ELO is pleased to announce that Nigel Biggar will be an adjunct instructor in the 2026 ELO Oxford Leadership Program. The Summer 2026 Program will take place from August 9th to 15th. Since it began in 2018, the ELO Oxford Leadership Program has developed into the world’s premiere program for Christian marketplace leaders.
Nigel Biggar is an Anglican priest, theologian and ethicist, Emeritus Regius Professor of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Pusey House, Oxford. He holds a B.A. in Modern History from Oxford and a Ph.D. in Christian Theology & Ethics from the University of Chicago.
Biggar’s most recent book is The New Dark Age: Why Liberals Must Win the Culture Wars. The book details Biggar’s experience of the culture wars in a university context. The ideologically-driven environment in which open debate can de shut down, is a sad indictment of academic institutions in the West.
Nigel Biggar has become embroiled in the culture wars, by simply trying to present a balanced, fact-based approach to various contentious issues, from colonialism to past historical figures, such as Cecil Rhodes. “The New Dark Age tells the story of my decade-long experience and explains what I think it reveals.” [vii]
Biggar provides some definitional reference points. By cultural or progressive left, he means “the part of the left that has chosen to champion hitherto marginalized sexual or racial minorities, and their identities, rather than the socially and economically disadvantaged industrial, postindustrial, and agricultural working classes. ‘Progressive’ is a more respectable synonym for ‘woke.’” [viii]
By ‘liberal’ he means based on the classic liberal thought of J.S. Mill, and “specifically his idea that a free marketplace of ideas is the best way of testing and correcting prevailing orthodoxies.” [viii]
Biggar notes that “…the liberal culture of universities throughout the West, especially its English-speaking reaches, has been under assault from the ‘progressive’ left for years. That is the specific concern of this book.” [ix]
A definition of “postmodernist thought” is in order: it is thought that has lost faith in the modern narratives of secular salvation through liberal democratic or communist reason [13] A common feature of postmodernism is the rejection of metanarratives, especially where there is a reliance on some form of transcendent truth [13]
Postmodernism is an overreaction that encourages a resort to power rather than reason in handling conflicts between different points of view [13] There is uncritical deference to the views of ethnic minorities [25]
With respect to the crusade on behalf of the oppressed, Biggar sees ”what is operating here as a kind of religion, specifically a deformed version of biblical religion and Christianity. Not believing in a transcendent God and observing no distinction between the divine and the human, the decolonizer imagines herself to be a god.” [47]
How should Christians react to this situation? Biggar suggests that “For Christians, the paradoxical market of the genuinely righteous person is a profound awareness of their own unrighteousness.” [48]
Biggar is not impressed with the behaviour of universities and their bad intellectual and academic practices: “smearing by association, the authoritarian pulling of professional rank, misrepresentation, the setting up of straw men, unjust bias, false assertion, dogmatic ideological abstraction and evasive omission. These bad practices are caused by vices such as malice, arrogance, impatience, uncharity, injustice, unfairness, dishonesty and cowardice.” [88]
The challenge is that universities don’t deal in character formation. In fact, any reference to moral formation would elicit bafflement [119]
But universities have moved in that direction via an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) agenda, tied in to “decolonization” [120] The EDI mission is to promote social equality by removing the educational, employment and political obstacles facing members of historically marginalized groups, especially racial or ethnic ones, often by discriminating ‘affirmatively’ in their favour.” [120]
The problem: people are encouraged to aid via unquestioning deference to a dogmatic programme [121] Of course, this is ironic given that universities should be the cradle of the free market of ideas.
He talks about cultivating intellectual virtues:
- Temperance
- Respect
- Carefulness
- Patience
- Charity
- Humility
- Teachableness
- Thoughtfulness
- Courage
Biggar discusses these ideals in relation to universities, but they have broader applicability, including in the business sector.
Biggar notes, “Monotheistic conviction would help to make good sense of the virtues I have listed, since those who really believe in God are less inclined to mistake themselves for one.” [137]
Christians work within the assumption of a “fundamental physical and more reality” [137] to which they are accountable. “Monotheistic conviction that is specifically Christian would help further.” It is not cognitive failure, but as St. Augustine of Hippo taught, it is a matter of the corrupt heart. [137]
Biggar concludes, “In the recovery of a broader set of liberal convictions, the adoption of monotheism, especially in its Christian form, would certainly help.”[139] Further, To avoid a new Dark Age, university leaders “are going to have to shoulder the risk of existential and moral commitments.” [139] They are presently not trending in the right direction.
The ELO Oxford Leadership Program is held regularly at the University of Oxford, UK. This Program is a week-long learning experience for senior executives, business leaders, and entrepreneurs from around the globe. Expert guest presenters teach throughout the week. Mealtimes are spent connecting and networking with the great cohort of peers that attend. Tours are taken together to view the sites that Oxford has to offer. You don't want to miss out on this incredible opportunity to travel, learn more about your calling, and grow in your faith!
Interested in attending?
Read more on Lord Nigel Biggar:
Nigel Biggar, Oxford, Appointed to the UK House of Lords
Nigel Biggar: National Post, Regent College Mea Culpa & Cancel Culture
Nigel Biggar: The Woke Antidote & Critical Thinking for Leaders