Reach for the Stars!

Tomorrow, February 27, I'll be presenting a paper at the Student Symposium on Science and Spirituality at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago: "Reviving Public Theology: Integrative Approaches from the Parish". This paper is an account of a class I co-taught with Dr. Steven Bishop (Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UIUC) that tackled discrepancies between our modern view of "the stars in the sky" and those of the magi who appear in the nativity story of Matthew. The course itself was called "Reenter the Magi: Astrophysics, Faith, and the Hubble Space Telescope".
I can give you the gist of my paper here: for the sake of public discussion and public theology, the congregation must take it upon itself to provide education in both historical-literary critical approaches to the Bible--such as you are learning in Ootle15!--and modern scientific methods and discoveries. So many debates regarding public policy --on vaccination, climate change, marriage equality, the teaching of evolution, to name only four that have been prominent in the news lately-- require scientific literacy to understand and biblical hermeneutics to discuss, that responsible Christians must pursue lifelong education in both science and Bible.  Our class at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church was a preliminary attempt at this kind of congregational-level education.
Also, Dr. David Hogue will be delivering one of the Keynote addresses: "Because We Are: Practical Theology, Intersubjectivity and the Social Brain", and my fellow Garrett PhD student, Kwang Oh, will be speaking on "Brain as Technology: God's Creation, or Creation of a God?", so Garrett will be well represented!