Individuals, families, churches, denominations, and the broader society are, in various ways, concerned with science, technology, and the Christian faith. These areas of life influence, interact with, and respond to each other. They are at the heart of PASTCF.
While ministers of Word and Sacrament, ruling elders, deacons, and laity are affected by and contend with the continuingly changing landscape of science, technology, and the Christian faith, so too do academics in a range of disciplines and fields of study.
In recent months, two professional organizations concerned with religion and ethics held their annual meetings. In late November, the American Academy of Religion (AAR) met in San Diego and the Society of Christian Ethics (SCE) gathered in Chicago in early January. In keeping with past practice, the AAR’s meeting was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the SCE’s meeting was held concurrently with the annual meetings of the Society of Jewish Ethics and Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics. While the AAR’s purview is quite wide, the SCE’s is more narrow and explicitly Christian. Even so, science and technology were the subjects of several paper presentations and panel discussions at both meetings.
This article calls attention to various ways science, technology, and religion in general, or the Christian faith in particular, were approached at the AAR and SCE, as a way to highlight some recent scholarship in these areas. The list below includes the titles of paper presentations, panel discussions, and other gatherings, along with brief descriptions of each.
At the annual meeting of the AAR, over a dozen paper presentations and panels discussion were devoted to one or more aspects of science and technology:
- Society of Christian Philosophers, Theme: Does Science Need Theology? A discussion of potential ramifications of “Why Science Needs Philosophy,” Lucis Laplane, et al, PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), March 5, 2019, 116 (10), 3948-3952, available online.
- Science, Technology, and Religion Unit, Theme: Author Meets Critics Book Panel: Critical Approaches to Science and Religion (Myrna Perez, Ahmed Ragab, and Terence Keel, eds.) Panel discussion and responses by two of the book’s editors, with attention to three methodological approaches used in the book to provide novel viewpoints on enduring questions pertaining to religion and science: critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and postcolonial theory.
- Cognitive Science of Religion Unit, Theme: Current Theories and Applications of the Cognitive Science of Religion. An international panel focused on leading-edge research that employs up-to-date cognitive theories in the study of religion and associated observable facts or events.
- Science, Technology, and Religion Unit, Theme: Author Meets Critics: Peter Harrison’s Some New World: Myths of Supernatural Belief in a Secular Age (Cambridge University Press, 2024). Critical consideration of Harrison’s most recent book, with the author responding.
- International Society for Science and Religion, Theme: Religion and Science Hospitality Event. Reception and informal discussion sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation and hosted by Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, International Society for Science and Religion. Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, The Zygon Center for Religion and Science, and CASIRAS (Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science).
- International Society for Science and Religion, Theme: Book panel discussion on God and the Book of Nature: Experiments in Theology of Science, ed. Mark Harris (Routledge, 2024). A group of commentators discussed a recently published collection of essays that resulted from collaboration between academics in various disciplines, working at over ten universities in Europe and the U.S. and associated with the “God and the Book of Nature” project.
- Teaching Religion Unit and Transformative Scholarship and Pedagogy Unit, Theme: Resisting Climate Violence through Science-Engaged Theological Education. A symposium of faculty who were part of the initial grant from the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion’s (DoSER’s) “Climate Science in Theological Education project.” DoSER itself is a project of The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
- Ethics Unit, Theme: Technology as an Existential Threat. Papers by five professors on a diverse set of topics related to how various technologies present threats to human existence.
- Body and Religion Unit, Theme: Bioenhancement Technologies and the Vulnerable Body. A conversation among participants from various religious traditions who emphasize the importance of the perspectives that minority individuals and communities provide into biomedical enhancement technologies.
- Chinese Religions Unit and Indian and Chinese Religions in Dialogue Unit, Theme: Bodies and Technologies of Reproduction. Scholars focused on a range of subjects, societies, and eras converse about the human body and technologies related to reproduction.
- Religion and Science Fiction Unit and Teaching Religion Unit, Theme: Imagining Other Worlds: Teaching Religious Studies and Ethics Through Science Fiction. Panelists explored the pedagogical potential of science fiction for teaching about religion and ethics.
- Artificial Intelligence and Religion Exploratory Session, Theme: Understanding Artificial Intelligence and Religion: Theoretical Explorations. An exchange about ways various aspects of religion influence and are influenced by AI, especially sympathetic care of those with dementia, the concept of “special things” advanced by Ann Taves, and the potential benefit of applying AI to the analysis of certain aspects of religious rituals.
- Human Enhancement and Transhumanism Unit, Theme: Justice, (In)humanity, and Moral Reasoning in Technological Enhancement. Three papers investigated different facets of seeing the transhuman as a topic urgently needing moral consideration: approached by questioning the notion of moral progress regarding race and slavery, destructive inferences deriving from Nietzsche’s concept of “superhuman”, and African traditions’ paucity of interest in human enhancement.
Technology and Artificial Intelligence were center stage for five papers presented at the SCE’s 2025 annual meeting, whose authors approached those features of contemporary life from various perspectives.
- Health Care Ethics: A Conversation with Luca Valera on NeuroRights. Luca Valera, Universidad de Valladolid; Ben Parks, Mercy College.
- Evangelical Ethics: Restlessness and Belonging: Autumn Ridenour on Augustinian Wisdom for the Digital Empire. Autumn Alcott Ridenour, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; Toni Alimi, Cornell University; Conor M. Kelly, Marquette University.
- Neuroethics and Theology Interest Group: Losing Our Minds? Ethical, Philosophical, and Theological Questions Regarding Artificial Intelligence and Neurotechnology. Pablo Rivas, Baylor University; Joseph M. Vukov, Loyola University Chicago; Paul Scherz, University of Notre Dame.
- A Christian, Ethical Response to Brain Computer Interfaces like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Myriam Renaud, DePaul University.
- Bending the Biotechnological Arc Back Toward Justice: A Critique of Historic and Contemporary Rhetorics of Scientific Progress. Emma McDonald Kennedy, Villanova University.
SCE annual meetings also include opportunities to have conversations with authors, who are SCE members, about books they published the previous year. These breakfast gatherings are held in a large room in which each table is designated for a specific book and author, who discusses his or her publication with a few others. At the 2025 meeting, three such conversations were held with authors whose 2024 books focus on science or technology:
- Architecture, Theology, and Ethics: Making Architectural Design More Just, Elise M. Edwards (Lexington Books)
- Encountering Artificial Intelligence: Ethical and Anthropological Investigations, Matthew J. Gaudet (Wipf and Stock)
- Ecological Moral Character: A Catholic Model, Nancy M. Rourke (Georgetown University Press)
For more information, see the SCE 2025 Program, available online:
https://soce.memberclicks.net/assets/2025AnnualMeeting/FULL_%20SCE%202025%20Final%20Program_v.12_1.8.25.pdf
