“If you want to have systems of power and authority that are open to accountability, open to challenge, you have to allow conviction communities to flourish within that. If you don’t want to freeze, you have to have a trickle of warm water from somewhere. Part of what faith communities do is to provide that trickle of warm water that prevents things seizing up.”
+ Right Reverend Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, from his lectures on theology, ethics, and the language of human rights. Watch highlights from the event above, and watch the lectures and responses from Fuller faculty below. Pictured left, an aerial view of Fuller’s School of Psychology and Travis Auditorium where the lectures were held. Watch highlights from the event above, and explore the lectures and responses below.
+ The Right Reverend Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, lectures on the complex—and often fraught—overlap between the political language of “human rights” and a theological account of human personhood. Click here to see his conversation with the respondents afterwards.
+ The Right Reverend Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, lectures on the intersection of political discourse and theology and the role of the church to establish human personhood. Click here to see his conversation with the respondents afterwards.
In the Room With Rowan Williams
+ Click above to listen in as Rowan Williams and scholars from the Fuller community have an extended conversation on pastoral and academic ministry, his writing schedule, navigating the boundary between church and politics, and more. Their conversation was moderated by Oliver Crisp, professor of systematic theology.
Conversing on Faith and Politics
+ The Right Reverend Rowan Williams reflects on complex religious and political cross-pressures and the spiritual disciplines that sustain him. Click here to listen to more episodes of Conversing. All content on this page is drawn from the 2018 Payton Lectures, an annual lecture series from Fuller Seminary’s School of Theology. Fuller Theological Seminary instituted the Payton Lectures in 1948, providing for a series of divinity lectures by a notable scholar outside the regular faculty. The lectureship is named for Dr. John E. and Mrs. Eliza Payton, parents of the late Mrs. Grace Fuller, wife of seminary founder Charles E. Fuller.