The Politics of Forgiveness

Doors open at 18.30. Lecture 19.00 – 21.00 with a cash bar afterwards.

We are excited to announce that writer and broadcaster, Richard Holloway will be delivering our Annual Lecture on The Politics of Forgiveness. The conversation will be chaired by Shadow Attorney General and member of the House of Lords, Shami Chakrabarti.

Forgiveness is normally associated with the experience of individuals and the ebb and flow of their personal relationships. But it is arguable that forgiveness – or its lack – at the institutional or political level is even more important for the health of the human community. In this lecture, Richard Holloway will offer a wide-ranging interpretation of the complexity of the human condition and the fundamental importance of forgiveness to the sustaining of its social and political institutions. And he will argue that there has rarely been a time when it is more needed than today.

Richard Holloway is the author of thirty books, including Godless Morality, Doubts & Loves, On Forgiveness and Between the Monster and the Saint. His book, Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt, published by Canongate in March 2012, was short-listed for the Orwell Prize and won the PEN-Ackerley prize. His latest book, A Little History of Religion, published by Yale University Press in 2016, was shortlisted for the Saltire Non Fiction prize. Richard was Bishop of Edinburgh for 14 years and Gresham Professor of Divinity in the City of London.

Shami Chakrabarti is Shadow Attorney General and a member of the House of Lords. Called to the Bar in 1994, she worked as a lawyer in the Home Office from 1996 to 2001. She served as Director of Liberty, the National Council for Civil Liberties, from 2003 to 2016. Currently, she is Chancellor of the University of Essex, Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Manchester as well as being an Honorary Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford. Shami’s upcoming book, Of Women, will be published in Autumn 2017.