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CTNS News

Myoung-ho Sin Awarded 2020 Townes Fellowship

Myoung-ho Sin awarded 2020 Townes Fellowship Award

CTNS is pleased to announce that Myoung-Ho Sin has been selected as the Charles H. Townes Fellow in Theology and Science for 2020. Myoung came to the GTU in 2016 with a background in Economic Engineering, Photonics and Digital Image Processing, a Masters in Divinity and a Masters in Early Reformation Theology from Honam Theological University and Seminary, Seoul, South Korea. He passed his GTU Oral Comps with distinction in 2019, and is currently writing his dissertation. Myoung’s dissertation begins by rebutting the challenge from Lynn White Jr. that “the anthropocentric view of...
CTNS News

Braden Molhoek offers a Reflection on Ethics and COVID-19

Braden Molhoek,  CTNS Program Associate and Lecturer in Science, Technology, and Ethics at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), has contributed to the GTU's "Spiritual Care and Ethical Leadership in Our Times" series with his reflection on "The Conflict and Ethics of We're In this Together."  

Braden Molhoek,  CTNS Program Associate and Lecturer in Science, Technology, and Ethics at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), has contributed to the GTU's "Spiritual Care and Ethical Leadership in Our Times" series with his reflection on "The Conflict and Ethics of We're In this Together."   His reflection is below. For a video recording please see: https://www.gtu.edu/projects/scel Trying to reflect on ethical concerns raised by COVID-19 feels like trying to untie the Gordian knot. There are profound connections between a variety of aspects that relate to the ongoing situation, from the...
CTNS News

Transhumanism as Contemporary Idolatry: A Judaic Critique

A CTNS Public Forum with Dr. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Respondents

A CTNS Public Forum with Dr. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Respondents Register Here for this Zoom Webinar Transhumanism is a social and intellectual movement that promotes the use of technoscience to shape the evolution of the human species. Transhumanism calls for the engineering of the human body to enhance physiological and mental capacities, radically expand the duration of human life, and even attain (digital) immortality. Although secular in tone and style, transhumanist discourse is rife with utopian, apocalyptic, and eschatological motifs that invest technoscience with spiritual and...
CTNS News

CTNS Celebrates Dr. Robert Russell's 40-Years of Leadership

The Graduate Theological Union is pleased to celebrate 40 years of visionary leadership from Dr. Robert Russell, who recently announced his retirement as Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science and Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS). Dr. Russell will conclude his tenure on June 30, 2022.  “Over the past 40 years, Dr. Russell has paved the way for scholars around the world working at the intersection of science and theology. By establishing CTNS and growing it into what it is today, Dr. Russell leaves a living legacy, which will, no doubt, continue to...
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SSQ/UIP Paris Conference

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris, France Conference Overview United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris, France,  The SSQ Paris Conference, “Science and the Quest for Meaning” was a unique event representing a worldwide awakening to the need for integration of the various dimensions of our lives. We are driven to explore the natural world with intellectual precision and rigor; driven to question who we are and what our place in the world might be; and driven to find a moral basis for our actions. The SSQ...
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SSQ/UIP Vatican University Conference

The Pontifical Lateran University, Vatican City January 7-10, 2002 Conference Overview The Vatican Conference was organized by IRAFS–International Research Area on Foundations of the Sciences of the Philosophy Faculty at the Pontifical Lateran University, under the patronage of the Pontifical Council for Culture of the Holy See, in collaboration with UIP–Université Interdisciplinaire de Paris (France) and SSQ–Science and the Spiritual Quest (USA) in January 2002. This interdisciplinary event brought together scholars on the topic of the scientific and metaphysical bases of mathematics,...
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Theology and Science Instructions for Authors and Book Reviewers

