The Ramsey Library Lecture 2026

Description

Why education needs theology (and theology needs education)

At a time when education policy in Aotearoa and worldwide narrows towards knowledge-rich syllabi, school and university education privileges measurable outcomes, and arts teaching (and funding) is perilous, Dr Egerton advocates for theology to inform and ‘re-wonder’ education. Such an approach offers balance, perspective and a bulwark against technological infringement and corruption: valuing human creativity and imagination—alongside reason—as vital to understanding ourselves in relation to our past, our future, to each other and eternity.

Knowledge is provisional, but wonder is eternal, Canon Mark Oakley reminds us. In this public lecture, Dr Ben Egerton argues for theologically informed education—not to proselytise or limit, but its very opposite. For theology, in exploring relationships between God and human experience, cultivates wonder. It invites us to look beyond knowledge as a fixed end, and affirms our innate human impulse to sense-make through creative acts.

Presented by

Ben Egerton

Ben Egerton is the Director of Initial Teacher Education at Te Whānau o Ako Pai School of Education at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. As well as an educator, Ben is a poet. He holds an MA and PhD in poetry from the International Institute of Modern Letters, where his PhD sought to understand how contemporary poetry explores faith and belief. Ben is the author of three poetry collections, the most recent of which is a is to b as c is to d (Kelsay Books, 2026). Ben is also an Associate Fellow of the Rivendell Center for Theology and the Arts at Yale University.

Kate Duignan

Respondent Kate Duignan is Senior Lecturer at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Te Herenga Waka, and a Wellington novelist, short-story writer, reviewer and teacher. She has published two critically acclaimed novels: Breakwater (2001) and The New Ships (2018).

RSVP to matthew.packer@vuw.ac.nz.