The Boyle Lectures were named after Robert Boyle, a prominent Irish Natural Philosopher in the 17th Century. Boyle endowed a series of lectures in his will, which were designed as a forum where prominent academics could discuss the existence of God. The very first such lecture was given in 1692 by Richard Bentley.

Their design, as expressed by the institutor, is to prove the truth of the Christian religion against infidels, without descending to any controversies among Christians; and to answer new difficulties, scruples, etc. To support the lectures, he assigned the rent of his house in Crooked Lane, to a learned theologian within the Bills of Mortality, to be elected for a term, not exceeding three years, by Archbishop Tennison, and others. But the fund proving precarious, the salary was ill-paid. To remedy this, Archbishop Tennison procured a yearly stipend of 50 pounds, forever, to be paid quarterly, charged on a farm in the parish of Brill, Buckinghamshire.

The Boyle lectures were revived in 2004 at St Mary Le Bow church in the City of London by Dr Michael Byrne. They take place annually in February.

The Lectures

• 1692 - Richard Bentley
• 1693-4 - Richard Kidder
• 1694-5 (1695-6?) - John Williams
• 1697 - F. Gastrell
• 1698 - J. Harris
• 1699 - Samuel Bradford
• 1700 - Offspring Blackall
• 1701 - George Stanhope
• 1704-5 - Samuel Clarke
• 1706 - John Hancock
• 1707 - W. Whiston
• 1708 - John Turner
• 1709 - Lilly Butler
• 1710 - Josiah Woodward
• 1710-12 - William Derham
• 1713-14 - Benjamin Ibbot
• 1717-18 - John Leng
• 1719-20 - John Clarke
• 1721-2 - Robert Gurdon
• 1724-5 - Thomas Burnett
• 1730-2 - William Berriman
• 1812 - William Van Mildert
• 1845-6 - The Religions of the World; and Their Relations to Christianity Considered in Eight Lectures - Frederick Denison Maurice
• 1857-8 - William Gilson Humphry
• 1864 - The conversion of the Roman empire, by Charles Merivale
• 1865 - The Conversion of the Northern Nations, by Charles Merivale
• 1868-70 - The Witness of St. Paul to Christ, by Stanley Leathes
• 1871 - Moral Difficulties Connected with the Bible, by James Augustus Hessey
• 1876 - What is Natural Theology?, by Alfred Barry
• 1877-8 - The Manifold Witness for Christ, by Alfred Barry
• 1879-80 - The Evidential Value of the Holy Eucharist, by George Frederick Maclear
• 1895 - W. C. E. Newbolt
• 1903-5 - Richard John Knowling
• 2004 - John F. Haught
• 2005 - Simon Conway Morris
• 2006 - Philip Clayton, response by Niels Gregersen
• 2007 - 'Cosmology of Ultimate Concern', by John D Barrow, with a response by Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow
• 2008 - 'Psychologising and Neurologising about Religion: Facts, Fallacies and the Future', by Malcolm Jeeves, with a response by The Revd Dr Fraser Watts

Other Lecturers

• Thomas Newton

References