Dear WesleyNexus Colleagues,
Educators, like me, and educational organizations, like WesleyNexus, mark time with the beginning of the new academic year. Meteorological seasons don’t matter nearly as much as pedagogical ones. As every teacher knows, there is renewed energy and enthusiasm at the start of a new academic year, rich with possibilities for growth and learning. And so, it is in that spirit, that we offer this month’s WesleyNexus newsletter.
We begin this new season of learning by remembering that the dialogue about science and religious faith happens in a larger context, a nexus where facts, reason, and intellectualism meet personal beliefs and motivations. We find ourselves living in a time when facts and reason seem to be under assault and, for many, held secondarily to personal opinions that are contrary to facts. Some of the issues we face—like climate change and skepticism of vaccinations—relate directly to science, while others—like gun ownership and abortion—do not. Still, while not all these issues are directly related to the science-and-faith dialogue, they are in the nexus where facts, data, and analysis meet strongly held personal views and, in that sense, share intellectual challenges that are similar to those found in the science-and-faith conversation. This month’s issue offers a broad range of learning opportunities within this nexus, including several faith-and-science events you won’t want to miss.
In this issue you will find…
Upcoming webinars hosted by IRAS and CASIRAS;
some rich nuggets from The Clergy Letter Project;
information on An Interesting Conference About Sexuality hosted by Dr. Thomas Jay Oord and Jonathan Foster;
thoughts from our newest board member, Rev. Dr. Dawn Stewart, about meditation in Christian practice and a reference to what science has to say about the impacts of meditation on the human brain;
and a class offered by National UMC, The Clash Between Personal Freedom and Social Responsibility, which will be held via Zoom, is open to all, and will discuss vaccinations when it first meets on September 13th.
With you on the journey,
Jennifer Secki Shields, on behalf of the WesleyNexus Team
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Upcoming Events
A Magnificent Universe: A Contemplation of Human Purpose
September 29, 2021, 4:00 PM Central Time (5:00 PM Eastern Time) via Zoom
Hosted by The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science
In this month’s Webinar, IRAS will host Dr. Jennifer J. Wiseman, Director of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an astrophysicist at NASA. The respondent will be Dr. Steven Finette (Ph.D. in biophysics, Syracuse University), physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
Modern telescopes are also “time machines,” sampling ancient light from distant stars and galaxies, revealing a universe that over vast time has transformed everything in existence. Through images of beautiful nebulae, active planets, and even infant galaxies, this talk will show how current and future astronomical discoveries inspire contemplation of human purpose and connection to a magnificent cosmos. Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is an astrophysicist, author, and speaker. She studies the process of star and planet formation in our galaxy using radio, optical, and infrared telescopes. She is also interested in national science policy and public science engagement. and directs the program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Wiseman studied physics at MIT, co-discovering the comet Wiseman-Skiff in 1987, and continued in astronomy with her doctoral research at Harvard. She has worked with several international observatories and is currently a senior astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Wiseman is a Fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation, a network of Christians in Science. She frequently gives public talks on the excitement of scientific discovery and appears in many venues including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NOVA, and National Public Radio.
The IRAS Webinar is FREE, but registration is required:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3wVX-XtqR0CU8RbHCbC0QA
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An Interesting Conference About Sexuality
An event to help reexamine Scripture and re-imagine modalities
October 7 and 8, 2021, 7:00-9:00 PM (Central Time) via Zoom
Hosted by Jonathan Foster and Dr. Thomas Jay Oord
https://www.aninterestingconference.com/
An Interesting Conference About Sexuality answers the call of a culture desperately longing for diversity, scholarship, authenticity, and imagination. We’re honored to have four key presenters who represent some of the very best across the fields of theology, psychology, therapy, and coaching. Don’t miss a minute of these presenters, or the live Q/R that will follow each presentation hosted by theologian and best-selling author, Dr. Thomas Jay Oord and amazon best-selling author, Jonathan Foster.
Dr. Monica Coleman is an author and renowned leader in process theology and liberation theologies. She educates, cultivates, and empowers people of faith and purpose throughout the U.S. and internationally to connect their beliefs with both their personal experiences and social action. Coleman speaks on many of the issues that religious leaders avoid: sexual and domestic violence, mental health, postmodernism, and religious diversity.
Dr. James Alison is a Catholic theologian, priest and author. His principal claim to fame is as one who has done much to bring the work of French thinker, René Girard, to a wider public. In addition, he is known for his firm but patient insistence on truthfulness in matters gay as an ordinary part of basic Christianity, and for his pastoral outreach in the same sphere.