Thank you for your interest in contributing to Theology & Science! Please follow these simple procedures to ensure that we receive your submission in a standard format that is easy to edit and process. The editors of Theology and Science reserve the right to make final decisions regarding papers submitted for possible publication. All submissions should be made online at the Theology and Science Manuscript Central site. New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Center. Article Format. Authors should prepare and...
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“Virtuous AI?: Cultural Evolution, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtue”

The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) is hosting three online conferences in the summer of 2023 as part of its new grant, “Virtuous AI?: Cultural Evolution, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtue”: A research program of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS). More information can be found here. The conferences will be focused on time zones centered on Seoul, Berkeley and Rome.  This is to encourage participation by AI scientists and humanities scholars from a wide variety of religious and philosophical perspectives, cultural traditions, and geographic locations...
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Virtuous AI: Three Core Questions

To understand the Virtuous AI project better, we will first present in some detail the current research being done today by some of our potential participants.  This section is organized around the three core questions.   Core question 1): How and to what extent will AI influence human cultural evolution? We will first examine the increasingly complex integration of AI into society and how that will affect cultural evolution. Specifically, will the integration of AI into society change the basic premise that cultural evolution is human-driven?[1] Cultural evolution to this point is the...
CTNS Event

New Perspectives on Human Origins: Three Challenges for Christian Theology

Event Date: 
Saturday, March 10th 2018, 1:00pm
Over the past decade, scientific and technical advances have transformed our understanding of human evolution.  Paleogenomics (the recovery, sequencing, and analysis of genomic DNA from ancient individuals) provides powerful tools for retracing the steps of our evolutionary past.  Newly discovered species such as Homo naledi point to multiple hominin lineages living simultaneously.  New findings and advanced analysis of tools and cultural artefacts from Neandertals and other early humans tend to undermine our confidence in any cultural “big bang” that separates behaviorally modern humans from...
Theology and Sciencehuman originsscience and religionRon Cole-Turnerctns
CTNS Event

"New Perspectives from Science on Human Origins: Three Challenges for Christian Theology", Fellowship Conference

Event Date: 
Saturday, March 10th 2018, 5:00pm
"New Perspectives from Science on Human Origins: Three Challenges for Christian Theology", Fellowship Conference Over the past decade, scientific and technical advances have transformed our understanding of human evolution. Paleogenomics (the recovery, sequencing, and analysis of genomic DNA from ancient individuals) provides powerful tools for retracing the steps of our evolutionary past. Newly discovered species such as Homo naledi point to multiple hominin lineages living simultaneously. New findings and advanced analysis of tools and cultural artefacts from Neandertals and other early...
CTNS Event

April 23-25, 2015 J.K. Russell Fellowship in Religion and Science with Noreen Herzfeld: More than Information: A Christian Critique of a New Dualism

Event Date: 
Saturday, April 23rd 2016, 5:00pm
April 23-25, 2015 J.K. Russell Fellowship in Religion and Science with Noreen Herzfeld: More than Information: A Christian Critique of a New Dualism Thursday, April 23, 2015, 7pm 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...
CTNS Event

God and Creation: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives on Big Bang Cosmology; CTNS 30th Anniversary Conference

Event Date: 
Sunday, December 11th 2016, 1:00pm
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...
CTNS Event

J.K. Russell Research Conference, "Scientific Vetoes and the “Hands-off” God: Can We Say that God Acts In History?" with Thomas F. Tracy

Event Date: 
Sunday, October 16th 2016, 12:00pm
J.K. Russell Research Conference, "Scientific Vetoes and the “Hands-off” God: Can We Say that God Acts In History?" with Thomas F. Tracy The idea of special divine action has been notoriously problematic in modern theology. Two difficulties in particular have dominated discussion. First, it has been commonplace to contend that this idea runs fatally afoul of the natural sciences. Second, it is widely thought that if we affirm that God acts on particular occasions to shape the course of events in the world, then the problem of evil is made even more difficult. We seem to face an unhappy trade...
CTNS Event

