From the Socrates in the City archives: Baroness Caroline Cox sits in the British House of Lords as a crossbencher and is a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Nigeria, and Burma. At this 2011 event in Manhattan, Baroness Cox discusses threats to the West’s cultural and political heritage in the U.K. and abroad.

N.T. Wright, one of the world’s leading New Testament scholars, discusses his book SURPRISED BY SCRIPTURE: ENGAGING CONTEMPORARY ISSUES. This lecture took place in New York City in July 2011.

Fordham Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Merold Westphal makes the case for taking a closer look at Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud and their responses to religion as a guide in “living the examined life.” This lecture was given in April 2011 at the Union Club in New York City.

After serving in prison, Chuck Colson—known as President Nixon’s “hatchet man”—became an evangelical author and criminal justice reform advocate. At this vintage 2010 Socrates in the City event in New York City, Mr. Colson discusses his six-part video series called DOING THE RIGHT THING, exploring what he perceives as America’s crisis of ethics in every sphere of public life including the government, education, and market place.

The eminent political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain examines the origins and meanings of “sovereignty” as it relates to all the ways we attempt to explain our world: God, state, and self. This 2010 lecture, hosted by Eric Metaxas, ends with a lively Q&A and was originally part of Dr. Elshtain’s 2006 Gifford Lectures.

Mosab Hassan Yousef was born in Bir Zeit, near Ramallah on the West Bank in 1978. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, is a founding leader of terrorist organization Hamas. Yousef was an integral part of the movement, for which he was imprisoned several times by the Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence service. He withstood torture in prison only to discover Hamas was torturing its own people in a relentless search for collaborators. He began to question who his enemies really were–Israel? Hamas? America?

Jennifer Roback Morse was the founder and President of the Ruth Institute (2008-2013), a global non-profit organization focused on keeping the family together, protecting the rights of children and helping the millions of people who have been harmed by family breakdown. She is the Senior Research Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.

Socrates in the City guest lecturer Os Guinness presents the question: can freedom last forever? He discusses the framers’ forgotten question and asks how America is doing today.

Watch the great Socrates in the City debate with Dinesh D’Souza and Peter Singer: Is God the source of morality? This conversation took place in September 2010.

Distinguished Fellow of The Center for Bioethics, physician, and consulting professor at Stanford University Medical Center William Hurlbut explores how dramatic advances in molecular biology and human biology have resulted in inquiry that raises questions about the relationship between the material form and the moral meaning of developing life. After unpacking the scientific arguments vs. the ethical, social, and political conflicts, Dr. Hurlbut proposes a way forward in this remarkably still-relevant lecture from a 2009 Socrates in the City event in New York City.

British Orthodox rabbi, theologian, and author Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks presents the case that multicultural British society requires a new approach to national identity, arguing that responsibility — specifically building and creating together — gives societies a strong sense of identity and belonging. This 2009 lecture and Q&A is moderated by Socrates in the City host Eric Metaxas and takes place in New York City.

Republican politician and former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee discusses the role of faith in politics in a lecture give in June 2009.

Public intellectual Herbert London explores the rise of radical secular humanism as a religious experience. In this lecture, he presents that while secular humanism has it’s saints, sinners, and even its quasi-religious rituals, it is too anemic and self-centered a philosophy of life to serve America and the West in its battle against the threat of radical Islam.

Contrasting the modernist “cube” of the Great Arch of La Defense in Paris with the “cathedral” — Notre-Dame — George Weigel looks at both civilizations and argues that Europe’s shift to secular philosophy has produced a crisis of civilizational morale and a failing future. Weigel is a Catholic theologian, author, and one of America’s leading public intellectuals. This lecture takes place at New York City’s Union Club in October 2009.

The great Dr. Robert George speaks on the meaning of marriage in this March 2009 lecture hosted by Socrates in the City.

Dinesh D’Souza joins the Socrates in the City stage to share compelling reasons on why there very well may be a life after death. This conversation took place in New York City in December 2009.

“You’re not going to have an easy time. Because I’m going to put you on the hot seat.” So declares our first nonagenarian guest, Alice von Hildebrand, to Socrates host Eric Metaxas as they begin this conversation about her life and writings. If you think the years have dulled Dame von Hildebrand’s fire, wit, and passion, be prepared to be happily flabbergasted!

In a lecture given in September 2009, English literature scholar Alan Jacobs introduces us to the world of original sin, which he describes as not only a profound idea but a necessary one.

Former California Poet laureate and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia diffuses the widely-held notion that poetry is a sophisticated, intellectual art for the elite. Mr. Gioia offers a personal and accessible look at how art does something for us that nothing else will do, and how poetry is a human universal, “a way of remembering those things it would impoverish us to forget,” in this lecture from 2008 in New York City.

NIH director and eminent physician-geneticist Francis Collins offers a mind-blowing and entertaining look at two categories that, as he puts it, “don’t always get along well:” science and faith. Or do they? Starting with the facts of genetics, Collins manages to weave in stories from his own faith journey, replay a conversation with Stephen Colbert, discuss Richard Dawkins’s perspective, and conclude with a proposal, in this 2008 Socrates in the City lecture hosted by Eric Metaxas in New York City.

Gerald Schroeder discusses Genesis, the Big Bang, and other small topics.

