The NZCIS Conference on Freedom was postponed twice due to Covid restrictions, and happened on 11-12 February 2022. Topic: ‘Freedom in Theology, Science and Culture‘.

The NZCIS Conference on Freedom was postponed twice due to Covid restrictions, and happened on 11-12 February 2022. Topic: ‘Freedom in Theology, Science and Culture‘.

Our biennial lecture Conference, 11-12 February 2022. It happened via Hybrid, so both in person at Maclaurin Chapel, Auckland, and online.

Freedom, free will and liberty are much contested ideas in philosophy, theology, science and law.
Newer discoveries in neuroscience and animal studies have only exacerbated older tensions.
Scholars from New Zealand, Australia and the UK will presented papers on Freedom.

Speakers and topics:


Dr. Nicola Hoggard Creegan (Co-Director, NZCIS) Three Movements of Freedom


Prof. John McClure (Psychology, VUW) So We Don’t Have Free Will: The Argument from (Social) Psychology.


Dr. Christa McKirland (Lecturer Systematic Theology, Carey) Do We Need Autonomy?


Gray Manicom (PhD Cand., in Mathematics, UoA) Would you listen to a talk on mathematics if you were free to do otherwise?


Dr. Cameron Surrey (Chaplain, Newman Hall) Freedom, Fate, and the Fall


Dr. John Owens SM (Lecturer in Philosophy, Catholic Theological College) Freedom and Personal Life.


Jaimee Poole (PhD Cand., Otago University) Condemned to be Free: An Existentialist Vision of the Problem of Freedom … on Satre.


Dr. Yael Cameron (Lecturer, AUT) An Encounter with Freedom (and the Whale) and the Biblical Text
on Behalf of the Southern Ocean – “Twists and Turns in the Antarctic”.


Martin Samson (PhD Cand., Flinders University) The Evolution of Consciousness and the Evolution of Freedom: Love and Morality, A Physiology of Freedom.


Margaret Bedggood TSSF (Honorary Professor of Law, Waikato) Searching for ‘Life In Larger Freedom’: A Human Rights Perspective.

Margaret’s references include UN Charters:


D.T.  Everhart (PhD Cand., St Andrews) Freedom For the Other: On Christian Freedom and Group Ontology.
Andy speaks about freedom in terms of personal autonomy and caring for community.

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