Issue 150

James Callaghan Memorial Lecture

04th December 2006

The university's annual James Callaghan Memorial Lecture was given on Monday 20 November in the James Callaghan Lecture Theatre to an audience of both the general public and students.

The James Callaghan Lecture was delivered this year by Former Archbishop of Canterbury, The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Lord Carey of Clifton, and was entitled: What Makes a Nation Civil? Some Elements in the Pathology of Civilisation. The lecture covered the notion of identity, media influence on society, science, moral values, the main causes of prosperity in western civilisation, as well as religious influence in today's society.

Lord Carey began by examining our understanding of civilization, looking at its etymology and continued by commenting on various academic views as to what constitutes 'civilised society'. He prompted his audience to consider whether or not all civilisations were temporary phenomena and pointed towards great civilisations such as those of the ancient Greeks and Romans, to aid of our understanding of our own society.

Lord Carey finished by speaking of the goodness in our society today, and urged politicians to do more to promote it. Lord Carey said James Callaghan, was a great politician who did just that, "a man who saw his time in politics as a service to others rather than as a career." Lord Carey's lecture left people feeling comfortable enough to ask questions afterwards and he was open to answering any questions people wanted to ask or debate with him.

The Reverend Nigel John, Swansea University's Anglican Chaplain said that it was, "an excellent lecture and it was a great honour to have a leading figure presenting issues that we can discuss with them. It was a good and searching lecture which was well received by the audience."

Eleni Cashell