Speakers

Dr Denis Alexander
Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, St Edmonds College, UK

Denis Alexander is Director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St. Edmunds College, Cambridge, where he is a Fellow. He was previously an open scholar at Oxford University where he read biochemistry before carrying out research for a PhD in neurochemistry at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London. Following this he spent 15 years in academic positions in the Middle East, latterly (1981-86) as Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Upon his return to the UK he worked at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) and since 1989 at The Babraham Institute where he was Chair of the Molecular Immunology Programme and Head of the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Signalling and Development, before leaving in 2008. Dr Alexander is Editor of the journal Science & Christian Belief and contributes papers as part of the Cambridge Papers writing group. His most recent books are Creation or Evolution – Do We Have to Choose? (Oxford: Monarch, 2008, 4th printing 2010), Biology and Ideology – From Descartes to Dawkins (co-edited with Ronald Numbers, Chicago University Press, 2010) and The Language of Genetics – an Introduction [Templeton Foundation Press, 2011]. 

Professor Peter Anstey, University of Otago, NZ

Peter Anstey is Professor of Early Modern Philosophy at the University of Otago. His research focuses on philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with special reference to the thought of John Locke and Robert Boyle. He is the author of John Locke and Natural Philosophy, Oxford, 2011.

Prof C (Stephen) Evans Department of Philosophy, Baylor University, Waco Texas, USA

C. Stephen Evans received his Bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College in 1969 and his Ph.D. from Yale University in philosophy in 1974.  He is currently University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Baylor University.  His published works have focused on Kierkegaard, philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of psychology.  He has written fourteen single authored books, the most recent book being Natural Signs and Knowledge of God (Oxford Univ. Press).  Evans has published many professional articles and has received two Fellowships from NEH and a major grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.  Prior to coming to Baylor Evans taught at Wheaton College, St. Olaf College, where he served as Curator of the Howard and Edna Hong Kierkegaard Library as well as a member of the Philosophy Department, and at Calvin College, where, besides teaching philosophy, he served as Dean for Research and Scholarship and was the inaugural holder of the William Spoelhof Teacher-Scholar Chair.  He is a past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers.

Dr Tim Meadowcroft
Head School of Theology, Senior Lecturer - School of Theology, Mission & Ministry, Laidlaw College, NZ

Tim Meadowcroft is Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Head of the School of Theology, Mission and Ministry at Laidlaw College, Auckland.  He has been at Laidlaw College (formerly Bible College of New Zealand) since 1994 and has held a range of senior leadership roles at the College during that time in addition to his teaching and research.  He completed his PhD at New College, University of Edinburgh, in 1993, where the focus of his research was apocalyptic literature, the Septuagint and the Second Temple period.  His thesis was published as Aramaic Daniel and Greek Daniel (Sheffield Academic Press, 1995).  Since then he has written two commentaries:  Daniel (Asia Bible Commentaries, 2004, co-authored) and Haggai (Sheffield Phoenix, 2006).  He has also written a range of articles on the theory of interpretation, and his forthcoming The Message of the Word of God: The Glory of God Made Known (IVP, 2011) brings together these strands of interest.  He has also published articles around the engagement of Scripture with various aspects of contemporary life.  He serves on the editorial boards of several journals: Colloquium, Bible Translator – Practical Papers and Interface.  He has previously been a high school teacher and a parish minister.  Currently he is active as an honorary assistant priest in the Henderson Anglican parish.

Prof Murray Rae  Department of Theology, University of Otago, NZ

Murray Rae is Professor of Theology at the University of Otago and Head of the Department of Theology & Religion where he teaches courses in Systematic Theology and Ethics. From 1998-2004 he taught theology at King’s College, London, and was previously a chaplain at the University of Auckland. Having begun his working life as an architect, he now chairs an international research group on theology and the built environment and, in New Zealand, he chairs a research group on Māori engagements with Christianity. His research interests also include the work of Søren Kierkegaard, Christian responses to war and violence and theological hermeneutics. Recent publications include: God of Salvation, edited with Ivor Davidson (Farnham: Ashgate Press, 2011) Kierkegaard and Theology (London: Continuum, 2010), Christian Doctrine, edited with Stephen Holmes and Lindsey Hall (London: SCM Press, 2010) olmes and Lindsey Hall, (London: SCM Press, 2010), History and Hermeneutics (London: T&T Clark, 2005). He is also series editor of the Journal of Theological Interpretation Monograph Series published by Eisenbrauns and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Theological Interpretation and the International Journal of Systematic Theology.

Prof Robert (Bob) White
Assistant Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, UK

Professor Robert (Bob) White is Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge (since 1989) and a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Geological Society. His scientific work is published in over 300 papers and articles. He is Associate Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge.