ADVANCED SEMINAR IN RELIGION AND SCIENCE – FALL 2017
EXPLORING THE BOOK OF URBAN NATURE
Chaired by Drs. Leonard Hummel and Lea Schweitz
Monday Evenings 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, September 11, 2016, through December 4, 2017
Room 201, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 1100 East 55th Street, Chicago, IL 60615
In his now classic work, Chance and Necessity, Jacques Monod provided an explanatory framework not only for the biological evolution of species, but, as has become recently apparent, for the evolutionary development of cancers. That is, contemporary oncological research has demonstrated that cancer is an evolutionary disease that develops according to the same dynamics of random occurrences and law-like regularities at work in all evolutionary phenomena. And just as various challenges are raised for religious studies by the dynamics of chance and necessity within biological evolution, so this particular question is raised by contemporary cancer science: Where is love, divine, and human, within the evolutionary chance and necessity operative in all dimensions of cancer?
In this course, we will consider the phenomenon of cancer as case-study to explore enduring issues in science and religion including race, racism, sex, sexism, evolution, creationism, neo-Darwinism, epigenetics, free-will, determinism. Through interdisciplinary pedagogy, the course aims to provide learners with an understanding of the problematics and promises for religious studies brought on by evolutionary theory not only for the case of cancer but all biological phenomena.
Offered by the Zygon Center for Religion and Science, the Advanced Seminar in Religion and Science is designed as a research seminar for faculty and graduate students. Course credit is available via registration through the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) or cross-registration through member schools of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools (ACTS); the course number is T-672/CC-672. For more information, please visit www.zygoncenter.org.
Advanced Seminar Schedule - Fall 2017
| Date | Time | Topic | Speaker |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 4, 2017 | Does Not Meet | Labor Day - No Class | NONE |
| September 11, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Introduction to Chance, Necessity, Love: An Evolutionary Theology of Cancer | Leonard Hummel, Pastoral Theology, Gettysburg Seminary and Zygon Center for Religion and Science |
| September 18, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Cancer as a Disease of Evolution | Jennifer Gubbels, endocrinology-reproductive physiology, Augustana University |
| September 25, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Acceptance and Hope Amid Cancer, Chance, and Necessity | Leonard Hummel, Pastoral Theology, Gettysburg Seminary and Zygon Center for Religion and Science |
| October 2, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Love in a World of Chance and Necessity | Leonard Hummel, Pastoral Theology, Gettysburg Seminary and Zygon Center for Religion and Science |
| October 9, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Screening of the Movie: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Director: George C. Wolfe |
| October 16, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Nanotechnology and Cancer | Koshonna Brown, immunology, Northwestern University |
| October 23, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | The Ragged Edges of Life: Where Theology, Medicine and Cancer Meet | Ann Pederson, religion and medical science, University of South Dakota |
| October 30, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Disparities in Cancer Research and Treatment | Raymond Wynn, radiation oncology, Loyola University |
| November 6, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Taming Cancer Chance: Epidemiology and Prevention | Gayle Woloschak, molecular biology, Northwestern University |
| November 13, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Hoping for More | Deanna Thompson, religion: African American Studies, Women studies and Social Justice, Hamline University |
| November 20, 2017 | Does not meet | No Lectures (Thanksgiving Recess at LSTC) | NONE |
| November 27, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | 500 Years Reformation Commemoration Lecture | Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of Uppsala, Lutheran (Church of Sweden) |
| December 4, 2017 | 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Student Project Presentations and Panel Discussion | Leonard Hummel, Pastoral Theology, Gettysburg Seminary and Zygon Center for Religion and Science |