Professor Elaine Howard Ecklund will present this year’s Gifford Lecture, on Tuesday 29 May 2018, 5.30-6.30pm, at the Meadows Lecture Theatre, William Robertson Wing (Doorway 4), Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG. Professor Ecklund is the Herbert S Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Rice University. Ecklund’s research uses social scientific methods to explore the public relationship between science and religion.

“Though The Darkness Hide Thee”: Seeking the Face of the Invisible God 

The 2017 Gifford Lecture series will take place in Parliament Hall and will all start at 5.15pm.

Lecture 1: Monday 27 March 2017 – Lecture at 5.15 until 6.15, followed by a reception.
Lecture 2: Tuesday 28 March
Lecture 3: Wednesday 29 March
Lecture 4: Monday 3 April
Lecture 5: Tuesday 4 April
Lecture 6: Wednesday 5 April

Exemplarist virtue theory is a comprehensive ethical theory in which all central terms in moral discourse (“virtue,” “good life,” “wrong act,” etc) are defined by direct reference to exemplars of goodness, picked out through the emotion of admiration.