ISSR is pleased to continue its partnership with St Mary-le-Bow church in organising and hosting the prestigious Boyle Lectures on Science and Religion.
The 2026 Boyle Lecture was given on Monday, 16 March 2026, at St Mary-le-Bow Church, London, by
Dr Iain McGilchrist
on
“God, the Brain, and the nature of Truth”
with a response from
The Revd Professor Michael J Reiss
Professor and Chair of Science Education, Institute of Education, University College London.
With the continued success of the Boyle Lectures on YouTube, ISSR will again host the Digital Boyle Lecture online.
The Digital Lecture will be available on YouTube Premiere on Thursday, 16th April 2026 at 18:00.
The Digital Lecture will be followed by the Digital Boyle Discussion on Zoom, chaired by ISSR President Professor Niels Gregersen, and will include Iain McGilchrist, Michael J Reiss, Mari van Emmerik, Chris Oldfield, and Marius Dorobantu.
The ISSR 2025 Boyle Lecture on Science and Religion was given by The Most Reverend Dr Antje Jackelén, on Archbishop Emerita of Uppsala and Primate Emerita of Sweden, on
“Science, Technology, Theology and Spirituality — A Necessary Partnership?”
with a response from Professor Arthur Petersen, Professor of Science, Technology and Public Policy, University College London
A link to the lecture is on the ISSR YouTube channel; click here to access it.
We thank all who made this another successful year!
The original Boyle Lectures were given as a series of sermons at a number of churches in London and Westminster following their establishment in 1692. The ‘original Boyles’ lasted until about 1730, although sporadic later ‘Boyle Lectures’ continued to be given in the centuries since then. The lecture series was revived in 2004 at one of its original locations, the Wren church of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside in the City of London.
The Previous Lectures in the Series:
2004 (John F Haught)
“Darwin, Design and the Promise of Nature”
2005 (Simon Conway Morris)
“Darwin’s Compass: How Evolution Discovers the Song of Creation”
2006 (Philip Clayton)
“The Emergence of Spirit: From Complexity to Anthropology to Theology”
2007 (John D Barrow)
“Cosmology of Ultimate Concern”
2008 (Malcolm Jeeves)
“Psychologising and Neurologising about Religion: Facts, Fallacies and the Future”
2009 (Keith Ward)
“Misusing Darwin: The Materialist Conspiracy in Evolutionary Biology”
2010 (John Hedley Brooke)
“The Legacy of Robert Boyle – Then and Now”
2011 (Jürgen Moltmann)
“Is the World Unfinished? On Interactions between Science and Theology in the concepts of Nature, Time and the Future”
2012 (Celia Deane-Drummond)
“Christ and Evolution: A Drama of Wisdom?”
2013 (John Polkinghorne)
“Science and Religion in Dialogue”
2014 (Alister McGrath)
“New Atheism – New Apologetics: The Use of Science in Recent Christian Apologetic Writings”
2015 (Russell Re Manning)
“Natural Theology Revisited (Again)”
2016 (Sarah Coakley)
“Natural Theology in a Changed Key? Evolution, Cooperation, and the God Question”
2017 (Robert J Russell)
“Theological Influences in Scientific Research Programmes: Natural Theology ‘In Reverse’”
2018 (Mark Harris)
“Apocalyses Now: Modern Science and Biblical Miracles”
2019 (Michael Reiss)
“Science, Religion and Ethics”
2020 (Christopher Cook)
“Mental Health and the Gospel”
2021 (Tom McLeish)
“The Rediscovery of Contemplation Through Science”
2022 (Christopher Southgate)
“God and a World of Natural Evil: Theology and Science in Hard Conversation”
2023 (Lord Rowan Williams)
“Attending to Attention”
2024 (Very Revd Professor David Fergusson)
“Science, Technology, Theology and Spirituality — A Necessary Partnership?”
All previous Boyle Lectures can be found on the ISSR YouTube channel and St Mary-le-Bow’s YouTube channel