View source for Dwight H. Terry Lectureship

{{Short description|Lectureship at Yale University}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}} {{Use American English|date=October 2023}}
The '''Dwight H. Terry Lectureship''', also known as the '''Terry Lectures''', was established at [[Yale University]] in 1905<ref name="yale">{{Cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/terrylecture/ |title=Yale University - "Dwight H. Terry Lectureship" |access-date=2007-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109080946/http://www.yale.edu/terrylecture/ |archive-date=2007-11-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref> by a gift from Dwight H. Terry of [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]]. Its purpose is to engage both scholars and the public in a consideration of religion from a [[humanitarian]] point of view, in the light of modern science and philosophy.  The subject matter has historically been similar to that of the [[Gifford Lectures]] in Scotland, and several lecturers have participated in both series.

==Establishment==
The 1905 deed of gift establishing the lectureship states:

{{cquote|The object of this foundation is not the promotion of scientific investigation and discovery, but rather the assimilation and interpretation of that which has been or shall be hereafter discovered, and its application to human welfare, especially by the building of the truths of science and philosophy into the structure of a broadened and purified religion. The founder believes that such a religion will greatly stimulate intelligent effort for the improvement of human conditions and the advancement of the race in strength and excellence of character. To this end it is desired that a series of lectures be given by men eminent in their respective departments, on ethics, the history of civilization and religion, biblical research, all sciences and branches of knowledge which have an important bearing on the subject, all the great laws of nature, especially of evolution ... also such interpretations of literature and sociology as are in accord with the spirit of this foundation, to the end that the Christian spirit may be nurtured in the fullest light of the world’s knowledge and that mankind may be helped to attain its highest possible welfare and happiness upon this earth.<ref name="yup">[http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/SeriesPage.asp?Series=81 Yale University Press - "The Terry Lectures Series"]</ref>}}

Although commitment to the gift was made in 1905 it did not mature until 1923, which is when the first Terry lectures were held.

==Lecture format==
The lectures are free and open to the public.  A single installment generally consists of four lectures by the same visiting scholar, given over the course of a month or less.  Many of the lectures have been edited into books published by the [[Yale University Press]], and remain in print to this day (see below). From 1999 to 2009 the lectures were recorded and posted on the Terry Lectures website as audio and/or video streams. Starting in 2008, recordings of the lectures have been made available via Yale's YouTube channel.

