Two fundamental virtues of our political system are under increasing pressure. Tolerance of cultural, moral, and religious pluralism is being squeezed by the nationalist populism of the right, the cancel culture of the left and a growing indifference to truth generally. But just when we need better public forums of debate to negotiate diversity, our democratic institutions and processes are looking more fragile than ever. How can we renew a robust democratic pluralism to promote the public good and what might the contribution of faith traditions and communities be in all this?

Jonathan Chaplin is our speaker. He is a member of the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University and a Senior Fellow of Cardus, a Canadian public theology think–tank. He was first Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics from 2006–2017. He is a specialist in political theology and he has taught at higher education institutions in the UK, Canada and the Netherlands. He is author of two Theos reports, and of ‘Faith in Democracy: Framing a Politics of Deep Diversity’ (SCM 2021).

He has written a series of blogs for Theos which can be read here and his book Faith In Democracy can be purchased here

Join us on 8th February at 12.30pm GMT on Zoom