Items included on this page come from a variety of sources. The perspectives conveyed may or may not express a Lutheran ethos. They can serve our instruction as discussion-starters, examples (positive and negative), and illustrations of intersections between God’s two kingdoms, intersections sometimes characterized by tension, sometimes by congruence. Inclusion does not imply endorsement.
This 50 min. audio interview with two of the directors of the Vatican Observatory offers for students a thoughtful conversation with two Jesuit astronomers about science, faith, the Christian narrative, and the ways they think about research, the universe, and the love of God.
“Did Neanderthals Have Souls?” is a brief starter article that can be used to explore views and responses to the findings in paleoanthropology, human origins, human nature, and the image of God. The article includes the usual popularized ideas and will need additional content and sources to assist students with the larger discussion.
NPR’s Astrophysicist, Adam Frank, encounters the old question about God, faith, and death (1 Cor. 15:12-19). Frank re-frames the question with a quotation from mathematician and former president of Columbia University Frederick Barnard, who says he would choose the hope of faith over any sort of science absent of meaning or purpose. Dr. Frank is […]
This New York Times article is 7000 words on Kim Suozzi who died at age 23 but chose to have her brain preserved with the dream that neuroscience might one day revive her mind. This account of the technology of the trans-human suggests several theological implications not addressed by the writer. Students may find helpful the […]
What does science know and not know (scio, Latin, to know)? Perspectives vary on the role of science in culture. Two recent popular articles–one from National Geographic and the other from Mercatornet–provide students with an opening discussion on some of these views as an introduction to the larger discourse.
From the website FiveThirtyEight, this in-depth article includes no overt faith content but may be useful for discussing the validity of science and the difficulty of research. Research fraud and research journals have been receiving some deserved bad press. “Science Isn’t Broken” acknowledges this while offering some perspective and may be useful for examining topics […]
From The Christian Century: There’s a peculiar thread that runs through the more recent writings on the multiverse. It feels like, for lack of a better word, despair. This despair takes two forms. First, any hope for a grand unifying theory, for completeness of understanding is shattered. Second, the nonlinear, atemporal infinite of the multiverse hypothesis destroys narrative, […]
From The Boston Globe and Mercatornet: When those without philosophical training speak with authority on philosophical issues, problem ensue. The authority they hold in one domain – say, science – doesn’t translate in the way they imply. Richard Dawkins is arguably the most prominent example, but others – such as Neil deGrasse Tyson – are […]
From the WSJ: When President Obama announced new “Clean Power Plan” regulations to help mitigate climate change, religious leaders were quick to offer their blessing. Some 170 evangelicals—pastors, religion professors, nonprofit directors and others—sent an open letter to the president “to offer our support and encouragement for your efforts to overcome the climate challenge.”
The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge (Jer. 31:29). This interview with Rachel Yehuda, Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, is an informative update on research in epigenetics. Yehuda discusses the current science, its application to the Holocaust and 9/11, and its implications for the intersection of the spiritual […]
True Paradox: How Christianity Make Sense of Our Complex World by David Skeel (Veritas Books IVP, 2014)
David Skeel teaches corporate law at the UofPenn Law School. This book calmly presents five chapters in 160 pages that explain the Christian account of life to a skeptical, distracted, yet still-interested society. No simple answers here to human complexities. Rather, Skeel discusses how these complexities point us toward Christ.
