Search CTNS

God and Creation: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives on Big Bang Cosmology; CTNS 30th Anniversary Conference Graduate Theological Union Library, Dinner Board Room "God and Creation: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives on Big Bang Cosmology" has a threefold purpose: (1) To model a new form of interfaith dialogue, one based on a "third party"/ "shared interest", namely science. The participants learn how each faith sees how the other faiths reflect on particular topics in the natural sciences and thereby gain new and unique perspectives on that faith as well as on their own. (2...

Friday, and Saturday, October 15-16, 2010 J.K. Russell Fellowship in Religion and Science with Thomas F. Tracy Friday, October 15, 2010, 7pm Public Forum: When we Say that God Acts, What Do We Think God Does?, with Thomas F. Tracy Tucson Common Room, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2451 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA (Adjacent to Courtyard accessed through parking lot at the intersection of Le Conte and Euclid) The idea that God acts purposefully in creating, sustaining, and governing the world is deeply embedded in the monotheistic faiths. The sacred texts of these traditions include...

"Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution" by Karl Giberson, Public Forum & Book Launch. Karl Giberson was raised in a fundamentalist parsonage and entered college in 1975 intending to become a creation scientist and join the fight against evolution. While studying science at college he became convinced that evolution was true and, with much struggle and angst, abandoned his childhood belief in creationism. Karl's personal story mirrors that of America in the decades since Darwinism came ashore and challenged the country's traditional creation story. Saving Darwin is...

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...

Public Forum, with Whitney Bauman, "God:Creation::Culture:Nature: Challenging the Logic of Domination in Creatio Ex Nihilo" This lecture argues that the Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) sets up a support system for a “logic of domination” toward human and earth others. Conceptually inspired by the work of theologian Catherine Keller and feminist philosopher of the environment Val Plumwood, this lecture argues that the concept of creation out of nothing materializes in the world throughout different periods in the history of the Christian West: From the...

J. K. Russell Fellow’s Public Forum, "Dance of the Fertile Universe", with George V. Coyne, S.J. Co-Sponsored with Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (JSTB). Did we come about by chance or by necessity in the evolving universe? Did God make us? Can we conclude that there is an Intelligent Design to the universe? To what extent can the natural sciences address these questions? As to chance or necessity the first thing to be said is that the problem is not formulated correctly. It is not just a question of chance or necessity because, first of all, it is both. Furthermore, there is a third...

CTNS Public Forum with Professor LeRon Shults, on his book, Christology and Science, with a response by Professor Robert Russell The dialogue between theology and science has blossomed in recent decades, but particular beliefs about Jesus Christ have not often been brought to the forefront of this interdisciplinary discussion even in explicitly Christian contexts. In this lecture, F. LeRon Shults discusses his book Christology and Science (2008), which attempts to break new ground by explicitly bringing the specific themes of Christology into dialogue with contemporary science. He engages...

Wednesday, March 28, 2007, 7pm J. K. Russell Fellowship Forum, Genetic Futures and our Search for Wisdom, with Dr. Celia Deane-Drummond Lecture and Discussion Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 1798 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley, CA This lecture begins with an overview of the meteoric rise in genetic science over the last half century. The potential impact on all life forms—from microbes to humans--is enormous. The medical applications of genetic science sit uneasily in the shadow of eugenic practices of the last century. Geneticists are more modest today about the evolutionary potential...

CTNS Public Forum, "Divine Action, Natural Science, and the Problem of Evil" with Thomas Tracy Visiting Scholar from Bates College “The affirmation that God acts in the world is at the center of the dramatic scriptural narratives that have shaped Jewish and Christian theological reflection for millennia, and it is embedded in the liturgy, preaching, and prayer of the communities that live out these traditions today. Theologians in the modern era, however, have persistently found themselves stumbling over this idea, uncertain about what to make of it. These misgivings have many sources, two...