Boyle Lectures

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Not to be confused with Robert Boyle Lecture.

The Boyle Lectures are named after Robert Boyle, a prominent natural philosopher of the 17th century and son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. Under the terms of his Will, Robert Boyle endowed a series of lectures or sermons (originally eight each year) which were to consider the relationship between Christianity and the new natural philosophy (today's 'science') then emerging in European society.

The first such lecture was given in 1692 by Richard Bentley, to whom Isaac Newton had written:

Sir, When I wrote my Treatise about our System, I had an Eye upon such Principles as might work with considering Men, for the Belief of a Deity; nothing can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that Purpose.[1][2]

The early lecturers were specifically charged to prove the truth of the Christian religion against Jews, Muslims and non-believers, without considering any controversies or differences that might exist between different Christian groups. A clergyman was to be appointed to the lectureship for a term of no more than three years by Thomas Tenison (later Archbishop of Canterbury) and three other nominated trustees.[3] Boyle had assigned the rent from his house in Crooked Lane to support the lectures but the income from that source soon disappeared. Archbishop Tenison then arranged that the rental income from a farm in the parish of Brill in Buckinghamshire was to be paid at the rate of £12.10.00 per quarter to the lecturer.[4]

The Boyle Lectures were revived in 2004 at the famous Wren church of St Mary-le-Bow in the City of London by Dr Michael Byrne, a Fellow of Birkbeck College London. Financial support for the lectures has been provided by a number of patrons, principally the Worshipful Company of Grocers and the Worshipful Company of Mercers in the City. A book to mark the 10th anniversary of the revived series was edited by Russell Re Manning and Michael Byrne and published by SCM Press in 2013 as 'Science and Religion in the Twenty-First Century: The Boyle Lectures 2004-2013'.

Having convened the first 15 lectures in the new series, Michael Byrne stepped down as Convenor in 2018. Management of the lecture then passed to the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) in cooperation with the Boyle Lectures Board of Trustees. Members of the board include John Boyle, 15th Earl of Cork; the Hon. Robert Boyle; Julian Tregoning, Past Master of the Grocers' Company; Xenia Dennan, Past Master of the Mercers Company; the Revd George R. Bush, Rector of St Mary-le-Bow; Emeritus Professor John Hedley Brooke; Dr Russell Re Manning; Professor Fraser Watts; and the Revd Michael Reiss, President of the ISSR.

The lectures[]

References[]