Elaine Padilla is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Latinx/Latin American Studies. Padilla constructively interweaves current philosophical discourse with Christianity and Latino/a religious thought, mysticism, ecology, gender, and race. She is the author of Divine Enjoyment: A Theology of Passion and Exuberance, and co-editor of a three-volume project with Peter C. Phan, Theology and Migration in World. She serves in various steering committees in the American Academy of Religion and she’s a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
Linda Kay Klein is a storyteller for social good best known for her work on purity culture. She provides deconstruction & purity culture recovery coaching for both individuals and groups and is the founder & president of Break Free Together, a nonprofit storytelling organization dedicated to helping people release shame and claim their whole selves. This work was born out of Linda’s 16 years of research for her award-winning book, Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free. Linda has spoken around the world from the TEDx stage to The Apollo’s Women of the World Festival. Her work has been featured by the New York Times, NPR, CBS, NBC, Elle Magazine, and 150 other outlets.
Tickets for the event through Eventbrite:
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Your God is Too Small
October 1, 2021, 5:00 PM (Central Time) via Zoom
Co-hosted by the Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science (CASIRAS) and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC)
Guy J. Consolmagno, SJ will present “Your God Is Too Small.” The contrast between “the World” and “the Cosmos” is becoming blurred, even as we are learning just how big the Cosmos is. We need to understand that all those other planets are real places, part of the same universe created by God and redeemed by the Incarnation. And God is Creator not only of other places but other times, before and beyond the time when we exist here on Earth. In the face of this immensity in time and space, from the Big Bang to the Heat Death of the Universe, what does it means to be a creature, and to be redeemed by the risen Christ? And in that light, can we appreciate all the more the words of the Psalmist: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
Br. Guy J. Consolmagno, SR, Director of the Vatican Observatory, is known for his ability to communicate complex topics clearly to a general audience. He received the 2014 Carl Sagan Medal for outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public from the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences. He is the author or co-author of four books exploring faith and science issues, including, “Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?” (with Paul Mueller), “God’s Mechanics”, “Brother Astronomer”, and “The Way to the Dwelling of Light”.
“It is rare to find someone so accomplished in science, theology, and philosophy, who can also communicate complex topics clearly to a general audience. Br. Guy is one of the best story-tellers I’ve ever known,” said Grace Wolf-Chase, senior scientist and senior education and communication specialist at the Planetary Science Institute.
This Webinar is FREE, but registration is required:
https://www.lstc.edu/news-events/events/casiras-lecture
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The Clash between Personal Freedom and Social Responsibility
Monday Evenings, September 13, 20, & 27, 2021, 6:00 – 7:30 PM (Eastern Time) via Zoom
Hosted by National United Methodist Church (Washington, D.C.)
The dilemma of personal freedom vs. social responsibility bears on many of the societal issues we face today. There will be three sessions within the framework of this topic on the question of the prerogatives and limitations of personal freedom. Background for the initial session on September 13 will be the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (found at the end of this newsletter). Article One of the Declaration states “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Given that mandate, how is the principle of personal freedom to be implemented and defended? We will discuss three distinct issues within this broad framework:
September 13: Vaccinations during the current pandemic
September 20: Abortion in the context of the new Texas Law
September 27: Gun possession and the spike in gun violence
This class will have participants from across all four time zones in the United States. All interested persons are welcome. To register, please send an email with your name and geographical location to Maynard Moore at emaynard8@yahoo.com
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News from The Clergy Letter Project
Thoughts on the Relationship between Science and Faith
Tony Mitchell, a long-time friend of The Clergy Letter Project, has written a moving essay entitled “No One Told Me.” He makes the case, as well as anyone I’ve seen, that you don’t have to choose between religion and science. His message, obviously, is one that is at the heart of The Clergy Letter Project. He concludes his piece with another important point that is central to The Clergy Letter Project: “I will never, I hope, tell you what to believe or say that your belief system does not work. I am still learning about my faith, so I am not able to tell you how to find yours. But I will help you find the way to the answers.” You can read Tony’s full essay on his blog “Thoughts From The Heart On The Left.” I’m delighted to say that the piece will also be published in the Fall issue of God and Nature, a publication of the American Scientific Affiliation.
Grace Wolf-Chase Talks with Sinai and Synapses
If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of the ideas and wisdom offered by Grace Wolf-Chase. Well Sinai and Synapses, our sister organization, has just the thing for you! An interview with Grace has recently been posted and you won’t want to miss it.
Read more from the Clergy Letter Project:
http://www.theclergyletterproject.org/Resources/aug2021newsletter.html
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Thoughts on Meditation in Christian Practice, Rev. Dr. Dawn Stewart
As a person of faith, I know the power of prayer. But I struggle with the disciplines of listening, of letting go, of mindfulness, of loving kindness. Some in the Christian religion have dismissed meditation as navel gazing or less faithful than other modes of prayer. In this season of struggle and busyness in our world, I am finding new reservoirs of focus and freedom through the practice of meditation. And science confirms that meditation helps our brains. Check out this article about The Power of Meditation from BrainFacts.org and take some time to “be still and know”.