“I’ve taken the chance of stepping back a little bit from some of the more obvious immediate current debates to do some thinking about the whole notion of the person in religious thought, and specifically in Christian thought. That’s the thread that connects what I want to say tonight…In 1955 a Russian theologian living in Paris published an essay...on The Theological Notion of ‘The Human Person’. It was quite a technical study that focused largely on the vocabulary of the early Christians, but it is in fact something of a watershed in modern theological thinking. From that relatively brief discussion in 1955 a whole strand of thinking within the eastern Christian world developed and has in turn affected the western Christian world.”

The Theos Annual Lecture 2012 was delivered by Dr. Rowan Williams and chaired by BBC news presenter Mishal Husain on Monday 1st October 2012 at Central Hall, Westminster.

The lecture explored ways of understanding the human person as shaped and conditioned by relations with God and others – and the risks of reducing personal dignity to individual wellbeing alone.

Theos annual lectures explore issues of religion in public life. Previous annual lecturers include now-former BBC Director General Mark Thompson, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, General Lord Richard Dannatt and Lord Blair, former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

A full text transcript of this lecture is available here.