IRandS Events
Upcoming Events
Past Events by Year
2025
Qigong Workshop – Join the Institute for Religion and Science on Sunday, October 26 from 1:30-3:30 PM for a Qigong workshop to nurture body, mind, and spirit. This event is being held both in-person and on Zoom.
2024
“Resting on the Future:
Theology for an Unfinished Universe”
October 17, 2024
Online and in-person at 7 pm EDT
Chestnut Hill College’s East Parlor
Philadelphia, PA 19118
Contemporary controversies and crises in Christian thought, life, and worship today are rooted in conflicting assumptions about God, the universe, and the meaning of time. With the help of some ideas of Teilhard de Chardin, this presentation will outline how Christian faith in the future may be transformed and take on new meaning and vitality in the light of recent developments in science, especially in biology and cosmology.
“The Good Life:
Lessons for Life from the
World’s Longest Study of Happiness”
November 19, 2024
In-person and online at 7pm EST
Chestnut Hill College (East Parlor)
9601 Germantown Ave #20
Philadelphia, PA 19118
*In-Person registration will be upcoming.
Join Dr. Marc Schulz, professor of psychology at Bryn Mawr College and author of The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, as he highlights research findings from the 86-year-old Harvard Study of Adult Development (HSAD). The HSAD closely followed individuals from over 700 families until the end of their lives and is now following their children to determine the critical role of relationships in shaping our happiness and health. Dr. Marc Schulz will discuss why relationships are the foundation of a “good life” and the steps we can take to improve our relationships, health, and happiness.
Reading Groups
Teilhard’s The Divine Milieu
This Fall, the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College and the American Teilhard Association plan to co-sponsor 2 monthly Reading Circles on Zoom. Both sessions will involve the same content. Monday meetings are at 6:30-8:00pm ET and the Wednesday sessions are at 2:00-3:30pm ET.
This Fall, we will be reading Part III of Teilhard’s The Divine Milieu. We will continue to use a Lectio Divina style, reading and discussing the material together slowly and thoughtfully.
Here are the dates and tentative topics for the next four months; page assignments to follow:
October 21 and 23
November 11 and 13
December 9 and 11
January 13 and 15
If you wish to join us and are not yet on the mailing list for the Institute for Religion and Science Reading Circle, please send an email to kduffy@chc.edustating your interest.
2023
November 29 – December 27, 2023
“Advent Reading Circle: Building the Earth”
October 25, 2023
“How a Physicist, a Singer, and an Ordinary House Plant Can Give Us Hope for a Better World”
A Zoom Presentation with the Art and Stories of Brother Mickey McGrath
Online at 7pm – 8:30pm EDT
Albert Einstein, an immigrant Jew who escaped Nazi Germany, witnessed first-hand the rampant racism of the United States and was vocal in his condemnation of it. His creative talents as a musician helped him nurture a deep and lasting friendship with Marian Anderson, the great African-American opera singer who suffered the effects of racism throughout her legendary life and career. Their brilliant mutual gifts of creativity and music helped them create a soul friendship that rose above and beyond the racist culture in which they lived.
March 21, 2023
“Can AI Systems Be Persons”
With Anne Foerst, PhD
Online at 7pm ET
Hosted by the Institute for Religion and Science
March 1, 2023
“Prophets of Hope in Calamitous Times: Julian of Norwich and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin”
With Joshua Canzona, PhD
Online at 7pm EST
January 25, 2023
“The Greatest Challenge: The Created Co-Creator Creates a Co-Creator”
With Philip Hefner, PhD
Online at 7:00 – 8:30pm
2022
November 10, 2022
“Ecotheology, or Why Climate Crisis and Eco-Anxiety Require a Radically Different Kind of Theology”
With Philip Clayton
Online at 7:00pm EST
2021
DECEMBER 2, 2021
GOD FROM THE MACHINE: Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Divine Presence
Joshua Canzona, PhD
7:00 pm EST
SugarLoaf Campus of Chestnut Hill College
9230 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19118
in person and livestream
Free and open to the public
NOVEMBER 8, 2021
KNOWLEDGE IN PURSUIT OF TRUTH: Édouard Le Roy and the Twentieth-Century French Intellectual Community as Inspiration for the Science and Religion Conversation in Twenty-First-Century America
Laura Eloe, PhD
7:00 pm EST
SugarLoaf Campus of Chestnut Hill College
9230 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19118
In person and livestream
Free and open to the public
JANUARY 20, 27, FEBRUARY 3, 10, 2021
“Catching Fire! Spiritual Transformation and Evolutionary Process: Teilhard’s Vision of Becoming”
Facilitator: Anita Wood, M.Ed.
