Science and Religion Research Seminars | Ian Ramsey Centre Lectures
Hilary 2025, Weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8
11am-12.30pm (seminars) and 5pm-6.30pm (lectures)
The Gibson Lecture Room, Gibson Building, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford OX2 6GG
Evening lecture venues for Weeks 4 and 8 are indicated below for each date.
WEEK 2 - 29 January
11am-12.30pm (Seminar in the Gibson Building):
Zishang (Joseph) Yue, DPhil candidate in Science and Religion, University of Oxford
11am Seminar: ‘A Hylomorphic Reading of Genesis 1: How Aristotle May Convince Young-Earth Creationists of Evolutionary Science’.
Abstract: Young-Earth-Creationism (YEC) has been pitted against evolution for many decades by both sides, and there seems to be no end to this debate. Aristotelian hylomorphism, however, is able to offer a new reading of Genesis 1 such that the text is literally true in the ‘formal’ sense, even though evolution is also true in the ‘material’ sense. Thus, it is possible that the earth is formally 7000 years old, and yet its materiality can be traced back through evolutionary history to the big bang. From a hylomorphic perspective, then, YEC believers are able to conditionally accept evolution without compromising their core convictions. On the one hand, this model is more charitable and probably more effective in communicating the fruits of evolutionary science to YEC advocates, and on the other hand, YEC advocates have the rational responsibility to consider this model due to its merits over various types of YEC. This model also serves as an example of how Aristotelian metaphysics can be employed to resolve problems in science and religion.
WEEK 4 - 12 February
11am-12.30pm (Seminar in the Gibson Building) AND 5pm-6.30pm (Lecture in the Gibson Building)
Professor Joanna Leidenhag, University of Leeds
11am Seminar: ‘Attending to God with Autistic Focus in an Age of Distraction’.
Abstract: Recent research in neuroscience and cognitive psychology suggest that increased use of digital technology is eroding our ability for sustained attention and making more distractable and anxious. In a powerful plea for the relevance of spirituality, some theologians argue that perseverance with pre-modern spiritual practices is a central way that society can combat this widespread distractibility and anxiety. Yet, such advice remains difficult for many. This paper proposes another resource to help us combat this contemporary distractibility—learning about and from autistic monotropism. A recently popular theory of autism and ADHD, monotropism is a tendency for one’s interests to be pulled more strongly towards a smaller number of things at any one time, creating what researchers have called an “attention tunnel”. This paper argues that autistic monotropism presents a glimpse of the kind of attentive ability that is normative for Christian living and may foreshadow something of the joy and love we will experience in the beatific vision.
5pm Lecture: ‘The Difference Theology Makes to Autism Diagnoses and Neurodiversity’
Abstract: Does theology make a difference to contemporary scientific research and social attitudes? My goal in this talk is to convince you that theology continues to impact both science and society by focusing on the examples of the origins of ‘autism’ as a diagnostic category and the recent neurodiversity movement.
Professor Joanna Leidenhag is Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy at the University of Leeds. She previously worked at the University of Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews, where her research focused on Christian responses to panpsychism and science-engaged theology, respectively. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of the project 'God, Language and Diversity: Spiritual Flourishing in Neurodiverse and Multilingual Communities' and is writing a book on autism and faith.
WEEK 6 - 26 February
11am-12.30pm (Seminar in the Gibson Building):
Professor Piotr Szalek, Catholic University of Lublin
11am Seminar: ‘Intellectual Humility, Science, and Religion’.
Abstract: Intellectual humility is an intellectual virtue, along with the other epistemic and moral virtues such as open-mindedness, intellectual courage, insightfulness, and integrity, and is regarded as one of the essential components of a fruitful scientific investigation. Moreover, intellectual humility is essential as a practical tool to deal with the so-called deep disagreement between different theories or worldviews. The talk aims to analyse the concept of intellectual humility as an intellectual virtue in the context of the dispute between theism and atheism. It reconstructs the origins, structure, and functions the concept plays in both philosophical and theological standpoints. The analysis of those three aspects will help us to understand the nature of intellectual humility as it is characterised and applied in both theism and atheism. It hopes to shed some light on the common elements shared between these two philosophical and theological standpoints as well as the real differences between them. To narrow the philosophical scope, the talk explores the moral and religious theories of virtue ethics and expressivism as regards their similarities and differences in explaining the place of values in the natural world and the limits of our knowledge of God. A historical case study of the first expressivist theory of religious language by George Berkeley will enable the talk to connect the concept of intellectual humility to the theory of scientific language.
