The

Sophia

Lectures

The Sophia Lectures are a series of annual lectures delivered at Ralston College, which feature distinguished academics, prominent artists, and public intellectuals. This lecture series promotes engagement with the fundamental questions of human life, and has explored such topics as the essence of culture and creativity, the nature of reality, and the limits of rational knowledge.

Established in the College’s first academic year, these lectures offer the riches of its curricular life with the wider world, fostering the same kind of intense and enriching conversations and debates that are central features of student experience at Ralston. By sharing the spirit of its seminars and lectures with larger audiences—both in Savannah and beyond—the Sophia Lectures seek to inspire deep thinking and productive exchanges about topics that truly matter.

Taking their name from the Ancient Greek word for wisdom (σοφία), the Sophia Lectures are informed by the ultimate values of Ralston College: truth, freedom, beauty, and fellowship. They are an expression of our commitment to fostering a free and flourishing culture, and our belief that the transformative power of the humanities can achieve this end.

In the Sophia Lectures for 2023 Professor Hedley explores the underlying philosophical dimension of play in all of its forms. To explore the question in its full breadth, the series engages with a wide array of sources—from Greek philosophy to Patristic and medieval theology, and from Indian metaphysics to contemporary ludic studies.

Is there a principle that unites the play of animals, the simple games of children, the intricacies of fine art, and the paraphernalia of professional athletics? And what connection obtains between the free play of the imagination and the divine act of creation?

Professor Hedley takes up these questions, among many others, in conversation with interlocutors such as Friedrich Schiller, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Johan Huizinga, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.