Membership in Nordic Network on Science, Theology, and Worldviews is open to anyone who is a holder of a ph. d. and also to anyone who is currently active in the academy at the Master’s level or above.
In order to become a member, please fill out the following form:
https://tinyurl.com/networknordic
When we launched the network we formulated the following invitation letter:
Uppsala 2023-10-16
Dear colleagues,
This is an invitation to join an inaugural event for the Nordic Network on Science, Theology, and Worldviews. The network is meant to function as a forum for discussion and collaboration among scholars in the Nordic countries interested in the relationship between science, theology, and worldviews.
Those working in this field are associated with different academic disciplines and institutions and sometimes lack spaces to get together for discussion and collaboration. The establishment of a network is meant to facilitate such a space. Hopefully, this could eventually stimulate collaboration in research and education. To that end, we plan to organize a series of events:
- An online-lecture each semester by a scholar in the field (the first of which takes place on Monday the 30th of October at 19.00 (CET))
- An online-seminar each semester (date to be decided)
- A mini-conference in the spring of 2024 (mid-April)
Our first event will be an online lecture Monday the 30th of October, 19.00 (Swedish time; Central European Time.) This lecture will be given by Mariusz Tabaczek on his upcoming book Theistic Evolution: A Contemporary Aristotelian-Thomistic Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
The book is not yet published, but for a table of contents, see here.
Tabaczek has previously written books and articles on evolution, emergence, dispositionalism, and divine action. His two previous books are: Emergence: Towards A New Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019) and Divine action and Emergence: An Alternative to Panentheism (University of Notre Dame Press, 2021).
We would be delighted if you would consider joining this network initiative. Simply fill out this form https://tinyurl.com/networknordic and you will be added to the e-mail list, which we will use to send out zoom-invitations to our events and also a monthly newsletter with science and religion-related themes and events.
More information about our other initiatives will follow in due time. In brief, the online-seminars will be a place where anyone working on these matters in the Nordic countries can present their work and get high-quality feedback from colleagues, as well as feedback from academics in other fields (such as the scientific discipline to which the work relates).
At this point, we can also say that the mini-conference (two days) in mid-April 2024 will be held in Uppsala, Sweden, on the themes of divine action, dispositionalism, and theistic evolution, with Tabaczek as one of the speakers.
We very much hope that this network will provide a fertile ground for research ideas and collaboration, and in time perhaps cooperative research grant applications.
A brief word about the intended profile or ethos of this network:
When we think about an initiative of this kind it is useful point to other and more well-established international centres of science and religion-dialogue, such as The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, The American Scientific Affiliation and the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion. Characteristic for these – and we hope for us – is a desire to take both scientific and theological perspectives seriously and to explore whether and how these can be fruitfully related to each other. This entails a commitment to the principle of methodological naturalism (understood as the principle that the natural sciences must limit themselves to the study of and explanatory resources of the natural world) as well as an appreciation of the tentative and ongoing character of scientific research.
We also want to be sensitive to the way in which science operates within various contexts, including philosophical or ideological frameworks within which scientific work is interpreted and communicated, as can be seen for example in issues regarding reductive and non- or anti-reductive interpretations of science. This makes the dialogue between science, philosophy, and theology imperative, all in the interest of a better understanding of the character of reality as we approach it from various points of view.
We are also aware – and want to make others aware – of the fact that scientific perspectives are not the same as secular perspectives and that both religious and secular perspectives are examples of worldviews rather than merely the sum of a certain collection of scientifically established facts. Clearly, therefore, there is much room here for explorations at the interface between science, theology, and worldviews (religious or secular) – all of which we believe it is important to engage with in the overarching pursuit of truth, wherever we may find it.
Last, but not least, we also want to point out that the relationship between science, theology and worldviews also involves applied science in, for instance, the development of technology, such as Artificial Intelligence, and how this is utilized.
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We would also very much appreciate it if you would circulate this invitation in your network. For those with no background in the academy it is always possible to participate in our public events, and get information about them through our Facebookpage.
With all best wishes from the organizers,
Ulf Jonsson (Newmaninstitutet)
Stefan Lindholm (Johannelund’s teologiska högskola)
Andreas Nordlander (Göteborgs universitet)
Martin Sahlén (Uppsala universitet)
Christoffer Skogholt (Uppsala universitet)
Nordic Network on Science, Theology, and Worldviews 