The Albert Moore Lectures

In 2013, the Department of Theology and Religion established a biennial lecture series in honour of Professor Albert Moore. The lectures are delivered in Dunedin by distinguished international scholars and, where possible, also made available online.

In 2019, the fourth series "Global History and the Problem of Religious Change" was delivered by Associate Professor Alan Strathern, University of Oxford. Details of earlier series, and links to recordings of some of the lectures are available here.

Alan Strathern's lectures presented some of the main themes of his new book: Unearthly Powers: Religious and Political Change in World History (Cambridge University Press, 2019). This important work provides a sophisticated analysis of religious change in the early modern world. Strathern sets out a new way of thinking about transformations in the fundamental nature of religion and its interaction with political authority. His analysis distinguishes between two quite different forms of religiosity - immanentism, which focused on worldly assistance, and transcendentalism, which centred on salvation from the human condition - and shows how their interaction shaped the course of history. A host of phenomena, including sacred kingship, millenarianism, state-church struggles, reformations, iconoclasm, and, above all, conversion are revealed in a new light, using case studies from multiple regions of the world including the Pacific.

The Albert Moore Memorial Lectures Appeal

Generous support for the lecture series has already been provided by Albert Moore's family, and the Presbyterian Synod of Otago and Southland. In order to establish the series in perpetuity, the Department is now seeking to raise an endowment fund of over $150,000. The fund will be administered by the University of Otago Foundation Trust and as a registered charity with donee status donation may be tax deductible.

To make your contribution to the establishment of the Moore Lectures, please visit the University of Otago's secure online giving page. We thank you for your support.