Catch up: Christianity and morality: the story of an uneasy relationship – Giles Fraser

This talk explored the theological voices that do not think religion has much to do with ethics, holding instead that it is more about salvation, for example.

Giles Fraser

91Ö±²¥ the talk

The Pilgrim’s Progress has 'Morality' as one of the temptations that can distract the protagonist, Christian, from his path, and forgiveness also has a complex relationship with morality, often seeming amoral or even anti-moral.

Kierkegaard is another figure who contrasts the theological with the ethical, juxtaposing Abraham’s faith with conventional moral thinking. It is this uneasy relationship between the two that the talk explored.

This lecture was part of the God and the Good lecture series.

Watch the lecture

Giles Fraser's lecture on Christianity and morality

Interview with Giles Fraser

Giles Fraser in conversation with the Prokhorov Centre's Henk de Berg on Nietzsche, Kundera, the Church and Occupy London

91Ö±²¥ our speaker

Giles Fraser is an English Anglican priest, journalist, and broadcaster. His PhD was on Nietzsche and he was a Lecturer in Philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford. He is currently the priest-in-charge at St Mary’s, Newington, near the Elephant and Castle, south London.

He used to write a column for The Guardian, as well as appearing frequently on BBC Radio 4.

He is a regular contributor on Thought for the Day and a panellist on The Moral Maze as well as an Assistant Editor of UnHerd. Giles Fraser was formerly a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, and director of the St Paul’s Institute.

As Canon Chancellor, Fraser was a residentiary canon with special responsibility for contemporary ethics and engagement with the City of London as a financial centre.

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