  1. ^ Scholars and Antiquaries (The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21))
  2. ^ "Notes on the Religious Orientation of Scientists" by Gerald Holton in Science Ponders Religion, Harlow Shapley, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1960, p. 59
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Newton, Thomas (1808). Dissertations on the prophecies : which have remarkably been fulfilled and at this time are fulfilling in the world. 1. Berwick: Printed by W. Gracie for J. Rennison [etc.] p. 257. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  4. ^ Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (Firm), John Henry Parker (1837). J. H. Parker's Divinity Catalogue. Oxford. p. 39. ISBN 0-524-00298-3. (titles might be trimmed)
  6. ^ Bentley, Richard (1976). Eight Boyle Lectures on Atheism. New York: Garland. ISBN 978-0-8240-1752-1.
  7. ^ Separate first editions of lectures #2–8: Bentley, Richard (1692). Matter and Motion Cannot Think, Or A Confutation of Atheism from the Faculties of the Soul. London: T. Parkhurst and H. Mortlock. Archived from the original on 10 May 2005. Retrieved 16 September 2008. A Confutation of Atheism from the Structure and Origin of Humane Bodies. London. 1692. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 16 September 2008. A Confutation of Atheism from the Origin and Frame of the World. London. 1693. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 16 September 2008. The eight lectures, from 1735 edition, reprinted Alexander Dyce, ed. (1838). The Works of Richard Bentley, Vol. 3. London: Francis Macpherson. First full edition, in html Archived 2011-05-24 at the Wayback Machine
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  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Horne, Thomas Hartwell (1827). A Catalogue of the Library of the College of St. Margaret and St. Bernard: Commonly Called Queen's College, in the University of Cambridge. London: S. and R. Bentley. pp. 301–304.
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  18. ^ Derham, William (1720). Physico-Theology, or a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God from his Works of Creation (fifth ed.). London: W. and J. Innys. ISBN 0-405-10383-2. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  19. ^ Clarke, John (1720). An Enquiry into the Cause and Origin of Evil. London: James Knapton. Retrieved 18 September 2008.
  20. ^ http://www.ilab.org/db/detail.php?booknr=350617182[permanent dead link]
  21. ^ Burnett, Thomas (1726). A Demonstration of True Religion, in a Chain of Consequences from certain and undeniable Principles; wherein the Necessity and Certainty of Natural and Revealed Religion, with the Nature and Reason of both are explained, and in particular the Authority of the Christian Revelation is established, not only from the Natures, and Reasons of things, but also from the Relation it bears to the Scriptures of the Old Testament. London: Arthur Betyesworth. Vol. 1; Vol. 2
  22. ^ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Denne, John" . Dictionary of National Biography. 14. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  23. ^ Biscoe, Richard (1840). The History of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, confirmed from other Authors, and considered as full Evidence for the Truth of Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-548-70278-0. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  24. ^ Twells, Leonard (1743). Twenty-four Sermons Preach'd at the Parish Church of St. Mary Le Bow: London, in the Years 1739, 1740, 1741, at the Lecture Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq; and Eight Sermons Preach'd at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, in the Years 1738 and 1739, at the Lecture Founded by the Honoured Lady Moyer. To which are Added, A Visitation Sermon, A Sermon before the Religious Societies and a Charity Sermon. London., Vol. 1; Vol. 2
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  26. ^ Popkin, Richard Henry (1992). "Prognostics from Nostradamus to Hume". The Third Force in Seventeenth-century Thought. BRILL. p. 299. ISBN 978-90-04-09324-9.
  27. ^ Wikisource:Moss, Charles (DNB00)
  28. ^ Owen, Henry (1773). The Intent and Propriety of the Scripture Miracles considered and explained. London. ISBN 1-104-31163-1. Vol. 1; Vol. 2
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  31. ^ Humphry, William (1858). Eight discourses on the miracles : preached in the parish church of St. Martin in the Fields in the year 1857 : at the lecture founded by the Hon. Robert Boyle. London: John W. Parker. OCLC 52633386.
  32. ^ "The Christian observer". The Christian Observer. London: Hatchard and Co. 60: 696–710. September 1861.
  33. ^ Garbett, Edward (1861). The Bible and its critics: an enquiry into the objective reality of revealed truths ___ being the Boyle lectures for MDCCCLXI. London: Seeley and Griffiths. ISBN 9780790508924.
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  37. ^ Leathes, Stanley (1870). The Witness of St. John to Christ. London, Oxford and Cambridge: Rivingtons. ISBN 0-8370-5662-4. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  38. ^ Wace, Henry (1882). Christianity and Morality Or the Correspondence of the Gospel with the Moral Nature of Man (Fifth ed.). London: Pickering. ISBN 0-7905-0410-3.
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  42. ^ Bonney, T. G. (1891). Old Truths in Modern Lights, with Other Sermons. New York: James Pott and Co. ISBN 0-8370-2412-9.
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  44. ^ Newbolt, William Charles Edmund (1896). The Gospel of Experience Or the Witness of Human Life to the Truth of Revelation. London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green & Co.
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  48. ^ Macdonald, A (1938). God, creation and revelation. London: John Heritage the Unicorn Press. OCLC 21108337.
  49. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE2XQiGm4_g[bare URL]
  50. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRD33nmZyQw&t=2s[bare URL]
  51. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khYs4qJiS-Y&t=558s[bare URL]

External links[]

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