Common Places

The world known to the sciences spans a vast range of phenomena that often seem strange and unfamiliar compared to the ordinary everyday world in which we live. Furthermore, many people think that science and Christian faith conflict with one another. The two talks of this series look at how we might think about these matters holistically using the resources within the Christian tradition. The first talk, “Word,” will examine some characteristics of contemporary science and look at the similar yet different ways we come to knowledge in the scientific and Christian communities. The second talk, “Fire,” will look at the classical philosophical/theological notion of creation ex nihilo, drawing especially upon the perspectives of Thomas Aquinas to articulate the relation between God and the world. The created order in which we participate is a gift where the different knowledge from the sciences and from revelation can cohere and all things hold together in Christ.