November 2012
In this issue:
Religious views of Big Bang Theory make headlines at CERN
Faith-based organization follows the water problem upstream
Adler Planetarium hosting webcast on evolution and faith
Science and Religion encyclopedia compilation underway
Students to share work in area of science in spirituality
Religious views of Big Bang Theory make headlines at CERN
Philosophers and scientists thoroughly discussed the impact the Big Bang theory has in religious belief at a conference last month held in partnership with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research or CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
Picked up by a number of global news organizations, the discussion was designed to allow scientists from a range of disciplines to dialogue with philosophers and theologians from a variety of religions to discuss the nature of the Big Bang Theory to discover what ground theologians and scientists have in common.
According to The Guardian in the UK, much of the discussion focused on containing religious extremism and the thought that scientists unintentionally employing inflammatory language could create significant problems. With a view of shaping a communal language between religion and science, one session looked at the relationship between faith and scientific empiricism with a talk from Nancey Murphy, a professor of philosophy from Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. Another discussion topic was the religious perspectives of the Big Bang Theory. The program included John Lennox, a fellow in mathematics and the philosophy of science at the University of Oxford in the UK and Alnoor Dhanani, who studies the intersection of science, philosophy and theology in Islamic civilizations and is a fellow at Harvard University.
Faith-based organization follows the water problem upstream
Chicago-based advocacy organization Faith in Place has created a curriculum on the stewardship of water.
“Our Grandchildren’s Water” was prepared by Faith in Place for small adult study groups and is free to congregations. The group encourages interested parties to spend time in small groups in their communities of faith learning about water and thinking about the ethical implications of something so precious and how it should be distributed equally. The hope is to inspire church groups to care for water differently.
To sign up for the free curriculum go to the Faith in Place website: www.faithinplace.org.
Adler Planetarium hosting webcast on evolution and faith
Chicago’s Adler Planetarium is offering up a fully interactive telecast called “Evolving Universe, Evolving Faith,” which will feature theologians and scientists on February 10, 2013 at 6 p.m.
The event will be online streaming from Darkwood Brew’s Omaha-based studio an internet TV studio (www.darkwoodbrew.org). The program is set to look at current theories concerning evolution of the universe and their implications on faith in the modern world. A concurrent live chat will allow viewers to enter a global conversation and field questions to participants.
The Darkwood Brew initiative is run out of the Countryside Community Church in Omaha and is overseen by Reverend Eric Elnes.
Science and Religion encyclopedia compilation underway
A 2,500 page book covering numerous topics in religion and science will be released by publisher Springer this coming spring.
According to publishers the collection of articles is growing daily and the encyclopedia aims to be the most comprehensive reference work to date for scholars interested in science and religion. The intent is to lay bare similarities and differences that naturally emerge within/across disciplines and religions today. The A-Z format promises to offer user-friendly access to relevant information. There is also a systematic question and answer format across all sciences and religions entries that allows for identification of specific points of agreement, conflict, disinterest, across and between sciences and religions. The book includes two additional kinds of entries: those that describe influential typologies/models that have thus far been proposed in ‘Science and Religion’ scholarship, and those that define key words, phrases and technical language that appear in other individual entries throughout the entire work, and/or have been central issues to religion and science scholarship (i.e. a glossary).
Editors of the reference book are Anne Runehov and Lluis Oviedo. Runehov is a post-doctoral research fellow at the department of Systematic Theology at Copenhagen University, while Oviedo is professor of theological anthropology at The Pontifical University, Antonianum in Rome. One contributor is John Albright, who is a member of the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology that publishes Covalence and was profiled last month in Covalence.
Students to share work in area of science in spirituality
Seminarian and university students are invited to submit their work for the fifth Student Symposium on Science and Spirituality at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago to be held on March 15, 2013.
The one-day conference is designed to provide an interdisciplinary and interfaith forum for graduate, professional and ministry students to engage in collaborative conversations and professional networking with faculty mentors, according to organizers. Papers will be eligible for cash prizes and will be published on the Zygon Center’s website and recommended for publication in journals such as Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science.
Paper proposals are due January 11, 2013. Students of the natural sciences, social sciences, applied sciences and engineering and the humanities are welcome to participate as well as seminary and divinity school students. Historical, critical and constructive approaches to theoretical and empirical issues as well as reflective work on practical ministry are welcomed. More information on the event and on submission of work can be found at www.zygoncenter.org.
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Covalence, November 2012