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  1. Science and Theology

Bellarmine at 400

The 400th anniversary of the death of Robert Bellarmine invites a look back at this fascinating figure of the Catholic Reformation, engaged as he was with issues newly relevant today: the relationship of faith and science and of ecclesial and temporal power. Continue Reading »

Gnosticism 2.0

Humans typically situate their divinities at the border of the cosmos. The Israelites and Babylonians understood the solid sky to represent the edge of the created order and placed gods there accordingly. Whether YHWH or Marduk, deities reside at the farthest limit of the world. Modern science has expanded the cosmos so far beyond the ancient imagination that not only do we now find the idea of divinities living in the sky absurd, but we cannot even place new gods at the edge. There is neither absolute space nor privileged location in the new, constantly expanding universe. Continue Reading »

God and Evolution

During the second half of the nineteenth century, it became common to speak of a war between science and religion. But over the course of the twentieth century, that hostility gradually subsided. Following in the footsteps of the Second Vatican Council, John Paul II at the beginning of his . . . . Continue Reading »

Questioning Everything?

Ever since Galileo, the received wisdom has held that an “expert” is somebody who “thinks scientifically,” as can be seen in the drive to label every discipline a “science.” Many scientists, ignoring the last thirty years of philosophical work showing the limitations of the scientific . . . . Continue Reading »

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