In 1868 McCosh left Ireland to become President of Princeton University. His sphere of influence was extensive, not only as a leading moral philosopher and educationalist, but as a pioneer of modern psychology and as a prominent advocate for the reconciliation of evolution and religion.

Reflecting McCosh’s wide interests, the Lecture, delivered annually at Queen’s University Belfast, is in the field of Religious Studies broadly conceived. Previous lecturers include philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff (Yale University); historian Mark Noll (University of Notre Dame); climate scientist Mike Hulme (Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, University of East Anglia); literary theorist Terry Eagleton (Universities of Lancaster, Galway and Notre Dame); Mona Siddiqui, professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies (University of Edinburgh); American novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson; the public commentator on comparative religion, Karen Armstrong; the religious historian and Vice-President of the British Academy, Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch; Baroness Onora O’Neill, FBA, FRS, FMedSci, philosopher and former President of the British Academy and David Hempton (Dean Harvard Divinity School).

The McCosh Lecture for 2022 was given by Colin Kidd, Wardlaw Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and a Fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford. The Lecture, ‘Modern Paganism Revisted: Religion and the English Enlightenment’, on 25 May 2022.

The McCosh Lecture

Seminar Series 2022/23

Semester One

13 October – Professor John Wolffe, The Open University

The Place of Religious Studies in the Modern Academy

Time and Location: 4.15pm – 27 University Square/01/003

24 November – Professor Mathew Guest, Durham University

Religion and the Student Experience in Britain

Time and Location: 4.15pm – 27 University Square/01/003

Semester Two

16 February – Professor Gladys Ganiel, QUB

Religion and the Student Experience in Northern Ireland

Time and Location: 4.15pm – 27 University Square/01/003

23 March – Professor David Fergusson, University of Cambridge

The Place of Theology in the Modern Academy

Time and Location: 4.15pm – 27 University Square/01/003

17 May – The McCosh Lecture – Professor David Livingstone, QUB

James McCosh and the Idea of a University

Time and Location: 2pm - Canada Room & Council Chamber