The 2007 J. K. Russell Fellowship in Religion and Science with Celia Deane- Drummond, University of Chester, March 24-31, 2007

Event Date: 
Thursday, March 31st 2016, 9:00am
The 2007 J. K. Russell Fellowship in Religion and Science with Celia Deane- Drummond, University of Chester, March 24-31, 2007 Saturday, March 31, 2007, 9:00am-4:30pm The J. K. Russell Fellowship Research Conference, "The Evolution of Sin and the Redemption of Nature" Location: Pacific School of Religion, Mudd 103 Drawing on animal ethographic studies, this lecture considers the possibility of a form of morality existing in animals and its relationship with human morality. Given this capacity, I argue that first we need to reflect more carefully on human sin and evil in evolutionary terms...
CTNS Event

CTNS Public Forum, "Challenging Free Will: Emergentism as a Viable Metaphysics", with Dr. James Haag

Event Date: 
Sunday, October 30th 2016, 7:00pm
CTNS Public Forum, "Challenging Free Will: Emergentism as a Viable Metaphysics", with Dr. James Haag Respondent: Terrence Deacon, University of California, Berkeley Dinner Board Room, GTU Library This lecture presents material completed for Dr. Haag’s recent dissertation. Two theses in the dissertation will be elaborated: 1) Emergentism, by occupying the gap between Reductive Physicalism and Substance Dualism, provides for a viable metaphysics, 2) Emergentism, by expanding our notions of causation, provides a space for free will to be both experientially balanced and evidentially accurate...
CTNS Event

Public Forum, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, Ph.D Candidate, "Living in a Tangled World: Quantum Clues for Contemporary Theology"

Event Date: 
Saturday, April 23rd 2016, 12:00am
Public Forum, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, Ph.D Candidate, "Living in a Tangled World: Quantum Clues for Contemporary Theology" Kirk Wegter-McNelly has recently completed his doctorate in systematic and philosophical theology at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. He also holds a B.A. in physics from Central College and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Among other CTNS projects to which he contributed while at the GTU, Kirk served as co-editor for two CTNS publications: the most recent volume of the CTNS/Vatican Observatory research series, Quantum Mechanics:...
CTNS Faculty

Robert J. Russell

Robert J. Russell is Founder and Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS), and the Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science in Residence at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. He is a leading researcher and spokesperson for the growing international body of theologians and scientists committed to a positive dialogue and creative mutual interaction between these fields. He is the author of Time in Eternity: Pannenberg, Physics and Eschatology in Creative Mutual Interaction (University of Notre Dame, 2012); Cosmology from Alpha to Omega: The Creative...
CTNS Faculty

Dr. Robert Russell

Dr. Robert J. Russell is the Founder and Director of CTNS and the Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science at the GTU. He is ordained in the United Church of Christ to Ministry in higher education. Dr. Russell is the author of Time in Eternity: Pannenberg, Physics, and Eschatology in Creative Mutual Interaction, (University of Notre Dame Press, 2012), Cosmology from Alpha to Omega: Towards the Mutual Creative Interaction of Theology and Science (Fortress Press, 2008), serves as primary editor of theVatican Observatory / CTNS volumes on theology and science focused on science and...
CTNS Event

What If We're Not Alone: Considering the Significance of Non-Intelligent Alien Life for Constructive Christian Theology

Event Date: 
Saturday, March 7th 2020, 1:00pm
Annual Russell Family Research Conference with 2019-2020 Fellow, Adam Pryor; Respondents: Braden Molhoek, Hyung-Joo Lee, Jamie Fowler and Ted Peters Saturday, March 7, 2020, 1pm Dinner Board Room Graduate Theological Union (Flora Lamson Hewlett) Library 2400 Ridge Road, Berkeley, California, USA  Registration required. (Lunch is not provided). For more information please see the conference page, the registration page, or contact Melissa Moritz, mmoritz@gtu.edu. Thank you!