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Public Service

An important part of CTNS’s mission is to promote the creative mutual interaction of theology and science through public service. Although public outreach takes many forms, the most regular events are the public forums CTNS sponsors. These include public forums by visiting scholars, presentations by current students, and public presentations by the annual Russell Family Fellow. Public service was also the focus of one of our past major programs, Science and the Spiritual Quest (SSQ), where top scientists shared about their faith in the practice of their particular branches of science.
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CTNS Books

One of the most important embodiments of the mission of CTNS to bridge science and religion through research, teaching, and public service are the many publications that have been produced by CTNS programs, faculty and associates, These publications reflect diligent research, with the aims of producing excellent scholarship which can be used in the service of teachers, students and the general public. Please see below for a list of suggested introductory books in theology and science as well as more advanced titles arranged in alphabetical order. Authors include Francisco J. Ayala, Ian...
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Publications

At the heart of CTNS’s mission is providing a wide variety of resources to students, scientists, humanities scholars, and the general public on a wide variety of topics in the field of theology and science.
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Science and the Spiritual Quest

“Science and the Spiritual Quest” was an international program conducted by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in collaboration with several partner organizations and funded by a major grant from the John Templeton Foundation. From 1996-2003, SSQ focused on the ethical and spiritual questions raised by the best of contemporary science particularly for its scientific practitioners. Our mission was to invite leading scientists into dialogue, through private workshops, on the connections between their scientific pursuits and their spiritual practices, and to present the results of...
CTNS News

CTNS Public forum with Dr. Philip Clayton

CTNS Public Forum with Philip Clayton: Can we Update Religion for the Anthropocene?

The scientific case for the Anthropocene has recently been established: humans are now the dominant geological force on the planet. One might expect the world’s religions (and their theologians) to be the most vocal in calling for action. Instead, in many countries they are at the forefront of climate change denial. This talk explores how theology and spirituality can be updated to guide our thought and action through the Anthropocene. The resources are there in our traditions; it’s not hard to update and...

CTNS Public forum with Dr. Philip Clayton  Hybrid Event - Dinner Board Room, Graduate Theological Union & Zoom (Registration Required) 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm, Feb 16, 2024 Registration Link: https://events.gtu.edu/event/488747 The scientific case for the Anthropocene has recently been established: humans are now the dominant geological force on the planet. One might expect the world’s religions (and their theologians) to be the most vocal in calling for action. Instead, in many countries they are at the forefront of climate change denial. This talk explores how theology and spirituality can be...
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The Russell Family Research Fellowship in Religion and Science

Annual Russell Family Research Fellowship in Religion and Science   The annual Russell Family Research Fellowship in Religion and Science brings internationally distinguished scholars in religion and science to the GTU. Since 1981, Russell Fellows have been in residence at CTNS/GTU every year to conduct research, teach doctoral and seminary courses and present public lectures at the GTU and at other San Francisco Bay Area locations. The annual Russell Family Fellowship in Religion and Science was created in memory of John K. Russell (1896-1958). Mr. Russell, born of Italian immigrants,...
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The Russell Family Research Fellowship in Religion and Science

Annual Russell Family Research Fellowship in Religion and Science   The annual Russell Family Research Fellowship in Religion and Science brings internationally distinguished scholars in religion and science to the GTU. Since 1981, Russell Fellows have been in residence at CTNS/GTU every year to conduct research, teach doctoral and seminary courses and present public lectures at the GTU and at other San Francisco Bay Area locations. The annual Russell Family Fellowship in Religion and Science was created in memory of John K. Russell (1896-1958). Mr. Russell, born of Italian immigrants,...
CTNS Event

CTNS Public Forum with Brian Green, "What Science Can and Cannot Say about Ethics." Free and open to the public

Event Date: 
Wednesday, April 3rd 2019, 7:00pm
CTNS Public Forum with Brian Green, "What Science Can and Cannot Say about Ethics." Free and open to the public Dinner Board Room, Graduate Theological Union What is the relationship between science and ethics? Is there any relationship at all, or is it impossible to get an "ought" from an "is"? There has been a contemporary resurgence of interest in whether we can use science to determine moral values, and this talk will consider to what extent this task may or may not be possible.
CTNS News

CTNS Public forum with Dr. Levi Checketts

Levi Checketts is an associate professor of religion and philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University. A 2018 graduate of the GTU and recipient of the Charles H. Townes Fellowship, his research focuses on Catholic social ethics and new technologies. He leads a committee on AI concerns from an Asian perspective for the Pontifical Council for Culture and serves as Networking Fellow for AI and Faith. He has a forthcoming two-volume edited work, Theology and Technology, from Wipf and Stock and is currently writing a book on AI epistemology and the preferential option for the poor.

This event is...

