LECTURES
My first choice is the lecture I gave as President of the Burry Port History Society. This is my home town and its history contains my own story too.
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From Porth Towyn to Burry Port, the beginnings and development of my home town.
Literature was my first love. The next two lectures were on very Welsh subjects. Over the years I’ve given formal lectures on John Donne, George Herbert, John Milton, Gerard Manley Hopkins and others. These two must suffice for all the others.
Dylan Thomas: poet of his people?
R.S.Thomas: At the far side of the cross.
And so to four items that began as lectures before becoming articles or chapters of books.
John Wesley: Lincolnshire Lad.
Charles Wesley: alumnus of Westminster School
Free Grace: a titanic struggle between John Wesley and George Whitfield for the very soul of Methodist theology.
Thomas Coke: father of Methodist Missions and one of the shapers of early American Methodism.
The final three are on a pot pourri of themes. The first develops a line of thinking that originally appeared in one of my books but became a background paper for a lecture I was to give to the cultural arm of the Commonwealth Society. The second, a little truncated, is one of the Conference lectures, the Beckly lecture, given annually on a social theme. This is a response to a piece delivered by another lecturer who, unfortunately, didn’t produce his contribution which must now be left to the detective powers of those who read it. And the final piece began as an appreciation of the life and ministry of a great Methodist scholar, a dear friend, and one of the pioneers of inter-faith study. It eventually became the introductory chapter for a Festschrift produced to celebrate his 65th birthday.
Fractured Identities: some thoughts on post-modern times.
The Beckly Lecture: Machiavelli – a prophet for our day.
Kenneth Cracknell and the challenges of inter-faith dialogue.