==Past lectureship holders==
*1923–1924: [[John Arthur Thomson]] ''Concerning Evolution'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13567-1}}
*1924–1925: [[Henry Norris Russell]] ''Fate and Freedom'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13569-5}}
*1925–1926: [[William Ernest Hocking]] ''The Self: Its Body and Freedom'': {{ISBN|978-0-404-59191-5}}
*1926–1927: [[Robert Andrews Millikan]] ''Evolution in Science and Religion'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13568-8}}
*1927–1928: [[William Brown (psychologist)|William Brown]] ''Science and Personality'': {{ISBN|978-0-8434-0076-2}}
*1928–1929: [[James Young Simpson]] ''Nature: Cosmic, Human, and Divine'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13565-7}}
*1929–1930: [[William Pepperell Montague]] ''Belief Unbound: A Promethean Religion for the Modern World'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13575-6}}
*1930–1931: [[Hermann Weyl]] ''The Open World'': {{ISBN|978-0-918024-71-8}}
*1931–1932: [[Arthur Holly Compton]] ''The Freedom of Man'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13570-1}}
*1932–1933: [[Herbert Spencer Jennings]] ''The Universe and Life'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13652-4}}
*1933–1934: [[John Dewey]] ''A Common Faith'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-00069-6}}
*1934–1935: [[Joseph Needham]] ''Order and Life'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13654-8}}
*1935–1936: [[John Macmurray]] ''The Structure of Religious Experience'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13566-4}}
*1936–1937: [[Joseph Barcroft]] ''The Brain and Its Environment''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1937–1938: [[Carl Gustav Jung]] ''Psychology and Religion'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-00137-2}}
*1938–1939: [[Te Rangi Hīroa]] ''Anthropology and Religion'': {{ISBN|978-0-208-00950-0}}
*1939–1940: [[Henry Ernest Sigerist]] ''Medicine and Human Welfare'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13574-9}}
*1940–1941: [[Alan Gregg (medical doctor)|Alan Gregg]] ''The Furtherance of Medical Research''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1941–1942: [[Reinhold Niebuhr]]<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1942–1943: [[Alexander Dunlop Lindsay]] ''Religion, Science, and Society in the Modern World'': {{ISBN|978-0-8369-2604-0}}
*1942–1943: [[Jacques Maritain]] ''Education at the Crossroads'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-00163-1}}
*1943–1944: [[George Washington Corner]] ''Ourselves Unborn: An Embryologist's Essay on Man'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13578-7}}
*1944–1945: [[Julius Seelye Bixler]] ''Conversations with an Unrepentant Liberal'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13584-8}}
*1945–1946: [[James Bryant Conant]] ''On Understanding Science'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13655-5}}
*1946–1947: [[Henri Frankfort]]<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1946–1947: [[Charles Hartshorne]] ''The Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of God'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-02880-5}}
*1947–1948: [[Alexander Stewart Ferguson]]<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1948–1949: [[George Gaylord Simpson]] ''The Meaning of Evolution'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-00229-4}}
*1949–1950: [[Erich Fromm]] ''[[Psychoanalysis and Religion]]'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-00089-4}}
*1950–1951: [[Paul Johannes Tillich]] ''The Courage to Be'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-08471-9}}
*1951–1952: [[Jerome Clarke Hunsaker]] ''Aeronautics at the Mid-Century'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13577-0}}
*1953–1954: [[Gordon Willard Allport]] ''Becoming: Basic Considerations for a Psychology of Personality'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-00002-3}}
*1954–1955: [[Pieter Geyl]] ''Use and Abuse of History'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13651-7}}
*1955–1956: [[Rebecca West]] ''The Court and the Castle: Some Treatments of a Recurrent Theme''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1956–1957: [[Errol Eustace Harris]] ''The Idea of God in Modern Thought / Revelation Through Reason: Religion in the Light of Science and Philosophy'': {{ISBN|978-0-317-27547-6}}
*1957–1958: [[Margaret Mead]] ''Continuities in Cultural Evolution'': {{ISBN|978-0-7658-0604-8}}
*1958–1959: [[Hermann Dörries]] ''Constantine and Religious Liberty'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13653-1}}
*1961–1962: [[Paul Ricoeur]] ''The Philosopher Before Symbols'' (published as ''Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-02189-9}} )
*1961–1962: [[Norbert Wiener]] ''Prolegomena to Theology''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1962–1963: [[Michael Polanyi]] ''Man and Thought: A Symbiosis / The Tacit Dimension'': {{ISBN|978-0-8446-5999-2}}
*1963–1964: [[Walter J. Ong]]  ''The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-09973-7}}
*1964–1965: [[James Munro Cameron]] ''Images of Authority: A Consideration of the Concept of Regnum and Sacerdotium'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13580-0}}
*1966–1967: [[Loren Eiseley]]<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1967–1968: [[Clifford Geertz]] ''In Search of Islam: Religious Change in Indonesia / Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia'': {{ISBN|978-0-226-28511-5}}
*1968–1969: [[Albert J. Reiss Jr.]] ''Civility and the Moral Order: The Police and the Public'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-01646-8}}
*1971–1972: [[James Hillman]] ''Re-Visioning Psychology'': {{ISBN|978-0-06-063931-0}}
*1973–1974: Father [[Theodore M. Hesburgh]]  ''The Humane Imperative: A Challenge for the Year 2000'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-13579-4}}
