How to Be (More) Moral: An Experiment in Divinity. Professor Gordon Lynch’s Inaugural Lecture

The idea that human beings are immoral or amoral has deep cultural roots and continues to have a profound effect on how many people see themselves today. But what if morality is actually hard-wired into us? Are our problems far less to do with human depravity and more to do with the forms that our moralities take?

This lecture will explore how morality is deeply embedded into the psychological and social experience of being human and argues that the time is right for new educational experiments to help us become more critically aware of the values that shape our lives. Drawing on recent work in the School of Divinity, the promise and challenges of this work will be examined to help us think together about its future possibilities.