I’ve just finished reading an article by Wim Drees, published (free acces) in Theology and Science, and was really inspired by it. That has of course to do with my own unfinished search for a theological position, in which I hesitate to identify my stance completely with religious naturalism. Drees explains in his article how…
Categorie: English
Before I started thinking about evolution and education I did research on evolution and theology. Read reports and reflections on that research here.
Big History as a Religious Ritual
Today, I stumbled upon a fascinating example of science turning into religion, or, to be more precise, of people using science to create religious rituals. It all began when I was asked to offer a short meditation at the beginning of next meeting at work. My current employer is the Catholic education network in Flanders,…
A Matter of Perspective
As a follow up on my earlier post about whether or not patterns in nature represent meaning, I would like to point to this picture. Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/JPMajor/status/852954423785553923 Jason Major, who tweeted this picture, explains: That bright star is actually Earth, seen between Saturn’s A and F rings by #Cassini on April 13, 2017…889.6 million miles…
Deep History of Symbolic Thinking
Deep history, or the evolutionary history of the human species, is an interesting context for theology. Recent research offers insight in the way early humans (50 000 – 30 000 years ago) created a symbolic world in the region north of Australia. Two things strike me as important: It’s just a side note in the…
Polar Lights and Personal Faith
The turn of the year was a bit of a rough ride. My grandmother died, my last living grandparent, and although I did not have a deep personal relation with her, it felt as if a phase in my life had ended. Unexpectedly, her death has led me into one of the most profound crises of faith…
The Importance of Modesty (New Year’s Resolutions)
In my most recent post, I argued how important it is to teach narrative skills, in particular in religious education. Jerome Bruner refers to narrative skills as the ability to understand and apply the methods of ‘narrative fields of knowledge’. He points to literature, poetry, historiography, etc., as examples of such fields, but I think it is obvious…
Knowing the Past to Co-Create the Future.
Last week, I received an e-mail with the delightful news that my abstract for the next IRAS-conference , titled: “How Can We Know? Co-creating Knowledge in Perilous Times”, has been accepted. Moreover, the organizing committee awarded me with a Fellowship to enable me to join them. Obviously, I’m thrilled about this: a perfect way to end my…
Learning From Schillebeeckx
Last week, I participated in a Schillebeeckx Research Seminar, co-organized by KU Leuven and Radbout University. The seminar consisted of two days crammed with presentations and discussions, having me fill up page after page in my note book in an attempt to make sure I would be able to retrieve as much insights as possible afterwards. The most exciting,…
Philosophari in Maria: Towards a Marian Metaxology
This post is not explicitly about religion and science, although it does concern the relation between faith and reason. It’s about a meeting organized by the Anthropos Research Group, of which I am a member. On Tuesday, 26th of May, 14.00-16.00., my colleague Dr. Patrick Cooper, will present on the theme of “Philosophari in Maria:…
Swinburne on the Existence of God
I was in fact searching for another paper (“The Informed Universe and the Existence of God” by John Haught, actually a chapter of an edited volume), when I stumbled upon this paper (link to pdf below) by Swinburne. There’s no reference to date or place, unfortunately, but the text offers an interesting read. Although I have some…