Preacher: The Rev’d Dr Rodney Holder, Emeritus Course Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion

The Rev’d Dr Rodney Holder was Course Director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion from its inception in January 2006 until 31st January 2013, and he remains a Faraday Associate and a Fellow Commoner of St Edmund's College, Cambridge. Dr Holder read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and researched for a D.Phil. in astrophysics at Christ Church, Oxford. After 14 years working as an operational research consultant, he returned to Oxford to train for ordination in the Church of England. Dr Holder worked in parish ministry for nearly 8 years before his appointment to the Faraday Institute. His books include Big Bang, Big God: A Universe Designed for Life? (2013) in which he argues that the existence of the universe and the fine-tuned character of its physical laws are best explained by a divine mind behind it.