Las Conferencias Gifford () son una serie anual de conferencias que fueron establecidas en 1887 por el testamento de Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford. Su propósito es "promover y difundir el estudio de la teología natural en el sentido más amplio del término, es decir, el "conocimiento de Dios". Una cita para dar conferencias Gifford es uno de los honores más prestigiosos en la academia escocesa. Las conferencias se imparten en varias universidades Escocesas: Universidad de St Andrews, Universidad de Glasgow, Universidad de Aberdeen y Universidad de Edimburgo.
Los calendarios universitarios registran que en las cuatro universidades escocesas, las Gifford Lectures serán "públicas y populares, abiertas no solo a los estudiantes de la universidad, sino a toda la comunidad) y sin matrícula. Además de una audiencia general, el profesor podrá formar una clase especial de alumnos para el estudio de la materia, que se realizará en la forma habitual, y se probará mediante examen y tesis, escritos y orales”. En 1889, los asistentes a las Conferencias Gifford en la Universidad de St Andrews fueron descritos como "mixtos" e incluían tanto mujeres como hombres miembros del Pregrado.
Las conferencias normalmente se presentan como una serie durante un año académico y se dan con la intención de que el contenido editado se publique en forma de libro. Varias de estas obras se han convertido en clásicos en los campos de la teología o la filosofía y la Relación entre ciencia y religión.
La primera mujer nombrada fue Hannah Arendt, quien presentó en Aberdeen entre 1972 y 1974.
Una serie de conferencias comparables son las John Locke Lectures, que se imparten anualmente en la Universidad de Oxford.
Lista de conferencias
Aberdeen
1888-91 E.B. Tylor The Natural History of Religion 1896–98 James Ward Naturalism and Agnosticism 1898–00 Josiah Royce The World and the Individual 1904–06 James Adam The Religious Teachers of Greece 1907–08 Hans Driesch The Science and Philosophy of the Organism 1911–13 Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison The Idea of God in the light of Recent Philosophy 1914–15 William Ritchie Sorley Moral Values and the Idea of God 1930–32 Etienne Gilson The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy 1936–38 Karl Barth The Knowledge of God and the Service of God according to the Teaching of the Reformation 1939–40 Arthur Darby Nock Hellenistic Religion - The Two Phases 1949–50 Gabriel Marcel The Mystery of Being , Faith and Reality 1951–52 Michael Polanyi Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy, 1953–54 Paul Tillich Systematic Theology (3 vols.): , , 1963, 1965 Alister Hardy The Living Stream, The Divine Flame 1965–1967 Raymond Aron La Conscience historique dans la pensée et dans l'action 1973 Hannah Arendt Life of the Mind 1982–84 Richard Swinburne The Evolution of the Soul, 1984–85 Freeman Dyson Infinite In All Directions, 1989–91 Ian Barbour Religion in an Age of Science, 1992–93 Jaroslav Pelikan Christianity and Classical Culture: The Metamorphosis of Natural Theology in the Christian Encounter With Hellenism, 1994–95 John W. Rogerson Faith and Criticism in the Work of William Robertson Smith, 1846-1894 1994–95 M. A. Stewart New Light and Enlightenment 1994–95 Peter Jones Science and Religion before and after Hume 1994–95 James H. Burns The Order of Nature 1994–95 Alexander Broadie The Shadow of Scotus 1997–98 Russell Stannard The God Experiment 2000–01 John S. Habgood The Concept of Nature 2003–04 John Haldane Mind, Soul and Deity 2003 Eleonore Stump Wandering in the Darkness 2007 Stephen Pattison Seeing Things: Deepening Relations with Visual Artefacts, 2009 Alister McGrath A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology, 2012 Sarah Coakley Sacrifice Regained: Evolution, Cooperation and God 2014 David N. Livingstone Dealing with Darwin: Place, Politics and Rhetoric in Religious Engagements with Evolution, 2016 Mona Siddiqui Struggle, Suffering and Hope: Explorations in Islamic and Christian Traditions, 2017 David Novak Athens and Jerusalem: God, Humans, and Nature, 2018 N. T. Wright Discerning the Dawn: History, Eschatology and New Creation, published as History and Eschatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology, 2019,
