and houses a rare example of a medieval ducking stool.’

I looked but could find no clear evidence of Gospel work. However, I did find the strangest of things and totally unexpected.  What I found was this, under Sermons of all places:

‘Professor Steve Fuller

Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick and a US citizen resident in the UK. He is the author of several books, with a keen interest in the role and place of science, faith and politics in modern culture.

This was interesting because I had been promised – and now have – a DVD of a lecture given by Steve Fuller at a meeting of The Genesis Agendum at Oxford University.

Considering the above references it’s easy to see why he would be an interesting choice for a speaker at a Christian meeting.  His education was at a Jesuit College and on the DVD claimed to be some kind of Christian.  I didn’t know that.  I had thought – perhaps assumed – he was an atheist. Though he doesn’t elaborate further as to exactly what he means by a ‘type of Christian‘.  Maybe he just means he is a Theist, but hey that’s something.  The title also tells you why he would be un-popular with a number of scientists and after watching a debate online, why it is that people keep trying to put words in his mouth. No wonder he said during the questions ‘talk to the hand man’. I felt his exasperation.

Professor Fuller is a very interesting person and I kind of have a personal interest.  He was one of my tutors when I studied as a mature student at Warwick University. I really enjoyed his lectures and count it a real privilege to have been in his tutor group for a year.  He’s a great lecturer – though some of the other students found him difficult – in my humble opinion, one of the best I heard on my course.

I started putting this post together some time ago and for some reason it just stayed as a draft. However, since beginning this post Steve has cropped up in a number of other places as well – all in the context I might add of discussing aspects related to the Christian faith. Steve is a prolific author and has a book with the provocative title (as the above lecture) of Dissent Over Descent: Intelligent Design’s Challenge to Darwinism. An interesting and fun read is The Intellectual. In this he has quite a lengthy section on Richard Dawkins as self publicist – pretty accurate it is too in my opinion. He also contributed a chapter to ‘Should Christians embrace Evolution?‘ edited by Norman C Nevin. To be honest I was a little surprised by this. The chapter (8) from Steve is The Relationship between Science and Theology.

He also turned up on 3 shows of ‘Unbelievable‘ Premier Christian Radio’s discussion broadcast hosted by Justin Brierly. Go to the Podcast Description page for the programs – with many others – featuring Steve. The ones to look out for with Steve are on 26/06/2010 debating with Victor Stenger ‘Is God a failed hypothesis – Philosophically’; 20/03/2010 as part of a panel discussing the film ‘Expelled’; 05/02/2010 debating with Thomas Dixon ‘Do we need God to do science’.

Just one more thing: Steve, if you read this,  come along one Sunday to Lower Ford Street Baptist Church in Coventry, you will be very welcome. It would be great to see you turn up there!

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