CTNS Public forum with Dr. Levi Checketts - Monday, May 9th, 2022, 3 pm PT    Levi Checketts is an associate professor of religion and philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University. A 2018 graduate of the GTU and recipient of the Charles H. Townes Fellowship, his research focuses on Catholic social ethics and new technologies. He leads a committee on AI concerns from an Asian perspective for the Pontifical Council for Culture and serves as Networking Fellow for AI and Faith. He has a forthcoming two-volume edited work, Theology and Technology, from Wipf and Stock and is currently writing a...
CTNS News

CTNS Public forum with Dr. Carolin Frueh

Time and its associated properties are an integral part of any physics calculation. Differentiability enables equations of motion and therefore quantitative predictions in the first place. Time also has an ontological dimension and is intimately linked to human existence. A third understanding of time is the one in theology, contrasting human time with divine eternity. In this talk the property of time in physics is contrasted with an understanding of time following Heidegger and a theological time dimension from Pannenberg.

 

Dr. Carolin Frueh is a MDiv student with CDSP. She holds a PhD in...

CTNS Public forum with Dr. Carolin Frueh - Wednesday, March 16th 2022, 5 - 7 pm (PST)   Register Here for this Zoom Webinar   Time and its associated properties are an integral part of any physics calculation. Differentiability enables equations of motion and therefore quantitative predictions in the first place. Time also has an ontological dimension and is intimately linked to human existence. A third understanding of time is the one in theology, contrasting human time with divine eternity. In this talk the property of time in physics is contrasted with an understanding of time...
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CTNS Event

CTNS Public Forum with Celia Deane-Drummond

Event Date: 
Wednesday, May 23rd 2018, 7:00pm
Wednesday, April 26, 2017, 7pm CTNS Public Forum with Celia Deane-Drummond Dinner Board Room, Graduate Theological Union This lecture contributes a theological perspective to recent heated public debates in psychology on the rejection of empathy as of key significance in the moral life. In dialogue with philosopher Martha Nussbaum, Professor Deane-Drummond explores recent analysis of the deep history of the evolution of compassion in early hominins. She also argues for the importance of charity, understood in the classic, Thomistic, sense, as holding a central place for mercy and its...
CTNS Event

CTNS Public Forum with Noreen Herzfeld, "Who is My Neighbor? A Personal Journey"

Event Date: 
Tuesday, April 23rd 2019, 5:00pm
CTNS Public Forum with Noreen Herzfeld, "Who is My Neighbor? A Personal Journey" Free and open to the public Dinner Board Room, Graduate Theological Union Years ago, as a new professor in computer science, teaching artificial intelligence raised a lot of questions in my mind. Why do we want to create AI? How would we treat such a thing, should we be successful? Do we image ourselves in the computer the same way God imaged God's self in us? Over the ensuing years these questions led me on a spiritual journey from St. John's University to the GTU and further afield to the Faculty for...
CTNS Event

"Religion and Science in Modern America", Public Forum with Edward Davis

Event Date: 
Friday, November 18th 2016, 4:00pm
Friday, November 18, 2011, 4pm "Religion and Science in Modern America", Public Forum with Edward Davis Tucson Room, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2401 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA This talk, illustrated with numerous images, shows how Americans have debated the religious meaning of science from the 1920s (the period of the famous Scopes “Monkey trial”) right up to the present day. Dr. Davis begins with the concerns of William Jennings Bryan and the Protestant fundamentalists of the Scopes era, using cartoons about evolution to show why they so strongly opposed teaching it in public...
CTNS Event

J. K. Russell Fellow's Public Forum, Whence Morality: Biology or Religion?

Event Date: 
Thursday, April 7th 2016, 7:00pm
J. K. Russell Fellow's Public Forum, Whence Morality: Biology or Religion? Classroom 1 of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (Free and open to the public) How much about human nature is not only rooted in our evolutionary past but fully determined by purely biological processes? Our capacity for reasoning seems to be an adaptive feature that evolved as a consequence of natural selection, but what about our moral and ethical faculties? Contrary to reductionists who argue that our moral codes are merely evolutionary byproducts with no grounding in the transcendent, Dr. Ayala has...
CTNS News

Science, Scientism, and the Intelligibility of Faith

Ted Peters' Patheos blog on Public Theology: "Science, Scientism, and the Intelligibility of Faith"

Check out Ted Peters' Patheos blog on Public Theology: "Science, Scientism, and the Intelligibility of Faith." Ted Peters directs traffic at the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. Peters is a professor at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), where he co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, on behalf of the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences (CTNS), in Berkeley, California. Along with Martinez Hewlett, Joshua Moritz, and Robert John Russell, he co-edited, Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Intelligence (2018). Along with Octavio Chon Torres,...
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Charles H. Townes Graduate Student Fellowship in Theology and Science

The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences established the Graduate Student Fellowship in 2005, in order to help support doctoral students of academic excellence at the Graduate Theological Union working in theology and science. The Fellowship was renamed the Charles H. Townes Graduate Student Fellowship on September 16, 2006 in recognition of Dr. Townes' work with physics graduate students at UC Berkeley and for his generous and longstanding support of CTNS. Dr. Townes was a Nobel Laureate in Physics for his role in the discovery of the maser and laser, Professor of Physics in the...
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The Center

The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences   From 1981-2015 the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) was an independent, self-incorporated affili­ate of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). During this time, CTNS depended primarily on program grants to support the salaries of faculty and staff. These grants includ­ed three international and interfaith mega-programs: The Science and Religion Course Program (SRCP), Science and the Spiritual Quest (SSQ) and Science and Transcend­ence: Advanced Research Program (STARS), funded by the John Templeton Foundation.