CTEA Founding Fellow Alister McGrath will give a talk at the annual Oxford Literary Festival on April 1, 2025 at 12pm local time. 

Scientist and theologist Professor Alister McGrath argues that it is more important than ever today to have a system of belief in our lives.

McGrath says it is essential for us to contemplate something larger than ourselves in a world that has grown ever more confusing and in a society that has been atomised. Accepting the unknown is not a failure of rational thought but an existential necessity. McGrath argues that believing in what we cannot prove is intellectually emboldening and spiritually enriching.

McGrath is Emeritus Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion and Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford and has a PhD in molecular biophysics. His previous books include Dawkins’ God and C S Lewis: A Life.