Revd Professor Jeff Astley

Alister Hardy Professor of Religious and Spiritual Experience at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln

Jeff Astley is Alister Hardy Professor of Religious and Spiritual Experience at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, as well as Honorary Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion, and Professorial Fellow of St Chad's College, Durham University; and Visiting Professor, York St John University.

For over 30 years, he was the Director of the North of England Institute for Christian Education.

Virtual lectures

Jeff is available to deliver his lectures online, via Zoom. Please ask about this option when making your booking.

Publications

Jeff Astley is the author or editor of over 40 books on Christian education, practical theology and religious faith, including:

The Philosophy of Christian Religious Education
Choosing Life? Christianity and Moral Problems
Learning in the Way: Research and Reflection on Adult Christian Education
Ordinary Theology: Looking, Listening and Learning in Theology
Exploring God-Talk: Using Language in Religion
Christ of the Everyday
SCM Studyguide to Christian Doctrine
Studying God: Doing Theology
What Do We Believe? Why Does it Matter?
SCM Studyguide to Religious and Spiritual Experience

Lecture titles

Can we Trust Religious Experience?
Many people maintain that they have had an experience of the presence of God or of an intimate union with some transcendent reality. Others have experienced visons or voices; or moments of acceptance, joy or enlightenment. But can we trust such claims, even if we have had similar experiences ourselves? And do they support or undermine traditional religious beliefs?
So Which God Don’t You Believe In?
The problem of belief and the character of God: Why do people not believe in God? Atheists' concerns tend to centre on two different topics: questions about the inadequate evidence and arguments for God's existence and moral repugnance about the supposed character of God. This lecture addresses the second of these issues, and in particular whether a God who judges people for not believing in him is worthy of the name.
Suffering and Evolution in God's Creation
Nature is not the paradise we might expect if God is both good and all powerful. In this lecture I look at the true nature of Nature and how Christians seek to explain and cope with the pain, suffering and death that are inevitable in our evolution.