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The International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) is pleased to present the ISSR 2025 Boyle Lecture Discussion, which was recorded live following the Premiere of the 2025 Boyle Lecture on YouTube.

The discussion included:
The Most Reverend Dr Antje Jackelén, Archbishop Emerita of Uppsala and Primate Emerita of Sweden
https://www.ctr.lu.se/en/person/antjejackelen/

Professor Arthur Petersen, Professor of Science, Technology and Public Policy, University College London
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/steapp/people/professor-arthur-petersen-0

Professor Noreen Herzfeld, Saint John's University
https://www.csbsju.edu/theology/person/noreen-herzfeld/

and

Professor and Chair of Nanomaterials Andrew Briggs, University of Oxford
https://andrewbriggs.org/

These live discussions emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic when ISSR hosted an entirely digital Boyle Lecture led by the late Tom McLeish in 2021. Since then, ISSR has maintained the Digital Lecture and Discussion so all can enjoy this prestigious event and the accompanying conversations. All of the Digital Lectures and Discussions can be found on our YouTube channel.

The original Boyle Lectures were given as a series of sermons at several churches in London and Westminster following their establishment in 1692. The ‘original Boyles’ lasted until about 1730, although sporadic later ‘Boyle Lectures’ continued to be given in the centuries since then. The lecture series was revived in 2004 at one of its original locations, the Wren church of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside in the City of London, where it continues to be hosted each year.

Prior Boyle Lectures before 2021 can be found on St Mary-le-Bow’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/stmarylebow

The International Society for Science and Religion was founded in 2002 to promote education through interdisciplinary learning and research in the field of science and religion, conducted in an international and multi-faith context. To find out more about ISSR, please visit our website here: https://www.issr.org.uk/

ISSR is thankful to all who continue to make the Boyle Lectures and Discussions possible each year.

Anthony K Nairn
www.anthonynairn.com
ISSR Executive Assistant
www.issr.org.uk

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The International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) is pleased to present the 2025 Boyle Lecture, which was given by The Most Reverend Dr Antje Jackelén, Archbishop Emerita of Uppsala and Primate Emerita of Sweden, on:

“Science, Technology, Theology and Spirituality — A Necessary Partnership?”

This year's Response was given by Professor Arthur Petersen, Professor of Science, Technology and Public Policy, University College London.

The original Boyle Lectures were given as a series of sermons at several churches in London and Westminster following their establishment in 1692. The ‘original Boyles’ lasted until about 1730, although sporadic later ‘Boyle Lectures’ continued to be given in the centuries since then. The lecture series was revived in 2004 at one of its original locations, the Wren church of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside in the City of London, where it continues to be hosted each year. We are grateful to St Mary-le-Bow the Rector, Revd George Bush, the Parish Council, and the Boyle Lecture Trustees for their continued support and guidance.

Since the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Boyle Lectures (available on our channel) have been offered online for all to listen to, learn from, and enjoy this most prestigious lecture series.

Prior Boyle Lectures before 2021 can be found on St Mary-le-Bow’s YouTube channel.

The International Society for Science and Religion was founded in 2002 to promote education through interdisciplinary learning and research in the field of science and religion, conducted in an international and multi-faith context. To find out more about ISSR, please visit our website here: https://www.issr.org.uk/

ISSR is thankful to all who continue to make the Boyle Lectures possible each year.

Anthony K Nairn
www.anthonynairn.com
ISSR Executive Assistant
www.issr.org.uk

Send us a text

Welcome back to the ISSR Podcast.

For many years, ISSR has had a presence at the AAR/SBL annual conference. In November 2024, ISSR was again at the San Diego, California conference. ISSR is pleased to bring you our sessions from this massive conference for the first time.

This panel was titled "Author Meets Critics Book Panel: Climate, God and Uncertainty by Arthur Petersen." Referring mainly to works by Latour, William James and Heinrich Rickert, Petersen develops ‘transcendental naturalism’ to reinterpret the interface between science and politics in the context of climate change. He highlights, for instance, issues such as the religious disenchantment of nature, the scientific disbelief in a plurality of value-laden perspectives, and the disregard for non-modern worldviews in politics. In developing its argument, the book makes a methodological intervention on the sort of naturalism that guides both Latour’s work and a large part of the academic field called ‘science and religion’.