6:30 pm to 8:30 EST
“Catching Fire!” is a group process that blends contemplative prayer, reflection, and dialogue for the purpose of spiritual growth. It is based on Teilhard’s assumption that, when people gather together for shared purpose, they have greater potential to increase in consciousness and co-evolve society.
Participants must commit to all four two-hour sessions. The fee to cover all four two-hour sessions is $50. Space is limited and registration is required.
Co-sponsored by the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College and the American Teilhard Association.
2020
NOVEMBER 11, 2020
“Evolution’s God? Teilhard de Chardin and the Varieties of Process Theology”
Lecture by Donald Wayne Viney, PhD
Professor of Philosophy
Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm EST
Summary: In 1953, Teilhard asked, “Who at last will give evolution its God?” His own endeavor to answer that question often bears striking similarities to the process theism of his contemporaries, Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. Yet, the differences can also be striking. All three are rightly classified as promoting versions of process theology, but they show by their divergences that process thought, especially process theism, is far from yielding a monolithic viewpoint on the theistic question.
Co-sponsored by the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College and the American Teilhard Association.
View materials from this event:
2019
DECEMBER 6-8, 2019
“Love at the Heart of the Cosmos: Living in Relational Wholeness”
Second annual Omega Center conference, in collaboration with the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College
Commonwealth Chateau at SugarLoaf
Chestnut Hill College
Philadelphia, PA
Speakers: Sr. Ilia Delio, Ursula King, John F. Haught, Sr. Kathleen Duffy, and Cynthia Bourgeault
SEPTEMBER 16, OCTOBER 14, AND NOVEMBER 11, 2019
Reading Circle of Teilhard’s Struggle: Embracing the Work of Evolution by Kathleen Duffy
The Reading Circle usually meets on the second Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00pm.
Chestnut Hill College
Logue Library, Morton Room
9601 Germantown Ave
Philadelphia, PA
All are welcome! If you are interested in joining, email: Institute4RS@chc.edu
OCTOBER 8, 2019
“Emergence of Religion in Human Evolution: Lessons from Neuroscience; Lessons from the Hearth”
Lecture by Christopher J. Corbally, PhD, SJ and Margaret Boone Rappaport, PhD
7-9pm
Chestnut Hill College
SugarLoaf Campus, Commonwealth Chateau
9200 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA
Sponsored by the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College
SEPTEMBER 29, 2019
“God’s Cosmic Experiment: Teilhard’s Perspective on Evolution”
Lecture by Louis M. Savary, PhD, STD
1-4pm
Chestnut Hill College
SugarLoaf Campus, Commonwealth Chateau
9200 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA
Sponsored by the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College
2018
2017
2016
2015
SEPTEMBER 15, 2015
“Following the ‘Road of Fire’: The Emergence of Teilhard de Chardin’s Panchristic Mysticism during the First World War”
Lecture by Ursula King, PhD, Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Bristol
7pm
Chestnut Hill College
Sugarloaf Hill Campus Commonwealth Chateau
9230 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA, USA
APRIL 9, 2015
Teilhard de Chardin: His Importance in the 21st Century
With John F. Haught, James F. Salmon, Kathleen Duffy, John Grim, Ilia Delio, and Frank Frost
Georgetown University
37th & O Streets, NW
Washington, DC
3pm
For additional information, please contact Samuel Wagner at Samuel.Wagner@georgetown.edu or 202-687-4005.
http://fore.yale.edu/calendar/item/teilhard-de-chardin-his-importance-in-the-21st-century/