Socrates in the City

A conversation between esteemed author Andrew Klavan and Socrates in the City host Eric Metaxas regarding Mr. Klavan’s recent book, The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England’s Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus. This event took place at the Union League Club in New York City in September 2022.The post Andrew Klavan: The Truth and Beauty first appeared on Socrates in the City.

Eric Metaxas interviews Stephen C. Meyer on the scientific evidence for the existence of God as outlined in Dr. Meyer’s book THE RETURN OF THE GOD HYPOTHESIS. Their conversation explores evidence from cosmology, showing that the material universe had a beginning; evidence from physics, showing that the universe was been “finely tuned” to allow for the possibility of life, and evidence from biology, showing that since the universe came into being, large amounts of genetic information present in DNA must have arisen to make life possible. Metaxas asks about the response to the 2021 book and Meyer details a dramatic shift in the intellectual world. He says that after the rise and fall of the popular arguments put forward by the “New Atheists” in the early 2000’s, groundbreaking scientific discoveries led to a return to belief. Meyer cites the rise of figures like psychologist Jordan Peterson and British historian Tom Holland who lament the loss of morality and look beyond the cynicism of the New Atheists by returning to conversations on truth and meaning. The interview took place at the Westminster Conference on Science and Faith, sponsored by the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, in April 2022.The post Stephen Meyer: The Return of the God Hypothesis first appeared on Socrates in the City.

From the Socrates in the City archives: Baroness Caroline Cox sits in the British House of Lords as a crossbencher and is a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Nigeria, and Burma. At this 2011 event in Manhattan, Baroness Cox discusses threats to the West’s cultural and political heritage in the U.K. and abroad.The post Baroness Caroline Cox: The Threat to the West's Cultural and Political Heritage first appeared on Socrates in the City.

Eric Metaxas takes the role of panelist, joining professor and journalist David Batstone in talking about the issue of slavery with guest-host Scot Sherman. Metaxas discusses his hero William Wilberforce, whose story he tells in the bestseller AMAZING GRACE: WILLIAM WILBERFORCE AND THE HEROIC CAMPAIGN TO END SLAVERY, and Batstone retells the harrowing true story that led him to write NOT FOR SALE: THE RETURN OF THE GLOBAL SLAVE TRADE–AND HOW WE CAN FIGHT IT, in this 2007 conversation in New York City.The post Not for Sale and Amazing Grace first appeared on Socrates in the City.

Distinguished Fellow of The Center for Bioethics, physician, and Consulting Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University Medical Center William Hurlbut explores how dramatic advances in molecular biology and human biology have resulted in inquiry that raises questions about the relationship between the material form and the moral meaning of developing life. After unpacking the scientific arguments vs. the ethical, social, and political conflicts, Dr. Hurlbut proposes a way forward in this remarkably still-relevant lecture from a 2009 Socrates in the City event in New York City.The post William Hurlbut: The Science and Politics of Stem Cells: Is There a Way Forward? first appeared on Socrates in the City.

Former California Poet laureate and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia diffuses the widely-held notion that poetry is a sophisticated, intellectual art for the elite. Mr. Gioia offers a personal and accessible look at how art does something for us that nothing else will do, and how poetry is a human universal, “a way of remembering those things it would impoverish us to forget,” in this lecture from 2008 in New York City.The post Dana Gioia: Can Poetry Matter? first appeared on Socrates in the City.

Host Eric Metaxas welcomes British theoretical physicist Sir John Polkinghorne to this 2003 Socrates in the City event in New York City. Sir Polkinghorne presents on themes from his book BELIEF IN GOD IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE, discussing the collegiality between science and theology and detailing what he refers to as some of the most deeply intelligible elements in the physical world.  The post Sir John Polkinghorne: Belief in God in an Age of Science first appeared on Socrates in the City.

The eminent political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain examines the origins and meanings of “sovereignty” as it relates to all the ways we attempt to explain our world: God, state, and self. This 2010 lecture, hosted by Eric Metaxas, ends with a lively Q&A and was originally part of Dr. Elshtain’s 2006 Gifford Lectures.The post Jean Bethke Elshtain: Who Gets The Final Say: God, Government or Me? first appeared on Socrates in the City.

Boston College Professor of Philosophy Peter Kreeft explores the ages-old question of “Why?” from a philosophical perspective, touching on themes from his book, MAKING SENSE OUT OF SUFFERING, in a lecture given in New York City in January 2003.The post Peter Kreeft: Making Sense Out of Suffering first appeared on Socrates in the City.

British theoretical physicist Sir John Polkinghorne examines how scientific discoveries of the 20th century, particularly quantum theory and chaos theory, disrupted the “clockwork universe” view of the world that prevailed for about 200 years after Newton. Polkinghorne explores how a world that does not behave in a reliable way, that is described not deterministically but rather probabilistically, might comport better with the notion of prayer than the mechanical view of the world that preceded it. This event took place in New York City in 2004.The post Sir John Polkinghorne: Can a Scientist Pray? first appeared on Socrates in the City.