Worldviews and IRAS: Editorial for the December 2024 issue
Posted by Arthur C. Petersen on 2025-04-16
In this Editorial for the December 2024 issue [click here to browse the issue online; click here to view and download a PDF of the entire issue; and to order a printed copy for $7.01 (no-profit-to-journal price) through Amazon, choose for instance one of the following market places: US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, PL, SE, JP, CA or AU], you will find a brief overview of the articles included in this issue, both in the general section and in the four thematic sections, including one Book Symposium, as well as an overview of books reviewed in the latest edition of Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology.
Article
This issue contains one general article. Mikael Stenmark observes that the increasing number of individuals lacking religious faith or self-identify as nonreligious in certain parts of the world necessitates a shift in science-and-religion to a “science–worldview” dialogue; he subsequently identifies the main ways of relating science and worldviews in a new typology and provides examples for each.
Spiritual Experience
In a thematic section on “Spiritual Experience,” Calvin Chatlos, co-chair of the 2025 Summer Conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, publishes a programmatic article on his “Framework of Spirituality,” which is the driving concept behind the upcoming conference. Three commentators have been invited to comment on Chatlos’s piece: Michael Winkelman from a scientific perspective, Nick Hedlund from a philosophical perspective, and Fraser Watts from a theological perspective.
IRAS at the Parliament of the World’s Religions (by Carolyn J. Love)
In August 2023, in Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan, the Parliament of the World’s Religions offered a “Science and Religion track” for the first time. The event exemplified diverse ideas and beliefs, with 8,000 attendees representing 210 spiritual traditions. The new track highlighted the dialogue between science and religion primarily due to the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS) members. The papers addressed the theme, “A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom & Human Rights,” which contained five sub-themes: Climate Action, Global Ethics, Next Generation, Peace and Justice, and Women’s Dignity. The articles in this thematic section represent a few select essays that address Climate Action, Peace and Justice, and Next Generation.
The first two articles address the topic of climate action; the following article focuses on peace and justice, while the final two look at the next generation. The event was a testament to collaboration with physicist and President of the American Teilhard Association, Kathleen Duffy, identifying the interaction between incarnation and evolution as seen in the works of Teilhard de Chardin, which provides a framework for tapping into the sacredness of nature. Duffy explores how this sacredness of matter can motivate us to develop a flourishing humanity and Earth. Similarly, theologian Carolyn J. Love emphasizes the interconnectedness between God, humans, and the environment. Love explores Earth care through a biological-event understanding that examines genetic inheritance (DNA), epigenetic inheritance, and phenomenology to construct an understanding of human experience that encourages ecological protection. Next, JD Stillwater, Science Ambassador, takes a noteworthy approach to peace and justice grounded in the cosmos. Stillwater advocates using creation or natural reality as a standard sacred text for all the world’s faith traditions that may ease interreligious and intercultural conflict. Astronomer Grace A. Wolf-Chase, theologian Katharine E. Hinman, and astronomer Laura Trouille examine how collaborative projects build relationships between scientific and religious communities. The Zooniverse initiative effectively integrates scientific research into seminary classes, interfaith programs, and family education programs, thus aiding this and future generations in seeing the rapport between science and religion. Finally, theologian Katharine E. Hinman, ethicist John P. Slattery, theologian Curtis Baxter, and astronomer Jennifer Wiseman explain how teaching science in seminaries prepares future pastors for the challenges of a rapidly changing world. They present a comprehensive evaluation of their Science for Seminaries project that found significant positive impacts on seminaries’ engagement with scientific topics, students’ perception of science and connection with scientists, faculty engagement and networking, and project sustainability. The Science for Seminaries model is an effective and impactful approach to equip faith leaders with the needed skills and resources for engaging science in their ministry contexts.
Book Symposium (by Mladen Turk)
The Book Symposium in this issue features Neil Van Leeuwen’s Religion as Make-Believe: A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity (2023). It has four commentators: Alberto Cavallarin and Hans Van Eyghen, Lluis Oviedo, and Konrad Szocik. Van Leeuwen responds to the comments.
Boyle Lecture 2024
This final thematic section contains the 2024 Boyle Lecture, delivered by David Fergusson under the title “Is Religion Natural?,” as well as the response by Fiona Ellis and two panel contributions, by Joanna Leidenhag and Russell Re Manning.
Books reviewed in Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology
Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology is a quarterly joint publication of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT) and the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) and is distributed free to all members of ESSSAT and ISSR. In order to give readers of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science an overview of recent publications, we include the list of books reviewed in the latest Reviews issue (in this case, September 2024):
- Peter Harrison, Some New World: Myths of Supernatural Belief in a Secular Age, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024
- Justin L. Barrett, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Science of Religion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022
- Brian Villmoare, The Evolution of Everything: The Patterns and Causes of Big History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023
- David P. Mindell, The Network of Life: A New View of Evolution, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2024