On Thursday the 22nd of June, Campion College was delighted to welcome Professor Emeritus John Carroll as the guest speaker for our 2023 St Edmund Campion Lecture.

John Carroll is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia; and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University. His work focuses on culture, and its crucial role in the human search for meaning, with particular refer- ence to the modern Western society. His books include The Western Dreaming, Terror—a Meditation on the Meaning of September 11, The Wreck of Western Culture— Humanism Revisited, The Existential Jesus, and Ego and Soul—the Modern West in Search of Meaning.

In his address, Professor Carroll explored the central themes of his latest book, The Saviour Syndrome, which delves into the sociological and psychological rationale behind idolisation and seeking messianic figures in post-Christian societies.