metanexus conference next week in philadelphia

Because I am a board member, I have been asked to chair a session of the 8th annual Metanexus International Conference on Science and Religion. I have presented at several of these conferences before and I find them fascinating, if only because I get to see how very wide and varied the field of Science and Religion has become. It is unusual to find so much interdisciplinary work presented at an academic conference. Perhaps it is just Jewish studies, but my experience at the AJS has been that academic work is organized on the "silo" model. Each field has their own little world and panels will present four people from that world digging down deep into their own particular interest. People are mostly trained in the same disciplines, and they mostly investigate smaller topics(e.g. Rambam's view of Revelation.) At Metanexus, people run with the biggest possible questions and the widest of perspectives, even within a given paper.
The disadvantage of such an approach is that one may sacrifice depth for bredth. As William Sloan Coffin so memorably put it, one can go "a mile wide and an inch deep."
On the other hand, it makes for an exhilarating few days of learning, and if there is a bit of a "flake factor" that is the price one pays for pushing the envelope. As a teacher once told me, you have to go out on a limb sometimes to get the sweetest fruit. And sometimes you just fall off the tree...

So, here is the information on the panel I am chairing next Tuesday at U of Pa.

There will be four papers. Here's what I know so far:

1)Applying Relational and Contextual Reasoning(RCR)to understand human-divine relationships: Psychological, Biological and Theological Perspectives

The co-authors are a clinical psychologist from Australia and a systematic theologian from New Zealand.

The Thesis: Recent neurobiological research reinforces what psychology has known for a long time--the critical importance of attachment relationships for optimum psychological/brain development. God may function as an attachment figure. We now have psychological, biological and theological accounts of attachment relationships with God. Can we develop a "trans account?" No small pay off here. "Implications of a coordinated model of the development and functioning of an attachment relationship with God for spiritual transformation, ethical conduct and intuition of relational ontology are outlined." Whew!

2)Quest for Unity: Religious Specifics of a Universal Psychological Function written by a professor of Psychology from Belgium. The title is a translation of the French title, "Quete d'unite: Specificite religieuse d'une fonction non necessairement religieuse."

The Thesis: The need and quest for "unity" may be one of the psychological categories the study of religious experience can offer to mainstream psychology to widen our understanding of human beings. The author's understanding of the "need for unity" will go beyond Freud's "oceanic feeling" and look more broadly at religious experiences and delve deeper into the psychic explanation for the need for unity.

3)Ways of Knowing: The Scientific Study of Religiosity as Relationality, prepared by two Psychology PhD scholars , a psychiatrist trained in psychoanalysis, and a person with a b.a. in psych and an m.a. in religion.

Thesis: Scientists have dismissed as pathological or at least irrational claims by religious people to have meaningful encounters with non-human beings--God, angles, ancestors, sentient trees, etc. People all over the world clearly recognize sentience, agency, intentionality, presence and communicative abilities in a variety of other than human "persons." Perhaps personhood has been too narrowly construed in the social sciences. Martin Buber helps the authors move toward a way of understanding the "unity of knowledge" that will include the religious way of knowing.

4)Transdisciplinarity and the Development of an Integrated Model of Personhood, Health and Wellness, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, with a joint appointment in African American Studies and Religious Studies(he also teaches courses in the Social Justice track). Working to develop the "Life Sciences and Faith Community Forum of Central Virginia." His book is on Cornel West and "prophetic pragmatism"--I think I need to check that out!

Thesis: In order to construct a health care system that puts a premium on health and wellness promotion, we need to move beyond the culturally dominant model of personhood, health and wellness. We need a holistic model of health and wellness promotion and this can be achieved(simply!) by developing a)a transdisciplinary approach to knowledge production; b)trans-institutional and extra-institutional community cooperation; c)a co-evolutionary relational ontology of personhood;d) a cultural-spiritual ethic of practical compassion,harmonious co-existence and social justice. (I am ready to sign up for that.)

We'll see how much wisdom can be gained from all this interdisciplinarity. I look forward to the two and a half hours of talk with all these scholars!