Religion and Science in Pastoral Dialogue

The annual Theology and Ministry Forum, co-sponsored by the Community of Christ Seminary and Graceland University, returned to the university’s Lamoni, Iowa, campus the second weekend in February. Approximately 200 members and friends of the church registered for one of the most stimulating gatherings since the first such meeting (known then as a colloquy) in September 1992.

Perhaps the most memorable of the many presentations at the forum came Saturday evening with the plenary address by Laurie Gordon, titled “Evolution and the Tree of Life: The Theological Promise of Radical Kinship.” She is uniquely qualified to address this topic. For more than 30 years she has been a research biologist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she was a member of the team that mapped and sequenced human chromosome 19 for the Human Genome Project. As well, she has a master’s degree in Christian spirituality from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. A high priest in the Community of Christ, she also serves as a member of the Spiritual Formation Committee.

Her address offered a far-deeper understanding and a more creative approach than is typically presented as “evolution versus creationism” or “Darwinism versus Intelligent Design.” There is a “profound sense of interrelatedness” to all living things in our world, she said. “One family tree unites all of life.” She opened her address with a powerful, poetic overview of the unfolding of the universe, beginning with the “Big Bang,” while Graceland student Josh Shipley offered his artistic interpretation in a large chalk drawing. David Heinze added to the moment with guitar playing.

The Friday evening to Sunday morning sessions included four other major addresses. Nancy Howell, professor of theology and philosophy of religion at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri, and an adjunct faculty member in bioethics at the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, spoke on “Tending and Attending Nature.” Church appointee Jerry Nieft, who received a doctorate in science education from the University of Kansas and previously headed Temple School at International Headquarters, spoke on “Peaceful Dialogue between Science and Faith Traditions as a Component to Pastoral Care.”

Bob Mesle, chair of the department of philosophy and religion at Graceland and a leading expert on process philosophy, set the tone for the weekend with his Friday evening address, “Religious Naturalism: Seeking the Welfare of Children within the Limits of Nature Alone.” The weekend concluded with a Sunday morning worship service and a sermon by Becky Savage, a member of the Community of Christ First Presidency. A member of the Presidency traditionally addresses the forum each year.

Three separate sessions offered a wide range of concurrent presentations by the following: Priscilla Eppinger, Stephen Donahoe, Barry Murphey, Larkin A. Powell, Bill Henson, James M. Phillips, Jared K. Nieft, Ronald Dawbarn, Richard E. Gillilan, William T. Higdon, and Garth Resch. Many of the concurrent and plenary addresses will be published by the Community of Christ Seminary and made available later this year.

—Richard Brown reporting
March 2008 Herald