Research Meetings of the Study Group for Science and Religion

Research Meetings of the Study Group for Science and Religion

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Kyoritsu Christian Institute Science and Religion Program
Tokyo Christian University
Inzai-City, Chiba Prefecture

Founded five years ago, this group of professors and scholars in fields of theoretical physics, agricultural science, medicine, engineering, linguistics, psychology, theology, and education, came together monthly to discuss and consider “problems of the person in the scientific age.” After spending the first three years addressing and overcoming the difficulties of interdisciplinary communication of concepts and definitions of technical terms, and developing a common language for collaborative work, the society began to move forward with planning as a research group. The next stage in development produced several books, elaborating concepts in science and faith applicable to Asian and Japanese realities and contexts. Also produced in this collaborative work were Japanese translations of Polkinghorne’s Belief in God in an Age of Science and McGrath’s Science and Religion. Through the LSI program, the group now expands its work to define and refine dialogue in consideration of themes such as emergent hermeneutics and philosophy, critical realism in science and religion, nature and society as complex system (ontology), and meaning, consciousness and perception (epistemology). Outreach invites the perspectives of scholars and student leaders from other institutions with complementary background and fields of expertise to contribute to the work. One of the aims of the project is to apply the consistency of the holistic theory of science and religion provided through emergent hermeneutics as a tool to provide novel insight into fields of biology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, ethics, evolution, and experimental sciences.