The Bampton Lectures 2026: Beginning with Creation
The Bampton Lectures, founded by the will of the Revd John Bampton (1690-1751), first took place at the University Church in 1780. Over the centuries, these prestigious lectures, sometimes courting controversy, always intellectually stimulating, have covered a range of theological subjects. It is a condition of the Bampton Bequest that the lectures are published by the Lecturer. These lectures are delivered every year.
These lectures are livestreamed on University Church's YouTube channel.
The Lectures will take place on Tuesday 19 May 2026 at 10.00am and 11.30am, and on Tuesday 26 May 2026 at 10.00am and 11.30am.
Lecture Schedule:
Lecture 1: Have we forgotten God the Creator?
Date and Time: Tuesday 19 May 2026 at 10.00am
Lecture 2: Believing in the Resurrection of the Body
Date and Time: Tuesday 19 May at 11.30am
Lecture 3: Being the Body of Christ
Tuesday 26 May at 10.00am
Lecture 4: The Cross as the Tree of Life
Tuesday 26 May at 11.30am
In these lectures, Professor Janet Martin Soskice will argue that the Christian doctrine of creation has been neglected to damaging effect. Counter to a tide of criticisms, Professor Soskice will suggest that, if we begin with a robust account the doctrine of Creation and unfold the mystery of the Divine economy from there, Christianity is both more plausible and more interesting than popular accounts might suggest – in short, gone is the so-called ‘disenchanted universe’ and you can believe in angels, the resurrection of the dead, miracles and all kinds of things you believed anyway but felt sheepish for doing do. A weak protology (account of beginnings) leads to a weak eschatology and, after a first lecture asking whether we have forgotten God, the Creator, the second lecture is on the resurrection of the body (our bodies), the third on what it is to ‘be in Christ’, especially in Paul’s theology and how this relates to participation and deification, and the final lecture on what ‘beginning with creation’ might mean for a cosmic Christology and God’s love for all creatures.
About the lecturer
The Bampton Lecturer for 2026 is Professor Janet Martin Soskice. Dr Soskice is Professor Emerita of Philosophical Theology, University of Cambridge, and Fellow Emerita, Jesus College, Cambridge, where she served for 30 years. She is currently the William K. Warren Distinguished Research Professor of Catholic Theology at Duke University.
A Roman Catholic theologian, Dr Soskice’s work lies at the intersection of Christian theology and philosophy. She has been particularly interested in questions of method and the Doctrine of God: religious language, metaphysics and epistemology, narrative and genre, doctrine of creation, women and religion, beauty and western art, science and religion, and theological writing. Her present large project, bringing almost all of these together, is on “Naming God.” Her books include Metaphor and Religious Language (Oxford, 1984); The Kindness of God (Oxford, 2007); joint editor of Creation and the God of Abraham (Cambridge, 2010); and Naming God: Addressing the Divine in Philosophy, Theology and Scripture (Cambridge, 2023). Her book Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Lost Gospels (London: Chatto and New York: Knopf, 2009) was read as Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 and was in the “Best Book of the Year” lists of The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor. Dr Soskice is a past president of both the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain and the Society for the Study of Theology, and has been a Eugene McCarthy Visiting Professor at the Gregorian University in Rome and president of the Cambridge University Catholic Association. She is a member of the English and Welsh Anglican/ Roman Catholic Committee and takes part in Christian/Muslim dialogue.
