The opening lectures in the 2025 series will explore the theme “Overcoming difference”.
On Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 February, Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad FBA will speak about world, self and what is real: contrasting the responses of Śaṅkara and Zhuangzi.
The series resumes with the topic of Monism, with lectures three (Thursday 27 February) and four (Monday 3 March) exploring the complementary perspectives of Abhinava and Spinoza on God and the world.
The series concludes with a pair of lectures on “Oneness with manyness”, discussing self and world in God with reference to Rāmānuja and Ibn al-‘Arabi (Tuesday 4 and Thursday 6 March).
All lectures will commence at 17:05 GMT. There will be a drinks reception immediately following the first lecture.
The 2025 Stanton Lectures
The Stanton Lectures will be given by Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Fellow of the British Academy and Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University.
The 6-part lecture series will be hosted at the Faculty of Divinity beginning on Monday 24 February and concluding on Thursday 6 March.
Dedicated to the philosophy of religion, the Stanton Lectures were established by Professor Vincent Stanton (1846–1924). The first series was delivered in the Faculty of Divinity in 1904 by Vernon Storr.
Read more about this historic and internationally-renowned lecture series on the Faculty of Divinity’s website.
About the lecturer
A Fellow of the British Academy and Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad is the author of over 50 papers and seven books. His research and teaching cover a wide range of topics in Indian and comparative philosophy, especially metaphysics, epistemology, theories of consciousness, and aesthetics; global religious traditions, focusing on Hinduism and Buddhism; politics, conflict and identity; and International Relations and non-western philosophical traditions.
Ram–Prasad’s monograph Human Self, Divine Self (Bloomsbury, 2014) won the Best Book 2010 to 2014 award of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. He is a Senior Fellow of the Dalai Lama’s Mind-Life Institute and advised the former Archbishop of Canterbury on Hindu-Christian relations.
Ram-Prasad is also a member of Research England’s Council, and currently serves as co-chair of Lancaster University’s Race Equality Charter process, having formerly been Associate Dean for Research at Lancaster. He sits on higher education policy, early career network, and the diversity committees at the British Academy, on the Advisory Board of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and on the editorial board of various journals of comparative religion and philosophy. He also serves on the Advisory Panel of the Leverhulme Trust.