Professor Piotr Szalek is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Catholic University of Lublin. Since 2023, he has been also affiliated with the Faculty of Philosophy and Ian Ramsey Centre, Campion Hall, and Christ Church at the University of Oxford.
WEEK 8 - 12 March
11am-12.30pm (Seminar in the Gibson Building) AND 5pm-6.30pm (Lecture in the Gibson Building):
Dr Bethany Sollereder, University of Edinburgh
11am Seminar: ‘Pentecostal meets Process: A Patchwork Quilt Model of Divine Action’.
Abstract: The Divine Action Project worked to show that God could work through objective non-interventionist ways. In short: miracles are possible, but only through specific “loose joints” in the laws of nature. In this paper, I draw on Pentecostal and Process perspectives to argue that miracles are possible. Not just through the loop holes of the universe’s laws, but also through direct intervention of the type that is often avoided in respectable theological company.
5pm Lecture: ‘A Theology of Hope for Climate Change Failure’.
Abstract: The chances of averting dramatic climate change now seems like a lost hope. What can theology offer in times when hope needs renewal? This lecture will draw from Jonathan Lear’s book Radical Hope and from theological and ecological resources to offer theoretical and practical avenues of hope in light of a changing global environment.
Dr Bethany Sollereder is a Lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of Edinburgh. She specialises in theology, evolution and the problem of suffering. She is currently working on theological aspects of climate change. Bethany received her PhD in Theology from the University of Exeter and taught at the University of Oxford. She is the author of God, Evolution, and Animal Suffering: Theodicy without a Fall (2020) and Why is there Suffering? Pick your own theological expedition (2021) and co-editor of the volumes Emerging Voices in Science and Theology: Contributions by Young Women (2022) and Progress in Theology: Does the Queen of the Sciences Advance? (2025)
WEEK 8: 14 March
11am-12.30pm (Seminar in the Gibson Building):
Dr Katherine Snow, Princeton University
11am Seminar: ‘Our Inevitable Third Spinoza Controversy’.
Abstract: Ontologies of necessity and environmental nihilism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) looks at the lasting legacy of the monistic naturalism developed by early German romantic philosophers of nature in the atmosphere of crisis and contradiction brought on by the Spinoza Controversy. The work looks at a return of the Spinoza Controversy in interwar Europe, and discusses how even though the original Controversy's focus and main terms were philosophical, and the second's were theological, the question of how we see and treat the real natural world was a crucial part of what was at stake both times. The book further argues that the Controversy has now returned for its third iteration, an iteration which must focus explicitly on the "environmental" question rather than beginning with the terms of philosophy or theology alone. Proposing that the removal of all moral value from the natural world was part of the consequences of the West twice choosing the monistic romantic side of the debate, the book argues for the fundamental continuing soundness and relevance of Jacobi's arguments linking rationally constructed cosmologies with nihilism, and seeks to expand upon them.
Dr Katherine Snow received her PhD in 2021 from Edinburgh. Her thesis examined early German romantic monistic approaches to nature and their rebirth (in a new form) in contemporary big bang cosmology and its panentheistic enthusiasts (such as Swimme or T. Berry). Prior to her PhD work she worked in the US government in the Department of State and other agencies, in Washington DC and abroad. Her research since completing the PhD, at Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, New College in Florida, and now Princeton University, has focused on extending her thesis research into new realms of the philosophy of nature and philosophy of science, and also on developing the new (2017) concept of environmental realism as a framework for understanding (and highlighting the problems with) human societies' ongoing total consumption and anthropogenic conversion of the natural world.