Author and social critic Os Guinness discusses the plea he offers up in his book by the same title — a plea to end the polarization of American politics and culture, which he says threatens to reverse the very principles our founders set into motion that have long preserved liberty, diversity, and unity in the U.S. This 2008 lecture takes place in New York City.

N.T. Wright, one of the world’s leading New Testament scholars, discusses his book SURPRISED BY HOPE: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.

The legendary Roger Scruton explores the ideas, perspectives, and implications of the “New Atheism” at this New York City Socrates in the City event hosted by Eric Metaxas in 2008.

Globalization, as defined by author and social critic Os Guinness in this 2006 talk, is the process whereby the speed, scope, and simultaneity of our communications allows us to conduct our human affairs anywhere in the world regardless of place, time, or government. Guinness explores some dysfunctions of globalization where life becomes a task, not a gift, and we limit self-reflection and depth in relationships.

Oxford theologian, intellectual historian, and scientist Alister McGrath challenges the widely held assumption that the world is becoming more secular and makes the case for why atheism cannot provide the moral and intellectual guidance essential for coping with the complexities of modern life.

N.T. Wright, one of the world’s leading New Testament scholars, discusses his book SIMPLY CHRISTIAN: WHY CHRISTIANITY MAKES SENSE in New York City in 2006.

President Nixon’s “hatchet man,” who after serving in prison became an evangelical author and prison reform advocate, Chuck Colson explores the benefits of seeking purpose, meaning, and truth in life. This lecture was given in May 2006.

Eric Metaxas moderates a lively panel discussion with author Thomas Howard, director Norman Stone, actor Antone Rodgers, and author Bel Kaufman following a screening of the film, C.S. LEWIS: BEYOND NARNIA in April 2004 in New York City. Tom Howard recalls his first meeting with C.S. Lewis and the conversation ends with a fierce debate about the inclusion of Father Christmas in the Narnia series.

Baroness Cox sits in the British House of Lords as a crossbencher and is a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Nigeria, and Burma. In this 2005 lecture in New York City, she asks: is ideological Islam compatible with liberal democracy? She challenges the audience to build bridges, not walls, and seek reconciliation through realism.

The eminent political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain discusses C.S. Lewis’s 1944 essay “The Abolition of Man” and explores the idea of a rock-bottom claim on human dignity. Her brilliant talk ends with a brilliant Q&A session. Hosted by Eric Metaxas, this lecture was given in New York City in 2005.

Lauren Winner confronts cultural lies about sex with nuance and wit in this 2005 lecture given in New York City.

The three-time Emmy-Award winning theoretical physicist Michael Guillen explores the question: Can a Smart Person Believe in God? This lecture was given in April 2005.

In this 2005 lecture, longtime New York University Professor of Psychology Paul Vitz explores phenomenal changes in the field of psychology as it ventures into new territory.

Famed former British Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament Jonathan Aitken examines the concepts of “Ruin, Rehabilitation, and Redemption” in the lives of Richard Nixon and Charles Colson, with an astonishing twist — that of his own experience with ruin, rehabilitation, and redemption — at Socrates in the City in New York City in 2004.

British theoretical physicist Sir John Polkinghorne examines how scientific discoveries of the 20th century, particularly quantum theory and chaos theory, disrupted the “clockwork universe” view of the world that prevailed for about 200 years after Newton. Polkinghorne explores how a world that does not behave in a reliable way, that is described not deterministically but rather probabilistically, might comport better with the notion of prayer than the mechanical view of the world that preceded it. This event took place in New York City in 2004.

Named one of the “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” by TIME MAGAZINE in 2005, the late Richard John Neuhaus was a prominent cleric, writer, and unofficial advisor to George W. Bush. In this 2005 lecture, he argues that a good citizen does more than abide by laws, but must give a moral account of the constitutional order and recommend its virtues to the next generation.

Longtime New York University Professor of Psychology Paul Vitz offers a psychological basis for what has for centuries been considered wisdom by taking a fascinating look at the parent-child relationships of influential thinkers such as Feuerbach, Nietzsche, and Freud. This talk was given in New York City in March 2004.

Thinker and writer Frederica Mathewes-Green poses the question: can we have direct access to God? Based on her study and personal experience with Eastern Christian Spirituality, Mathewes-Green suggests that we all have a latent capacity that links us to the divine, in relationship and also in identity. This lecture takes place in New York City in 2004.

For more than twenty-five years Harvard psychiatrist Armand Nicholi taught a course comparing the philosophical arguments of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. In this 2003 lecture, Nicholi explores how the worldviews of these seminal figures shaped their understanding of the problem of pain and suffering, the nature of love and sex, and the ultimate meaning of life and death. Nicholi’s book by same name was subsequently made into a four-part PBS series and later into a two-man off-Broadway production called FREUD’S LAST SESSION.

Professor Peter Kreeft discusses a philosopher’s thoughts on eternity in a lecture given in September 2003.

Boston College Professor of Philosophy Peter Kreeft explores the ages-old question of “Why?” from a philosophical perspective, touching on themes from his book, MAKING SENSE OUT OF SUFFERING, in a lecture given in New York City in January 2003.

Bestselling author, journalist, and foreign policy commentator David Aikman looks to history and Scripture as he explores the question, “Does God have a foreign policy?” in this 2002 Socrates in the City lecture in New York City.