The 2023 Moore Lectures
Comtemporary Buddhism
The 2023 Albert Moore Lectures were the first lectures to be held after the interruption to the series caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Three lectures on topics in contemporary Buddhism were presented by Dr Dee Osto of Massey University, on 15-17 March.
Dr Osto presented two lectures and one seminar:
15 Mar | Contemporary Buddhist Tales of the Paranormal |
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16 Mar | Nonbinary Buddhism |
17 Mar | Psychedelic Buddhism, Inner Space, Outer Space and the Limits of Human Knowledge |
The 2019 Moore Lectures
Global History and the Problem of Religious Change
In 2019, the fourth Albert Moore lecture series was delivered by Associate Professor Alan Strathern, University of Oxford.
Alan Strathern's lectures presented some of the main themes of his recently published book: Unearthly Powers: Religious and Political Change in World History (Cambridge University Press, 2019). This important work provides a sophisticated analysis of religious change in the early modern world. Strathern sets out a new way of thinking about transformations in the fundamental nature of religion and its interaction with political authority. His analysis distinguishes between two quite different forms of religiosity - immanentism, which focused on worldly assistance, and transcendentalism, which centred on salvation from the human condition - and shows how their interaction shaped the course of history. A host of phenomena, including sacred kingship, millenarianism, state-church struggles, reformations, iconoclasm, and, above all, conversion are revealed in a new light, using case studies from multiple regions of the world including the Pacific.
19 Mar | Global History and the Problem of Religion |
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20 Mar | The Victory of Transcendence |
21 Mar | The Conversion of the High Chiefs of the Pacific |
The 2017 Moore Lectures
Fifty Years of Religious Studies at Otago
In 2017, the Religion programme celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment at Otago of the first formal programme in the academic study of religion anywhere in Australasia. To mark the anniversary, leading international figures in the academic study of religion were invited to reflect on the discipline’s history, its contemporary practice, and its future prospects.
View recordings of some of this series of lectures
7 Feb | Professor Russell Gray, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena Did Religion Play a Causal Role in the Evolution of Large, Complex Societies? |
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8 Mar | Professor Jonathan Silk, Leiden University Institute for Area Studies What Does It Mean to Study Buddhism in the Academy? |
23 Mar | Professor Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara The Global Study of Global Religion |
8 May | Professor Richard Sosis, University of Connecticut Appraising the Academic Study of Religion: Perspectives from a Liminal Anthropologist |
15 Jun | Professor Paul Morris, Victoria University of Wellington The New Religious Diversity and the Academic Study of Religion |
26 Jul | Professor Wesley Wildman, Boston University Integrating the Sciences and the Humanities in the Study of Religion |
19 Oct | Professor Carole M. Cusack, University of Sydney ‘Fake’ Religions, Fake News and the Allure of Fiction |
2 Nov | Professor Greg Dawes, University of Otago To Bear the Fate of the Times: Resisting the Seductions of Myth |
23 Nov | Professor Joseph Bulbulia, Victoria University of Wellington Religious Studies in New Zealand: The Last Twenty Years? |
27 Feb 2018 | Professor Kate Crosby, King’s College London Destroying the Dharma: Non-judgemental Awareness, Heretical Meditation, and Other Polarities of Modern Buddhism |
15 Mar 2018 | Professor Aaron Hughes, University of Rochester Rethinking the Study of Islamic Origins |
The 2015 Moore Lectures
Anzac as the State Cult: Materialism, Authenticity, and the Study of Religion - An Australian Perspective
The second series of Moore Lectures was delivered by Dr Christopher Hartney of the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney.
14 July | How Can We Study Anzac? Civil Religion and the Death of Religious Studies |
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15 July | Brandzac Day: Consumerism, Materiality, the State Cult and the Hierophanic Shift |
16 July | An Antipodean Narrative Ecology: Anzac as both State Cult and as Immunobiological Defence Mechanism |
The 2013 Moore Lectures
Toi Karaitiana: Christianity and Maori Art and Architecture
The first Moore Lectures were delivered by Professor Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, Professor of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland.
Access lectures via the Humanities Podcasts
23 July | From Samuel Marsden to Frederick Bennett: Te Hahi Mihinare |
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24 July | Maori Art and Catholic Spirituality |
25 July | Regret and Resistance: The Crucified Tekoteko |