Member Spotlight

August ESSSAT MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Q&A with Dr Joanna Leidenhag, Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy, University of Leeds, UK

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1. How did you come to be interested in science and religion?

I grew up in a family of passionate evangelical Christians, many of whom had studied a STEM subject at university and gone on to pursue careers in medicine, engineering, or academia. Looking back, we often discussed the relationship between faith and scientific discoveries and practices around the dinner table, and I regularly heard stories of doctors praying together when something went wrong in surgery, only for the patient to then unexpectedly recover. I didn't learn that anyone might have considered such an upbringing to be unusual until I went to Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) for postgraduate studies in my mid-twenties. The idea of science and religion being in conflict, or that some Christians didn’t believe in evolution, was genuinely news to me! At PTS, I was introduced to the field of Science and Religion by Wentzel van Huyssteen, who encouraged me to publish my first article. I was further welcomed into the Science and Religion community of scholars whilst studying for PhD in Systematic Theology at the University of Edinburgh.

2. What are your current research interests?

I am currently leading a project funded by the John Templeton Foundation, called "God, Language and Diversity: Spiritual Flourishing in Neurodiverse and Multilingual Communities." This five-project grant brings psychologists, cognitive scientists, and theologians together to discover how language differences (e.g., dyslexia, autism, multilingualism, etc.) can inform theologies of language. We will also develop a range of materials to help minority language users flourish in churches and synagogues.

This work fits into my current book project, which is a constructive, science-engaged theology of autism. This book explores what autistic traits and differences can tell us about how humans relate to God in prayer, reading of Scripture, and corporate worship.

I also have an ongoing interest in panpsychism, which was the topic of my first book Minding Creation, and which I hope to return to in the near future.

3. Who are your science and religion “heroes” and why?

He is not often considered a ‘science and religion scholar’, but a project that really inspired me as a graduate student was Rowan Williams’ Gifford lectures, The Edge of Words. Psychological and neuroscientific insights are both taken seriously as sources of knowledge for theology, but also placed within a broader theological context and hermeneutic, so there is no risk of scientism or reductionism. Williams integrates psychology and neuroscience into his theology almost seamlessly, so that the imagined division between our disciplines falls away. Such science-engaged work is likely more commonplace than is often imagined. As historians like Peter Harrison and David Livingstone have taught us, and their work has also been big inspirations for me. Finally, I find many female philosophers of science extremely inspirational, such as Mary Hesse, Mary Midgley and Helen Longino. In the future, I hope for more theologians of science to parallel this philosophical work in a way that informs scientific research.

4. Why are you a member of ESSSAT?

ESSSAT is probably the friendliest conference I regularly attended – and often has the best locations! These assets are not as non-work related as it might first appear. Who we talk to, laugh with, and want to collaborate with radically changes the nature of our own thinking and research. I am sure that the welcome and ongoing support of the ESSSAT community is a big reason I am still in the field of science-and-religion. For me, ESSSAT also has a wonderful balance of likeminded scholars, who are interested in science and theology, but also a place of difference—as we each come from different countries, speak different languages, and approach the topic of science and religion from different disciplines. I have always enjoyed at ESSSAT celebrates these differences by meeting in different countries and including a cultural event within the conference programme.

5. What are you looking forward to at the next ESSSAT conference in Split, Croatia?

Split is a wonderful city, and I am looking forward meeting all my ESSSAT friends there! As the Scientific Program Officer, I have also already seen all the short-paper submissions and I can honestly say I think it will be one of the most creative and interesting selection of papers I have ever encountered. I think our theme this year has really allow people to bring their own personal creative pursuits (e.g., poetry, film, a love of novels, and even photography) into conversation with their professional interest in science and religion. I am also very excited for the plenaries, as I think the theme of narrative will allow us to look at familiar topics in science and religion in a genuinely new way.

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July ESSSAT MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Q&A with Dr Philippe Gagnon, Chaire Sciences, technosciences et foi à l'heure de l'écologie intégrale, Laboratoire ETHICS, Lille Catholic University

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1.        How did you come to be interested in science and religion?

It happened because I felt that the answers to deep questions I sought on subjects related to the philosophy of science just weren’t probing all the way into the value-driven ultimate reasons why one adopted positions on subjects such as the ultimacy of a rational order of things. Then (see #3 below) encountering the œuvre of Claude Tresmontant (1925-1997) helped me re-read a lot of the Christian teachings against the backdrop of an evolutionary framework where, as he would have said, we were not so much in front of a “creative evolution” (as in Bergson’s celebrated book’s title), but an “evolutionary creation.” I consider that an account of creation in and through time remains largely undeveloped.

2.        What are your current research interests?

I research the cosmological and anthropological aspects of the thought of A. N. Whitehead, and more broadly, process-related answers to perennial religious questions. I am in charge of an archive center, at Lille Catholic University, devoted to process studies, but with lots of resources for the science and religion dialogue, and even more broadly, the general issues of philosophy of science, as well as Christian philosophical thinking. Researchers, at doctoral, or post-doctoral level, or established scholars, can make arrangements to come. I feel an urge to work at developing a philosophical cosmology, as this which is conspicuous by its absence in turns conditions what I feel as a lack of any suitable anthropology; the consequence of it all, is that when one confesses the creed, an inevitable divide takes place between what one will “assent” to, to use Newman’s term, and what one will consider epistemically justified. I am no exclusive devotee of the answers that the process trends can provide, and as such, I like confronting them to other cosmological quests such as one finds, e.g., in the thought of the French metaphysician Raymond Ruyer (1902-1987), whose metaphysical thought, although invented independently, bears resemblance to that of Whitehead. One next big project for me is to work out a “habilitation” dossier, a feature of the French academic system, which I will devote to seeking an answer to the “substantial bond” issue raised up by Leibniz, about which contemporary analytical and mereological proposals could help in providing a solution. Seeking a theory of unity, beyond the part and whole relationship, could help in clarifying issues around the place and import of relation in metaphysics and ontology, and establish what I call a theory of connections, stronger than relations, which could also be deemed a “power to make things into being.” Finally, the Chair in Sciences, technosciences and faith in the era of integral ecology, where I am research professor, is holding an international conference in Lille in October of 2024, where we will focus in particular on issues created by the interest the Church and Christian thinkers have developed around integral ecology. Its full program is now available: one can find more here https://theologie-catholille.fr/2023/12/19/international-conference-october-9-11-2024/

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3.        Who are your science and religion “heroes” and why?

I have devoted much attention to the lasting legacy of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I have also analyzed the insights of Claude Tresmontant, a French specialist of both Medieval philosophy and philosophy of science, whose synthesis of the Christian faith and the scientific outlook propelled my reflection for many years. Even when I analyzed it critically, such as in a book I edited in 2022, it is only to open-up pathways toward a greater engagement with what defies criticism in this vision, and is simply fascinating as it speaks to unexploited resources of the Christian tradition.

4.        Why are you a member of ESSSAT?

I found in ESSSAT a place where voices from younger scholars could be heard, of course at the time that I joined early in the years 2000, and that favored a diversity of approaches in seeking answers to the big questions in the field of science and religion.

5.        What are you looking forward to at the next ESSSAT conference in Split, Croatia?

I am excited to combine the epistemology, philosophy of science, and theology of science insights amassed and developed through the years, with a greater attention paid to the subjective aspects of the seeking and reception of truth. One of the great mysteries of our human relation to time, is playing with counter-factuals, simply as Judea Pearls would have it, asking the question “why?,” “world-making” so to speak, and narration as well as story-telling are pertinent as a means of discussion in a time when so much attention is being paid to the possibilities of AI in approaching or not human rationality.

page: https://univ-catholille.academia.edu/PhilippeGagnon

also: https://lillethics.com/philippe-gagnon/

two publications of interest:

https://www.academia.edu/62206101/

https://www.academia.edu/38359213/