The panel consisted of:

Dr Pete Jordan - https://www.theology.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-pete-jordan

Dr Josh A. Reeves - https://www.samford.edu/arts-and-sciences/directory/Reeves-Josh

Dr Bethany Sollereder - https://edwebprofiles.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-bethany-sollereder

Prof Whitney Bauman - https://sipa.fiu.edu/people/faculty/religious-studies/bauman.whitney.html

Prof. Dr. Gijsbert van den Brink - https://vu.nl/en/research/scientists/gijsbert-van-den-brink

Prof Lisa Sideris - https://es.ucsb.edu/people/lisa-sideris

And the book's author, Prof Arthur Petersen - https://www.ucl.ac.uk/steapp/people/professor-arthur-petersen-0

Each panellist critically evaluated themes in the book, with Petersen responding at the end.

ISSR was established as an elite academic society to foster global and multi-faith perspectives on the intersection of science and religion. We invite you to learn more about us and consider becoming an Associate member by visiting our website: https://www.issr.org.uk.

Thank you for joining us, and we’ll see you next time on the ISSR Podcast.

Anthony K Nairn
www.anthonynairn.com
ISSR Executive Assistant
www.issr.org.uk

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The International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) was pleased to sponsor and attend the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT) 2024 conference in Split, Croatia.
https://www.esssat.net/next-conference

ISSR led the conference's first panel, discussing “Grand Narratives, Science, and Religion.” The panel was chaired by ISSR President Prof Niels Henrik Gregersen, with speakers ISSR Executive Secretary Prof Fraser Watts and ISSR Executive Assistant Anthony K Nairn. ISSR Fellow Dr Joanna Leidenhag responded to the panel.

https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/en/persons/niels-henrik-gregersen
http://www.fraserwatts.co.uk/
https://anthonynairn.com/
https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/3700/dr-joanna-leidenhag

ISSR was established as an elite academic society to foster global and multi-faith perspectives on the intersection of science and religion. We invite you to learn more about us and consider becoming an Associate member by visiting our website: https://www.issr.org.uk.

Anthony K Nairn
www.anthonynairn.com
ISSR Executive Assistant
www.issr.org.uk

Send us a text

The International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) was pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 ISSR Book Prize for Science and Religion, held on Saturday, 31 August 2024, at the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT) conference in Split, Croatia.
https://www.esssat.net/next-conference

Funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, the ISSR Book Prize is intended to understand ‘religion’ broadly and seek excellence in content and communication. We seek to reward books that make a significant contribution to the field, especially if they have the potential to take the field in new directions. We expect three books to be selected each year, one suitable for a general audience, one for an academic audience, and one for a professional audience.

For more information about the Book Prize and to find out how to nominate books, please visit this link: https://www.issr.org.uk/projects/issr-annual-book-prize/

Each year, we have awarded three prizes in distinct categories.

ISSR is pleased to have awarded the following authors the 2023 ISSR Book Prize on Science and Religion:

In the academic category – Peter N. Jordan for Naturalism in the Christian Imagination: Providence and Causality in Early Modern England. Cambridge University Press, 2022.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/naturalism-in-the-christian-imagination/5FA401FC6204EE99BE236155A17CE8F4

It is intriguing that the expansion of naturalism in 17th-century England arose within the Christian doctrine of providence, not in opposition to it. In this highly informative book, Peter Jordan shows how theologians and natural philosophers of this period wove naturalistic explanations into their Christian understanding of God’s activity in the world. The 17th-century discussion of providential naturalism is highly relevant to debates about religious naturalism in our own time.


In the category for a general readership – Philip Goff for Why? The Purpose of the Universe. Oxford University Press, 2023.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/why-the-purpose-of-the-universe-9780198883760?cc=gb&lang=en&

In this highly readable book, Philip Goff explores the purpose of the universe, starting from its remarkable fine-tuning. He argues for a close association between purpose and consciousness, and is dissatisfied with regarding fine-tuning as a brute fact. He argues against both traditional theism and various other non-traditional designers, and espouses a teleological cosmopsychism. Regardless of whether readers agree with that conclusion, this is a rigorous and brilliant examination of what can and can’t be concluded from the fine-tuning of the universe.


In the category for professionals and educators – Nicholas Spencer for Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science & Religion. OneWorld, 2023.

https://oneworld-publications.com/contributor/nicholas-spencer/

Spencer provides us with an impressive and sweeping overview of the complex historical relationship between science and religion in four parts: their early relationship up to 1600; how science developed within the framework of religion in the 17th century; how it broke away from its religious parent in the 19th century; and how science and religion have continued to be endlessly and fascinatingly entangled ever since This book has been widely praised as one of the best overviews of the history of science and religion to be published for many years.


ISSR was established as an elite academic society to foster global and multi-faith perspectives on the intersection of science and religion. We invite you to learn more about us and consider becoming an Associate member by visiting our website: https://www.issr.org.uk.

Anthony K

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The International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) is pleased to share the plenary talks from the 2023 Summer Conference on Artificial and Spiritual Intelligence.

Concluding a major research grant, generously funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation titled Understanding Spiritual Intelligence, the project aimed to understand spiritual intelligence by using AI to contribute constructively to the study of religion. The project explored five lines of enquiry: modelled the deployment of attention in spiritual practices, retrieved and developed Margaret Masterman’s work on religious language, used computational modelling to specify how spiritual reasoning might work, considered what is distinctive about human intelligence, and took steps towards building an artificial spiritual companion. The project team included experts in AI and religion/theology, including Lord Rowan Williams, Dr Iain McGilchrist, Dr Beth Singler, and the late Dr Yorick Wilks, among others.

The conference occurred from 20-23 June 2023 in Swindon, UK.

The second talk in this series of videos from the conference's plenary speakers is from Dr Iain McGilchrist, discussing “Who do we think we are?”

ISSR is an interdisciplinary academic society emphasizing learning and research in science and religion, and was established with a global and multi-faith perspective. We invite you to learn more about us and consider becoming an Associate member by visiting our website: https://www.issr.org.uk.

Anthony K Nairn
www.anthonynairn.com
ISSR Executive Assistant
www.issr.org.uk

Send us a text

The International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) is pleased to share the plenary talks from the 2023 Summer Conference on Artificial and Spiritual Intelligence.

Concluding a major research grant, generously funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation titled Understanding Spiritual Intelligence, the project aimed to understand spiritual intelligence by using AI to contribute constructively to the study of religion. The project explored five lines of enquiry: modelled the deployment of attention in spiritual practices, retrieved and developed Margaret Masterman’s work on religious language, used computational modelling to specify how spiritual reasoning might work, considered what is distinctive about human intelligence, and took steps towards building an artificial spiritual companion. The project team included experts in AI and religion/theology including Lord Rowan Williams, Dr Iain McGilchrist, Dr Beth Singler, and the late Dr Yorick Wilks, among others.

The conference took place from 20-23 June 2023 in Swindon, UK.

The first talk in this series of videos from the plenary speakers of the conference is from Lord Rowan Williams, discussing “Spirit and Ecology.”

ISSR is an interdisciplinary academic society which emphasizes learning and research in the fields of science and religion, and was established with a global and multi-faith perspective. We invite you to learn more about us and consider becoming an Associate member by visiting our website: https://www.issr.org.uk.

Anthony K Nairn
www.anthonynairn.com
ISSR Executive Assistant
www.issr.org.uk

Send us a text

The International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) is pleased to share a discussion with the award-winning authors for the 2023 ISSR Book Prize for Science and Religion.

Funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, we seek to reward books that make a major contribution to the field, especially if they have the potential to take the field in new directions.

For more information about the Book Prize and to find out how to nominate books, please visit this link: https://www.issr.org.uk/projects/issr-annual-book-prize/

ISSR is pleased to have awarded the following authors the 2023 ISSR Book Prize on Science and Religion:

In the academic category, the prize went to Jonathan Topham for Reading the Book of Nature: How Eight Bestsellers Reconnected Christianity and the Sciences on the Eve of the Victorian Age from the University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo173082681.html#:~:text=This%20series%20of%20eight%20works,beyond%20all%20expectations%2C%20the%20series

https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/143/professor-jon-topham

In the general readership category, the prize went to Andrew Briggs and Michael Reiss for Human Flourishing: Scientific Insight and Spiritual Wisdom in Uncertain Times from Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/human-flourishing-9780198850267?cc=us&lang=en&

https://andrewbriggs.org/

https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/48389-michael-reiss

In the category for professionals and educators, the prize went to Donovan Schaefer for Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin from Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/wild-experiment

https://rels.sas.upenn.edu/people/donovan-schaefer

Joining the Discussion are John Hedley Brooke, Russell Re Manning, Josh Reeves, Megan Ulishney, and the chair, Fraser Watt.

ISSR was established with a global and multi-faith perspective. We invite you to learn more about us and consider becoming an Associate member by visiting our website: https://www.issr.org.uk.

Thank you for joining us, and we’ll see you next time on ISSR In Conversation.

Anthony K Nairn
www.anthonynairn.com
ISSR Executive Assistant
www.issr.org.uk