Virtue Engineering, Moral Freedom & Christian Salvation

We are pleased to announce that Dr Fraser Watts, along with Harris Wiseman, have been awarded a 2-year grant from the Faraday Institute as part of their Templeton-funded programme on Uses and Abuses of Biology. The project is on Virtue Engineering, Moral Freedom & Christian Salvation, and will focus particularly on oxytocin.

New Appointment

Ryan Williams has been appointed for a 12 month post in the PRRG from June 1st. He will work with Dr Fraser Watts and Dr Alastair Lockhart for a project on Spiritual Healing in Modern Context, and will also work with Dr Sara Savage to research and develop education initiatives aimed at encouraging integrative complexity in religious thinking. Ryan completed his PhD, entitled 'Social networks and promoting resilience to violent extremist Islamism', in the PRRG at the University of Cambridge in June 2012.

Templeton Cambridge Journalism Fellowships

The August Templeton Cambridge Journalism Fellowships seminar will be held in Cambridge later this month, entitled Beyond 9/11. It will feature talks by Fraser Watts, Sara Savage, Moez Masoud, Scott Appleby, Scott Atran, Feriha Peracha, James Jones and Russell Razzaque.


For more information about Templeton Cambridge Journalism Fellowships, please see our website. 

New Visiting Scholar

Dr Matthew Russell will be joining PRRG, from Texas, for two years, starting in September, as a Visiting Scholar. He will work with Dr Fraser Watts on a project on religion and mental health. 

Templeton Cambridge Journalism Fellowships

Templeton Cambridge Journalism Fellowships enable journalists to investigate one of the leading intellectual topics of our time: the relationship between science and religion. The goal is to promote a deeper understanding and more informed public discussion of this complex and rapidly evolving area of inquiry. 

This May, our seminar topic is Islam and Science. We have an impressive set of speakers: Tim Winter, Ahmad Dallal, Denis Alexander, Keith Ward, Nidhal Guessoum, Bruno Guiderdoni, Nader El-Bizri, Rana Dajani and Mawil Izzi Dien. 

For more information about Templeton Cambridge Journalism Fellowships, please see our website.

Spiritual Healing in Modern Context

Alastair Lockhart has begun work on a new project, investigating the ways in which ordinary people's understandings of spiritual healing have changed over the course of the twentieth century. This project, which started in November 2010, is expected to last three years and is based on archival research into individuals' spiritual healing experiences. It is directed by Fraser Watts. 

Alastair was appointed a Research Fellow at Hughes Hall in March 2011. He has recently published: Lockhart, A. (2010) 'The "Parson's Clinic": Religion and Psychology at the Interwar Tavistock Clinic' in History and Philosophy of Psychology, 12(2), 11-24.