Edimburgo 1891 George Gabriel Stokes Natural Theology 1896–98 Cornelis Tiele On the Elements of the Science of Religion, 1900–02 William James The Varieties of Religious Experience, (several editions in print) 1909–10 William Warde Fowler The Religious Experience of the Roman People, 1911–12 Bernard Bosanquet The Principle of Individuality and Value, 1913–14 Henri Bergson The Problem of Personality 1915–16 William Mitchell Ramsay Asianic Elements in Greek Civilization, 1919–21 George Stout Mind and Matter pub. 1931 1921–23 Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, 1923–25 James George Frazer The Worship of Nature 1926–27 Arthur Eddington The Nature of the Physical World, 1927–28 Alfred North Whitehead Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, 1928–29 John Dewey The Quest for Certainty: A Study of the Relation of Knowledge and Action, 1934–35 Albert Schweitzer The Problem of Natural Theology and Natural Ethics (unpublished) 1937–38 Charles Sherrington Man on His Nature, 1938–40 Reinhold Niebuhr The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation , (2 vol set): 1947–49 Christopher Dawson part 1:Religion and Culture part 2: Religion and the Rise of Western Culture (1950) 1949–50 Niels Bohr Causality and Complementarity: Epistemological Lessons of Studies in Atomic Physics, 1950–52 Charles Earle Raven Natural Religion and Christian Theology 1952–53 Arnold J. Toynbee An Historian's Approach to Religion, 1954–55 Rudolf Bultmann History and Eschatology: The Presence of Eternity, 1961–62 John Baillie The Sense of the Presence of God 1970-71 Eric Lionel Mascall "The Openness of Being", 1973–74 Owen Chadwick The Secularisation of the European Mind in the 19th Century, 1974–76 Stanley Jaki The Road of Science and the Ways to God, 1978–79 Sir John Eccles The Human Mystery, The Human Psyche, 1979–80 Ninian Smart "The Varieties of Religious Identity", published as Beyond Ideology: Religion and the Future of Western Civilisation, 1980–81 Seyyed Hossein Nasr Knowledge and the Sacred, 1981–82 Iris Murdoch Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, 1983–84 David Daiches God and the Poets, 1984–85 Jurgen Moltmann God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God, 1985–86 Paul Ricoeur "Oneself as another", 1986–87 John Hick An Interpretation of Religion, (2nd ed.): 1987–88 Alasdair MacIntyre Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: 1988–89 Raimon Panikkar Trinity and Theism: 1989–90 Mary Douglas Claims on God: published (much revised) as In the Wilderness: 1991–92 Annemarie Schimmel Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam: 1992-3 Martha C. Nussbaum, "Upheavals of Thought: A Theory of the Emotions," published 2001 Cambridge University Press. 1993–94 John Polkinghorne Science and Christian Belief: Theological Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker, 1995–96 G. A. Cohen If you're an Egalitarian, how come you're so Rich?, published by Harvard University Press under the same title: 1996–97 Richard Sorabji Emotions and How to Cope with Them, published as Emotion and Peace of Mind: From Stoic Agitation to Christian Temptation, 1997–98 Holmes Rolston III Genes, Genesis and God, 1998–99 Charles Taylor, Living in a Secular Age, published as A Secular Age: 1999–2000 David Tracy This side of God 2000–01 Onora O'Neill Autonomy and Trust in Bioethics 2001–02 Mohammed Arkoun Inaugurating a Critique of Islamic Reason 2002–03 Michael Ignatieff The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, 2003–04 J. Wentzel van Huyssteen Alone in the World? Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology, 2004–05 Dame Margaret Anstee, Stephen Toulmin, and Noam Chomsky, delivering a series of lectures dedicated to Edward Said who was scheduled to give the 2004–05 series before his death in 2003. 