It happened on APRIL 10

1955


Pierre Teilhard de Chardin died on Easter day in New York. A Jesuit priest and paleontologist, he developed a line of thought that for the first time was capable of considering, in an organic and attractive way, cosmic and biological evolution within a Christian understanding of the world. His mystical writings and philosophy (which were in addition to his extensive, strictly scientific work) inspired, and continue to inspire, many contemporary authors regarding the dialogue between science and religion. Teilhard also exhibited the particularly Christian trait of evaluating the positive role of work and material things and man’s role in transforming the world. Some perplexing elements in his thought, along with some ambiguities, have led to reservations regarding a few theological-philosophical consequences that could be drawn from his writings.
 

2001
The senate of the Low Countries voted, after an intense legislative debate, to legalize euthanasia, i.e., medically assisted suicide. Aside from the obvious ethical problems that such a decision brings about on an institutional level, such a practice, like others we have seen in subsequent years, has put the nature of the medical profession itself up for debate. The medical profession’s original mission was always to seek out and cure the patient, notwithstanding the limits in science and technology in any given age, or certain moral limits, but it was never its aim to take away life.

INTERS.org

Science and Theology on the Metaphor of the Book of Nature

       

Augustine  of Hippo (354-430), On the Book of Nature, a selection of quotes

Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (1221-1274), selected texts on the Metaphor

The Understanding of the Book of Nature according to Galileo Galilei (1564- 1642)

Nature as a Book in Robert Boyle's Works (1627-1691)    

Book of Nature: Origin and Development of the Metaphor (2019), by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti

The Context of the Metaphor in Patristic and Medieval Theology (2020), by Oskari Juurikkala

Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science

The Encyclopedia, published by the Centro di Documentazione Interdisciplinare di Scienza e Fede operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, provides new, scholarly articles in the rapidly growing international field of Religion and Science (ISSN: 2037-2329). INTERS is a free online encyclopedia.

Anthology and Documents

To emphasize and spread relevant documents within the scientific community, this section provides key materials concerning the dialogue among science, philosophy and theology.

   

Special Issues

We offer here a selection of comments and documents on special issues in Religion and Science, collected for anniversaries and/or for the relevance of the topics.