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Abstract | Registration | Biography | Former J.K. Russell Fellows
The 2008 J. K. Russell Research Fellowship in Religion and Science
March 14 - 20, 2008 with
Dr. George V. Coyne, S.J., of the Vatican Observatory
The annual J. K. Russell Research
Fellowship was created in memory of John K. Russell (1896-1958). Mr. Russell, father of CTNS Founder and Director, Robert John Russell, was born of Italian immigrants, and worked as an industrial engineer and humanitarian.
The Annual J. K. Russell Research Conference in Religion and Science
Saturday, March 15, 2008, GTU Board Room
10:30 am to 5:00 pm
"Twenty Years After the New View from Rome:
Pope John Paul II on Science and Religion"
 When the adventure of exploration, which I wish to summarize here, began I was privileged to be a party to it and, in fact, wrote the Preface to the book, Physics, Philosophy and Theology: A Common Quest for Understanding (PPT), whose publication became the inspiration and the guiding beacon for the series of conferences which ensued over a period of twenty years, dedicated to the overarching theme of Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action.
At that time I insisted upon the fact that we were about to engage in a “small beginning.” That small beginning was a conference held at the Vatican Observatory from 21 to 26 September 1987 at the request of Pope John Paul II to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the publication of Isaac Newton’s Principia. One of the first steps in that small beginning was the publication in that PPT volume of an outstanding message of John Paul II on the interaction between the culture of religious faith and that of science. The Pope says, for instance, directing himself to the scientists, philosophers and theologians whose research is contained in the PPT volume: “You are called to learn from one another, to renew the context in which science is done and to nourish the inculturation which vital theology demands. Each of you has everything to gain from such an interaction, and the human community which we both serve has a right to demand it from us.”
And so from that small beginning where have we arrived? I would propose that, having accomplished a great deal in defining the principal issues in coming to understand God’s action in the universe in light of our scientific knowledge in areas ranging from cosmology to the neurosciences and having begun to refine a research methodology to address those issues, we are at a new beginning. A sampling of the issues which came to be more acutely defined as the series progressed would include: diversity in the metaphysics employed in understanding the nature of God, the interplay between general divine action and special divine action as well as between God’s activity in nature and in history, the status of natural theology, interventionist versus non-interventionist approaches to understanding God’s action, the limits of science, the nature of the laws of nature, the understanding of quantum indeterminacy, physical evil, reductionist versus an emergent philosophy of nature, the role of information theory, and so on. The adventure continues and the excitement of discovery is there. Our past experience presents a rather well defined road for the discoveries that lie ahead.
— George V. Coyne, S.J., Vatican Observatory
Respondents: Gabriele Gionti, Nathan Hallanger, Oliver Putz, Robert Russell and Richard Schenk.
Conference Agenda
10:15 |
Registration & Coffee |
| 10:45 |
Welcome |
| 11:00 |
Fellow’s Lecture |
| 12:00 |
Respondents |
| 1:00 |
Lunch (Provided for those who pre-register) |
| 1:45 |
Respondents |
| 3:30 |
Break |
| 3:45 |
General Q & A |
| 4:15 |
Fellow’s Summary & Response |
| 5:00 |
Conference Concludes |
Saturday, March 15, 2008, Research Conference, 10:30 am to 5:00 pm:
"Twenty Years After the New View from Rome: Pope John Paul II on Science and Religion"
(Registration, Coffee and tea begin at 10:15 am)
Location: The Richard S. Dinner Board Room of the GTU (Hewlett) Library, 2400 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709.
Note: Street parking isnot limited on Saturdays.
Registration information for the conference:
$35 Current CTNS Member;
$20 CTNS Member: F.T. Student or Senior;
$45 General
$35 General, F.T. Student or Senior
VISA or MasterCard are accepted.
Please register by March 10 to secure a lunch.
Click here to print a registration form,
or call CTNS by March 10, between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm, Monday through Friday: 510-848-8152.
Directions and Lodging:
Fellow's Public Forum, Tuesday, March 18
George V. Coyne, S.J.
Vatican Observatory
7:00 -- 9 :00 pm: Gesu Chapel, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley,
Co-sponsored with
The Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
"The Dance of The Fertile Universe: Did God Do It?"
Abstract
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 element here that is very important. It is what we might call the "fertility" of the universe. So the dance of the fertile universe is a ballet with three ballerinas: chance, necessity and fertility. What this means is that the universe is so fertile in offering the opportunity for the success of both chance and necessary processes that such a character of the universe must be included in the search for our origins in the universe. In this light, Dr. Coyne will try to present in broad strokes what he thinks is some of the best of our modern scientific understanding of the universe and then return to the questions above.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008: Fellow's Public Forum, 7 pm: "Dance of the Fertile Universe"
Co-sponsored with
The Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (JSTB)
Location: JSTB Chapel, 1735 Le Roy Avenue,
Berkeley, CA 94709
The Fellow's Forum is free and open to the public.
Brief Biography
Dr. George V. Coyne, S.J., was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and became a member of the Society of Jesus the age of 18. He obtained his bachelor's degree in mathematics and his licentiate in philosophy at Fordham University, New York City in 1958 and completed the licentiate in sacred theology at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1965.
