Diarmaid MacCulloch talks to Jane Shaw

Historian and broadcaster Professor Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch seeks to calm fears and promote understanding with the 3,000-year story of Christians encountering sex, gender and family.

MacCulloch says much of the political contention and division in societies across the world centres on sexual topics. Christian societies have seen about-turns in attitudes to women’s place in society, same-sex love, public gender and trans identity. MacCulloch says people should focus on the glorious contradictions and complexity in the history of Christianity. And he asks whether there is a single Christian theology of sex or many contending voices in a symphony that is not complete.

MacCulloch is emeritus professor of the history of the Church at the University of Oxford. His previous books include The Reformation, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Wolfson Prize, and the British Academy Prize, and of Thomas Cranmer, winner of the Whitbread Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, and the Duff Cooper Prize. Here he talks to Professor Jane Shaw, principal of Harris Manchester College and professor of the history of religion at the University of Oxford.

This event is part of the festival’s programme on Christian tradition.