2005–06 Jean Bethke Elshtain Sovereign God, Sovereign State, Sovereign Self 2006–07 Simon Conway Morris Darwin 's Compass: How Evolution Discovers the Song of Creation and Jonathan Riley-Smith The Crusades and Christianity 2007–08 Alexander Nehamas "Because it was he, because it was I": Friendship and Its Place in Life 2008 Robert M. Veatch, Hipprocratic, Religious and Secular Medical Ethics: The Point of Conflict 2008–09 Diana Eck The Age of Pluralism [April–May 2009] 2009–10 Michael Gazzaniga Mental Life [October 2009] 2009–10 Terry Eagleton The God Debate [March 2010] 2010–11 Professor Peter Harrison Science, Religion and the Modern World, published as The Territories of Science and Religion 2010–11 Rt Hon Gordon Brown The Future of Jobs and Justice 2011–12 Lord Sutherland of Houndwood David Hume and Civil Society 2011–12 Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch Silence in Christian History: the witness of Holmes' Dog. In 2012 the Gifford Lectures also supported a one-off joint lecture between the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics, Jim Al-Khalili Alan Turing: Legacy of a Code Breaker 2012–13 Bruno Latour "Once Out of Nature" - Natural Religion as a Pleonasm 2012–13 Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity 2013–14 Baroness Onora O'Neill From Toleration to Freedom of Expression 2013–14 Lord Rowan Williams of Oystermouth Making representations: religious faith and the habits of language 2013–14 Justice Catherine O'Regan "What is Caesar's?" Adjudicating faith in modern constitutional democracies 2014–15 Professor Jeremy Waldron One Another's Equals: The Basis of Human Equality 2014–15 Professor Helga Nowotny Beyond Innovation. Temporalities. Re-use. Emergence. 2015–16 Kathryn Tanner Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism 2016–17 Professor Richard English Nationalism, Terrorism and Religion 2016–17 Professor Jeffrey Stout Religion Unbound: Ideals and Powers from Cicero to King 2017–18 Professor Dr Agustín Fuentes Why We Believe: evolution, making meaning, and the development of human natures 2017–18 Professor Elaine Howard Ecklund Science and Religion in Global Public Life 2018–19 Professor Mary Beard The Ancient World and Us: From Fear and Loathing to Enlightenment and Ethics 2019–20 Professor Michael Welker In God's Image: Anthropology
Glasgow 1888–92 Friedrich Max Müller 1888: Natural Religion vol. 1 & 2; 1890: Physical Religion; 1891: Anthropological Religion: 1892: Theosophy or Psychological Religion 1892–96 John Caird The Fundamental Ideas of Christianity Vol.1&2 1896–98 Alexander Balmain Bruce The Moral Order of the World, The Providential Order of the World 1910-12 John Watson The Interpretation of Religious Experience 1914 Arthur Balfour Theism and Humanism 1916–18 Samuel Alexander Space, Time, and Deity, volume one: , volume two: 1922 Arthur Balfour Theism and Thought 1927–28 J. S. Haldane The Sciences and Philosophy, 1932–34 William Temple Nature, Man and God 1952–54 John Macmurray The Form of the Personal vol 1: The Self as Agent vol 2: Persons in Relation 1959 Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker The Relevance of Science 1965 Herbert Butterfield Historical Writing and Christian Beliefs and Human Beliefs and the Development of Historical Writing 1970 Richard William Southern The Rise and Fall of the Medieval System of Religious Thought 1974-76 Basil Mitchell Morality, Religious and Secular 1981 Stephen R. L. Clark From Athens to Jerusalem 1985 Carl Sagan The Search for Who We Are, published in 2006 as The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, 1986 Donald M. MacKay Behind the Eye 1988 Don Cupitt Nature and Culture 1988 Richard Dawkins Worlds in Microcosm 1992 Mary Warnock Imagination and Understanding, published as Imagination and Time, 1993–94 Keith Ward Religion and Revelation 1995–96 Geoffrey Cantor and John Hedley Brooke Reconstructing Nature