22.09.2014
Leading War Historians to Debate Ethics of War at Christ Church Lecture
Leading speakers on the subject of War in history will talk at an open event on the theme of ‘The Ethics of War’ which will take place in the Music Room of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on Wednesday November 19 at 7.30 pm.
The lecture will be delivered by Professor Nigel Biggar, of the University of Oxford with a response by Professor Keith Jeffery of Queen’s University, Belfast. The discussion will be chaired by Dr John Bowman, historian and broadcaster.
The event is being organised by the Church of Ireland’s Historical Centenaries Working Group as a contribution to the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.
Professor Nigel Biggar of the University of Oxford will speak on the theme based on his recent book In Defence of War, to which Professor Keith Jeffery of Queen’s University, Belfast will respond referring to his recent historical research. After they have spoken Dr Bowman will open up debate and discussion to the audience.
Professor Biggar is Regious Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Christ Church, Oxford. He is also director of the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life. After reading Modern History at Worcester College, Oxford, Nigel Biggar proceeded to study religion, theology, and ethics in Canada and the USA. On his return to Oxford in 1985 he became Librarian and Research Fellow at Latimer House, and then for most of the 1990s he was Chaplain and Fellow of Oriel College. In 1999 he took the Chair of Theology at the University of Leeds; and in 2004 he moved to the Chair of Theology and Ethics at Trinity College Dublin. He arrived in Christ Church in the autumn of 2007. In Defence of War was published in 2013.
Professor Keith Jeffery is Professor of British History at Queen’s University, Belfast. He was educated in Ireland, the USA and Cambridge (St John’s College), where he won the Prince Consort Prize and Seeley Medal. In 2005 he went to Queen’s, after teaching at the Ulster Polytechnic and the University of Ulster for over 20 years. From 1988 to 1997 he was joint–editor of Irish Historical Studies, and is currently chair of the journal’s board of directors. In 1997–98 he was a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales. In 1998 he was Lees Knowles Lecturer in Military Science at Trinity College Cambridge, and in 2003–04 Parnell Fellow in Irish Studies at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 2004 he was also a visiting research fellow at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. He was awarded the Templer Medal from the Society for Army Historical Research in 2007 for the best book of the year (his biography of Sir Henry Wilson) on British Military History. In 2009 he was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.
The lecture in Christ Church Cathedral complements the ‘Lives Remembered’ exhibtion and programme in St Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin.