SCIENCE AND RELIGION

At the International Paul Tillich Conference
THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION AT THE DAWN OF THE MILLENNIUM
New Harmony, Indiana, 16-20 June 1999

"Culture (science) is the form of religion, religion is the substance of culture (science)"

Theologian Paul Tillich’s picture appeared on the cover of the March 16, 1959 issue of TIME Magazine. The feature story caption was "From the Old World to the New Being." Forty years later, from June 16 to 20, 1999, the North American Paul Tillich Society  organized the International Conference on "The Religious Situation at the Dawn of the Millennium." This theme reflects the spirit of Tillich’s famous volume "The Religious Situation," first published in 1926 in Germany. The conference took place in historic New Harmony, Indiana, site of the Paul Tillich Memorial Park.

According to the TIME article: "Tillich has succeeded in erecting a towering structure of thought…an edifice densely packed and neatly shaped against the erosion of intellectual wind and wave." The conference illustrates TIME’s observation with world-recognized scholars such as Langdon Gilkey, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Gordon Kaufman, and Jose Miguez Bonino. The meeting is meant to reflect the spirit of Paul Tillich's lifelong work in the theological interpretation of culture. Participants attended sessions on (1) science and religion; (2) religion and the arts; (3) women and religion; (4) economy, society, and religion; and (5) spirituality and inter-religious dialogue. The Blaffer Trust, the Lilly Endowment, the John Templeton Foundation, and St. John's University New York supported this conference.

The goal of the Science and Religion Session is to use Paul Tillich’s thought
to deepen conversations between scientists and people of faith. The John Templeton Foundation is providing a grant to support this session organized by Prof. Paul H. Carr, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Air Force Research Laboratory Emeritus.

Papers presented at this conference are published in the book

"RELIGION IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM: Theology in the spirit of Paul Tillich"
Raymond F. Bulman & Frederick J. Parrella, Mercier University Press, 2001

SCIENCE AND RELIGION AT THE DAWN OF THE 3rd MILLENNIUM

on the afternoon and evening of 19 June 1999  consisted of the following sessions.

 (1) CORRELATING THEOLOGY & SCIENCE
with Prof. Robert J. Russell as lead speaker;

 (2) PANEL: PAUL TILLICH'S "NOW" AND OUR "NOW"
with Prof. Ted Peters as lead speaker, and

 (3) KEYNOTE SPEAKER: PROF. GORDON KAUFMAN,
Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Professor of Divinity, Harvard University:
"Re-Conceiving God and Humanity in Light of Today's Evolutionary
Consciousness"

(1) CORRELATING THEOLOGY & SCIENCE

-Prof. Donald E. Arther, Webster Univ. & Eden Theological Seminary, St. Louis, MO:

"Paul Tillich's Perspective on The Ways of Relating Science & Religion"

-Prof. Robert J. Russell, Director, Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) & Professor of Theology and Science, Graduate Theological Union (GTU), Berkeley

"The Relevance of Tillich for the ‘Theology & Science’ Dialogue"

-Dr. Anne Foerst, MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab and Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA

"Paul Tillich, Cybernetics, & Theology: an Unexplored Connection"
 
 

(2) PAUL TILLICH'S "NOW" AND OUR "NOW"

 -Prof. Ted Peters, Pacific Lutheran Theological Sem., CTNS, GTU Berkeley, CA

"Eschatology: ‘Eternal Now’ or Cosmic Future"

-Prof. J. Mark Thomas, AuSable Institute of Environmental Studies, Mancelona, Michigan and Madison Area Technical College, Madision, WI, and editor "The Spiritual Situation in our Technological Society"

"Ambiguity in our Technological Society"

-Prof. Ronald B. MacLennan, Distinguished Professor of Religion, Bethany College, Lindsborg, KA

"Realism in Science and Realism in the Thought of Paul Tillich"

-Dr. Paul H. Carr, Air Force Research Laboratory Emeritus
and University of Massachusetts Lowell

"Science & Religion: Original Unity and ‘Courage To Create’"
 

(3) AFTER-DINNER KEYNOTE SPEAKER: PROF. GORDON KAUFMAN
Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School, Emeritus, Cambridge, MA

"RE-CONCEIVING GOD AND HUMANITY IN LIGHT OF
TODAY’S EVOLUTIONARY-ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS"
Respondent: Michael Drummy, Fordham University







OUTCOME: Tillich’s theological breadth encompasses Ian Barbour’s four ways of relating science and religion: conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration. Tillich’s 1963 address at Berkeley was prophetic:

"The period of conflict is in principle over between science and religion."

Director of Berkeley’s Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, Robert Russell, stressed importance of Tillich’s method of correlation for the science-religion dialogue. Ronald MacLennan noted that Tillich’s search for faith as "belief-ful realism" consistent with historical and scientific realism is much easier to achieve today than in Tillich’s day, with its empirical Logical Positivism. Science and religion are complementary dimensions of the human spirit.

"Scientific and technological culture is the form in which religion expresses itself.
Religion as ultimate concern is the meaning-giving substance of scientific culture."

PAPER SUMMARIES

SUMMARY: SCIENCE & RELIGION AT THE DAWN OF THE 3RD MILLENNIUM

These papers have been published in ZYGON: Journal of Religion and Science, June 2001, pgs. 255-349.

CORRELATING THEOLOGY & SCIENCE

The theology of Paul Tillich (1886-1965) is foundational for the science-religion dialogue. Donald Arther showed how Tillich’s theological breadth encompasses Ian Barbour’s four ways of relating science and religion: conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration. Tillich’s 1963 address at Berkeley was prophetic: "The period of conflict is in principle over between science and religion." This was a good lead into Director of Berkeley’s Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, Robert Russell’s, talk on the importance of Tillich’s method of correlation for the science-religion dialogue. This requires cognitive input from both sides and "value added" according to their own criteria. Anne Foerst described papers that Tillich presented at MIT when he was University Professor at Harvard (1955-62). These included "The Absurdity of the Question ‘Does God Exist?’"

PANEL: PAUL TILLICH’S "NOW" and OUR "NOW"

The panel compared issues in Tillich’s day with those of today. Ted Peters combined Tillich’s idea of the ETERNAL God being present in the NOW with Pannenberg’s conception of eternity as the wholeness and fulfillment of time. Our spiritual future is not cessation of being but the fullness of being in contrast to cosmology, which predicts the heat death of the universe. J. MarkThomas cited Tillich’s 1954 address " The Spiritual Situation in our Technological Society," in which he identified capitalism, communism, and fascism as ambiguous quasi-religious responses to an ambiguous reality. Thomas believes that postmodern multiculturalism (recognizing the power of racial and ethnic origins) and liberalism (upholding the rights of individuals) are similarly ambiguous secular religions. Ronald MacLennan noted that Tillich’s search for faith as "belief-ful realism" consistent with historical and scientific realism is much easier to achieve today than in Tillich’s encounter with empirical Logical Positivism of his day. The realism of modern physics includes the uncertainty principle, wave-particle dualism, and the predictability limits of chaotic systems. "Religion as ultimate concern is the meaning-giving substance of scientific and technological culture, and culture is among the totality of forms in which the basic concern of religion expresses itself. " Paul H. Carr hoped that Tillich’s insight of the "God above God" as the ground of courage and creativity will in the next millennium enable religion to be reunited with science, as it was in antiquity. Reconciliation and reunion characterize the New Being and Creation. Science and religion are complementary dimensions of the human spirit.

KEYNOTE: "RE-CONCEIVING GOD AND HUMANITY IN LIGHT OF

TODAY’S EVOLUTIONARY-ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS"

Gordon Kaufman noted that the Christian tradition out of which Tillich worked had a strong anthropocentric slant, which should be updated by the following:

  1. we humans should understand ourselves as basically biohistorical beings;
  2. God should be understood as neither a kind of "cosmic person" nor the "ground of being" but as the serendipitous creativitymanifest (throughout the universe from the "big bang" on) in
  3. the trajectories (or directional movements) that emerge in the evolutionary developing cosmos and of life (including human life) on planet Earth.
Respondent Michael Drummy agreed with the anthropocentricism of Tillich’s day, but given this, felt that Tillich was prophetic in forcefully maintaining "the interdependence of everything with everything else in the totality of being includes a participation of nature in history and demands a participation of the universe in salvation."

PAPER SUMMARIES: