The Warden gives the University Sermon on Pride at Keble College Chapel

The University Sermon on Pride, instituted by William Master in 1684, traditionally is given to a Head of House to preach. This year, the Sermon took place in Keble College Chapel and the text was Galatians 1:10.

“Am I now seeking the favour of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men?  If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ”.

The Warden’s Sermon dealt with the issue of pride in the context of advances in artificial intelligence.  He said that some of the threats posed by AI raised “the question of whether the misattribution of favour from God to men could actually be the defining sinful risk of the Anthropocene era.  What happens if we translate absence of God into a whole, wide world where technology cannot just enable sin highly effectively but could become in itself a projection of sin?”.

The whole service is now available to watch on Keble Chapel's YouTube channel.