‘Matter and Meaning: Is Matter Sacred or Profane?'

A very well organised event started by overcoming a classic conference problem - the unavoidable withdrawal of the first keynote speaker, Professor Colin Russell. Mike Poole admirably filled the role of both speaker and responder, a key theme here being the use of models as a necessary way for humans to characterise the material world. The Gowland Lecture was given by Professor Ruth Gregory, a particle physicist. Although much of the material will have been familiar to some of the audience, the quality of the communication of complex ideas in quantum physics was of a very high order. We then heard a fascinating and much more technical exchange between Gregory and her respondent Basil Altaie. So we were admitted with wonderful clarity into the world of what matter is, at its most fundamental, and then given a frisson of how the practitioners in this esoteric world actually talk.

The next morning saw another excellent lecture, this time by Peter Harrison, Andreas Idreos Professor at Oxford, reflecting on historical perspectives on the nature of matter. The breadth of Harrison's knowledge and the evident precision of his scholarship made it plain why the Oxford panel selected him to succeed our Forum President John Hedley Brooke. Another treat was his exchange with his respondent John Henry.

The lecture in which I learned most was Professor John Harding's reflection on nanotechnology, and why machines that work well at ordinary scales will necessarily struggle to function at the nano-level, at which thermal agitation is comparable with the motions on which the functioning machine depends. On the second afternoon came those important components in the new SRF format - two workshops to follow up elements of the main theme, and the parallel paper sessions. At the Conference Dinner we were much entertained - and also challenged - by James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, an engaging speaker and someone who has facilitated some important discussions with American evangelicals on creation care, and more particularly climate change. Any one of those conversations may mean more to the world in the long run than years of the other debates with which the Church of England currently struggles.

The best feast was left to the last, a wonderful exchange between Niels Gregersen, Professor at Copenhagen, and Dr Kenneth Wilson. Systematic theologians thrive on drawing together themes biblical, philosophical, scientific and doctrinal. Gregersen was masterful in his synthesis, but Wilson was fully equal to his task as respondent. Another good feature of the new conference format is the final reflection on the Conference as a whole, and Michael Fuller gave us a most careful meditation on the issues raised. He will be the editor of the volume of proceedings, and again the Committee has evidently chosen well.

So - a very positive and rich meeting. I had a couple of disappointments only. It was a pity that there were not more young scholars present, and this the Committee is addressing. Also, I felt that two crucial issues were somewhat skirted around. The first was the issue of creation out of nothing - a trickier theological problem than the great monotheisms have been inclined to admit. The second was the sacredness, or not, of matter, a theme that only emerged, and then rather tantalisingly, in the discussion of Gregersen's talk. But those were small caveats in a meeting on which the organizers should be thoroughly congratulated.