Writing Humanity’s Next Chapter – A renewed religion and science dialogue
Dr. Philip Hefner joins us for our inaugural online event on August 4 via Zoom to ask the key questions we are facing around the globe. Our questions are asked as we struggle with a multi-faceted societal crisis.
Hefner believes it is urgent for to move beyond analysis to imagination. “Since the crisis is extraordinary, it requires extraordinary imagination,” says Hefner. “What is imagination? It is uniquely human. Imagination is believing in things that actually do not exist and making them actual.”
For example, we often view I ourselves and the planet as an end of process. But what if we see ourselves as a “phase” of God’s plan, and not the end?
An ordained minister in the ELCA, Dr. Hefner is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He directed the Zygon Center for Religion and Science from 1998 to 2003 and is the former Editor-in-Chief of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. He has authored numerous books and articles, and is best known for his book, The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture and Religion.
This event is sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science (CASIRAS), which is a supporting organization for the Zygon Center for Religion and Science (in partnership with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) and Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science (in partnership with the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science and the International Society for Science and Religion).