The 2018 Richard Johnson Lecture

What makes the West the West? Rule of law, humanism, the Scientific Revolution, democracy, human rights – were they as inevitable as we like to think? Nick Spencer (Theos Think Tank, London) says we’re all prone to selective amnesia when it comes to the origins of the things we hold dear as a culture, and offers a more complex and provocative account of where we all came from.

Nick Spencer is Director of Research at Theos Think Tank in London and author of several books including The Evolution of the West: How Christianity Has Shaped Our Values (2016) and Atheists: The Origin of the Species (2014). He has written for The Guardian, Church Times and The Telegraph and been described by The Economist as “like a prophet crying in the post-modern wilderness”.

The Richard Johnson Lecture is an activity ​of the Centre for Public Christianity. The lecture seeks to highlight Christianity's relevance to society and positively contribute to public discourse on key aspects of civil life.