*1975–1976: [[David Baken]] ''And They Took Themselves Wives: Male Female Relations in the Bible''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1976–1977: [[Philip Rieff]]<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1977–1978: [[Hans Küng]] ''Freud and the Problem of God'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-04723-3}}
*1978–1979: [[Adin Steinsaltz]]<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1979–1980: [[Hans Jonas]] ''Technology and Ethics: [[The Imperative of Responsibility]]'': {{ISBN|978-0-226-40597-1}}
*1985–1986: [[Stephen Jay Gould]] ''Darwin and Dr. Doolittle: ‘Just History’ as the Wellspring of Nature’s Order''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1986–1987: [[Eric R. Kandel]] ''Cell and Molecular Biological Explorations of Learning and Memory''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1988–1989: [[Joshua Lederberg]] ''Science and Modern Life''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*1993–1994: [[Walter J. Gehring]] ''Genetic Control of Development'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-07409-3}}
*1996–1997  Rev. [[John Polkinghorne]] ''Belief in God in an Age of Science'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-07294-5}}
*1998: [[David Hartman (rabbi)|David Hartman]] ''Struggling for the Soul of Israel: A Jewish Response to History'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-08378-1}}
*1999: [[Bas C. Van Fraassen]] ''The Empirical Stance'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-10306-9}}
*2000: [[Peter Singer]] ''One World: The Ethics and Politics of Globalization'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-10305-2}}
*2001: [[Francisco J. Ayala]] ''From Biology to Ethics: An Evolutionist's View of Human Nature''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2003: [[H.C. Erik Midelfort]] ''Exorcism and Enlightenment: Johann Joseph Gassner and the Demons of 18th-Century Germany'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-10669-5}}
*2003: [[Mary Douglas]] ''Writing in Circles: Ring Composition as a Creative Stimulus'': {{ISBN|978-0-300-11762-2}}
*2004 [[David Sloan Wilson]] ''Evolution for Everyone''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2006 (Centennial Conference): [[Ronald L. Numbers]] ''Aggressors, Victims, and Peacemakers:  Historical Actors in the Drama of Science and Religion''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2006 (Centennial Conference): [[Kenneth R. Miller]] ''Darwin, God, and Dover:  What the Collapse of 'Intelligent Design' Means for Science and for Faith in America''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2006 (Centennial Conference): [[Alvin Plantinga]] ''Science and Religion:  Why Does the Debate Continue?''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2006 (Centennial Conference): [[Lawrence M. Krauss]] ''Religion vs. Science?  From the White House to Classroom''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2006 (Centennial Conference): [[Robert Wuthnow]] ''No Contradictions Here:  Science, Religion, and the Culture of All Reasonable Possibilities''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2006: [[Barbara Herrnstein Smith]] ''Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion'' " {{ISBN|978-0-300-14034-7}}
*2007: [[Ahmad Dallal]] ''Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History'' : {{ISBN|978-0-300-17771-8}}
*2008: [[Terry Eagleton]] ''Faith and Fundamentalism: Is Belief in Richard Dawkins Necessary for Salvation?'' : {{ISBN|978-0-300-15179-4}}
*2008: [[Donald S. Lopez, Jr.]] ''The Scientific Buddha: Past, Present, Future'' : {{ISBN|978-0-226-49312-1}}
*2009: [[Marilynne Robinson]] ''Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self'' : {{ISBN|978-0-300-17147-1}}
*2010: [[Joel Primack]] and [[Nancy Ellen Abrams]] ''Cosmic Society: The New Universe and the Human Future'' : {{ISBN|978-0-300-16508-1}}
*2012: [[Keith Stewart Thomson]] ''Jefferson and Darwin: Science and Religion in Troubled Times''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2013: [[Philip Kitcher]] ''Secular Humanism''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2014: [[Wendy Doniger]] ''The Manipulation of Religion by the Sciences of Politics and Pleasure in Ancient India''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2015: [[Janet Browne]] ''Becoming Darwin: History, Memory, and Biography''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2016-17: [[Kwame Anthony Appiah]] ''The Anatomy of Religion''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2017: [[Judith Farquhar]] ''Reality, Reason, and Action In and Beyond Chinese Medicine''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships"/>
*2018: [[Thomas E. Lovejoy]] ''The World of the Born and the World of the Made: A New Vision of Our Emerald Planet''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships">{{cite web |title=Previous Lectureships |url=https://terrylecture.yale.edu/previous-lectureships |website=The Dwight H. Terry Lectureship |publisher=Yale University |accessdate=6 August 2019}}</ref>
*2022: [[Karen Barad]] ''Energetics of the Otherwise and the Material Force of Justice:   Diffractive Readings of Walter Benjamin and Quantum Physics''<ref name="tl-previous-lectureships" />
*2024: [[Lorraine Daston]] ''Natural Disasters and the Question of Blame''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Current Lectureship |url=https://terrylecture.yale.edu/current-lectureship |access-date=May 1, 2024 |website=The Dwight H. Terry Lectureship}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Silliman Memorial Lectures]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{official|https://terrylecture.yale.edu/}}
*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqHnHG5X2PXB8g5WeNFytm2E7J5Ffmznl Terry Lectures playlist] on [[YouTube]]

{{Yale}}

[[Category:Philosophy events]]
[[Category:Philosophy of religion]]
[[Category:University and college lecture series]]
[[Category:Lectures on religion and science]]
[[Category:Yale University]]
[[Category:1905 establishments in Connecticut]]
[[Category:Recurring events established in 1905]]