For his doctorate in astronomy at Georgetown University in 1962, Coyne carried out a spectrophotometric study of the lunar surface. He spent the summer of 1963 doing research at Harvard University, the summer of 1964 as a National Science Foundation lecturer at the University of Scranton, and the summer of 1965 as visiting research professor at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
Coyne was visiting assistant professor at the University of Arizona (UA) Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) in 1966-67 and 1968-69, and visiting astronomer at the Vatican Observatory in 1967-68. He joined the Vatican Observatory as an astronomer in 1969 and became an assistant professor at the LPL in 1970. In 1976 he became a senior research fellow at the LPL and a lecturer in the UA Department of Astronomy. The following year he served as Director of the UA's Catalina Observatory and as Associate Director of the LPL.
Coyne was appointed Director of the Vatican Observatory by Pope John Paul I in 1978, and in that same year he also became Associate Director of the UA Steward Observatory. During 1979-80 he served as Acting Director and Head of the UA Steward Observatory and the Astronomy Department, and thereafter he continued as an adjunct professor in the UA Astronomy Department.
Dr. Coyne’s interests have ranged from the study of the lunar surface, to the birth of stars. He has pioneered a special technique, polarimetry for astronomical research. Currently he is studying cataclysmic variable stars, binary stars where one star is a superdense object which is capturing matter from its companion. He is also searching for protoplanetary disks about young stars. He has published more than 100 articles in reviewed scientific journals and has been the editor of several books.
Parallel to his scientific research he has developed an interest in the history and philosophy of science and in the relationship between science and religion. He founded the series of studies concerning controversies about Galileo, entitled: Studi Galileiani. In 1987 Dr. Coyne invited Robert Russell, the CTNS Director, to participate in a major international conference on science and religion convened by the Vatican Observatory. Its publication, Physics, Philosophy and Theology included a very influential statement on these issues by Pope John Paul II. Following this, Dr. Coyne asked CTNS to join with the Vatican Observatory in co-sponsoring a decade-long series of international research conferences on the theme, “Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action,” resulting in the publication of six volumes. Dr. Coyne served as the head of the section on epistemology and science of the Galileo Commission, constituted by John Paul II in 1981. He has lectured widely on the results of that Commission.
As Director of the Vatican Observatory he was a driving force in several new educational and research initiatives, including the Vatican Observatory Summer Schools and the Vatican Observatory Research Group in Tucson, Arizona. He retired as Director in August 2006. After spending a sabbatical year as an Associate Pastor at St. Raphael's Catholic Church in Raleigh, NC, he returned to the staff of the Vatican Observatory and continues as President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
To review t opics from recent Fellowships, click here.
Past CTNS J.K. Russell Research Fellows
Celia Deane-Drummond —2007
The Evolution of Sin and the Redemption of Nature
Ted Peters and Martinez Hewlett — 2005
Assessing The Case(s) for Theistic Evolution
Niels Henrik Gregeren — 2004
The Complexification of Nature: Supplementing the Neo-Darwinian Paradigm
Paul Davies — 2002-2003
Multiverse and Anthropic Fine-Tuning: Philosophical and Theological Implications
Archbishop Joseph Zycinski — 2001-2002
Forum: "Metaphysical Presuppositions in Stephen Hawking's Physics of Creation"
J.K. Russell Research Conference: "Beyond Necessity and Design: God's Immanence in the Process of Evolution"
Philip Clayton — 2000-2001
The Emergence of Spirit
John Cobb, Jr. — 1999-2000
Science, Theology and Whitehead's Philosophy
Nancey Murphy — 1998-1999
Neuroscience, Mental Causation, and Freedom of the Will
Mary-Claire King — 1997-1998
Theological and Ethical Implications of Recent Research in Genetics
John Haught — 1996-1997
Science, Religion, and the Role of Metaphysics
Margaret Wertheim — 1995-1996
Women in Science, Women in Theology
George F.R. Ellis — 1994
What Does Scientific Cosmology Tell Us About God
Mary Gerhart & Allan M. Russell — 1993
Metaphoric Process as the Reformation of Worlds of Meaning in Theology and Natural Sciences
CTNS Decade Conference — 1992
Building Bridges Between Theology and Science: Beginning the Second Decade of CTNS
Holmes Rolston, III — 1991
Genes, Genesis, and God in Natural and Human History
Robert W. Jensen — 1990
Does God Have Time? The Doctrine of the Trinity and the Concept of Time in Physical Sciences
John Polkinghorne — 1990
The Church and the Environmental Crisis: Which Way Are We Heading?
God's Interaction with the World: Research Proposals by John Polkinghorne
The Challenge of Physics to World Religions
Lindon Eaves — 1989
Genes, Culture and Personality: An Empirical Approach
William R. Stoeger, S.J. — 1988
Cosmology and What It Tells Us About Physical Reality
Philosophical and Theological Implications of Contemporary Cosmology-the Philosophy and Theology of Creation
Ernan McMullin — 1987
The Viability of Natural Theology from a Roman Catholic Perspective in Light of Contemporary Science and Philosophy
Wolfhart Pannenberg — 1986
The Doctrine of Creation and Modern Science
Arthur R. Peacocke, SOSc — 1985
Critical Realism in Science and Religion
Philip Hefner — 1984
Do the Sciences Throw Light on God's Presence in the World?
Ian G. Barbour — 1983
Toward a Theology of Technology
Andrew Dufner, S.J. — 1981-1982
Science, Theology & Spirituality
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