Templeton Visiting Fellows to Latin America

Theology, Science, Truth and Belief

Rev Prof. Canon Graham Ward has been the Regius Professor of Divinity of the University of Oxford since 2012, arguably the most important academic position for a theologian in the UK. Before that, he was the Samuel Ferguson Professor of Philosophical Theology and Ethics and the Head of the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures at the University of Manchester. In Oxford, he is also the Director of Graduate Studies of the Theology and Religion Faculty and a fellow of Christ Church College. Prof. Ward has engaged with different fields of theology (especially postmodern theology and philosophy, psychoanalysis and cognitive sciences). He has written on the theology of language, postmodernism, cultural analysis and Christology. His most recent publications include How the Light Gets In: Ethical Life I and Unbelievable: Why We Believe and Why We Don’t, as well as having edited a number of book series on theology.

During Prof. Ward’s visit to Brazil he will be in direct and constant contact with the academic community of Faculdades EST, a leading theological institution in South America. He will participate with lectures and talks on multiple events of the 3rd. International Congress of Faculdades EST, where scholars and students from all continents will be present. He will also teach an intensive discipline for the students of the Masters and Doctorate in Theology of the institution and interact with the academic community in multiple Research Groups. He will be giving public lectures at the two largest private universities in the state – PUC-RS and Unisinos, both long time partners of EST in theologically related events. In total, he will have 8 formal opportunities to speak, to an estimated audience of 450 people. He will be hosted by Prof. Rudolf von Sinner, Professor of Systematic Theology, Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue, Director of the Institute of Ethics and Prof. Extraordinary in Stellenbosch, S. Africa, where Prof. Ward is also a visiting Professor.

Host University
Faculdades EST, Brazil

Host Scholar
Rudolf von Sinner

Ontology, Theism, and Natural Theology

Prof Frédéric Nef PhD, Prof Emeritus at EHESS, is member from 2002 of the Institut Jean-Nicod (research centre for cognitive studies) and Directeur d’Études (Full Research Professor) at EHESS (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales – School for the Higer Studies in Social Sciences) in charge of the doctoral program in Philosophy.

Professor Nef is recognized for his wide philosophical work, as well as his trilogy: La connexion, Vrin, Paris (Forthcoming); Les propriétés des choses, Expérience et logique, Vrin, Paris, 2006 and L’objet quelconque, Recherches sur l’ontologie de l’objet, Vrin, Paris, 1999.

Professor Nef will interact with teachers and students from more than 20 under & post philosophy local programs, to be invited. He will give a short course on some developments in contemporary ontology applied on the understanding of the reality of God. This course will be guided by the question: Is a naturalistic approach to God possible? Some topics to be addressed are: metaphysics and rationalism; natural theology and contemporary logic, Realism vs. Naturalism, truthmakers theory and theism, among others. Professor Nef will also lecture to the general public on his main research on metaphysics. His contributions will be central for our academic research group, LUMEN, with the current project “Metaphysics of the Human Person” and our future project “Cognition, Evolution and Theism”; and would feed the current debate between faith and reason.

Host Universities
Universidad Sergio Arboleda, Colombia
Fundaciòn Universitaria Monserrate, Colombia

Host Scholar
Liliana Irizar

Life in the Universe: Origin, Nature, and Meaning

Paolo Musso, philosopher of science, has investigated the roots of contemporary epistemological anti-realism and its relationships with modern rationalism and cultural relativism, publishing a book, “Science and the idea of reason”, for which in 2014 he has been accepted as a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Furthermore, he has studied modern science and its origins, especially cosmology, physics and bioastronomy, also being, from 2004 on, full member of the SETI Permanent Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics. The main topics of discussion during Dr Musso’s visit will be:

1. The relationships between the conditions required for the origin of life and the conditions required for the origin of universe.
2. The philosophical and religious implications of the possible existence of life in other parts of the universe.
3. The problem of the universality of reason, with a special focus on inter-cultural communication.

The main activities in which Dr Musso will be involved, both in Lima and the provinces, are:

1. Collaborative research work with Dr. Oliva about the origin of human soul in the context of cosmic evolution.
2. Collaborative research work on inter-culturality with the UCSS research group and some international experts.
3. Collaborative research work on cosmology for UCSS and UNIFÉ professors and students.
4. A course of specialization for professors in philosophy and theology.
5. Two seminars for school directors in Huanuco y Huancayo.
6. An international Congress.
7. Some talks for the general public.

Host Universities
Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae (UCSS), Peru
Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Corazón (UNIFÉ), Peru

Host Scholars
Jorge Oliva
Ángel Gómez Navarro

Cognitive Science and Christian Theology

Prof. Justin Barrett is a founding figure and leader in the field of cognitive science and religion. Author and editor of copious articles and several books—including “Cognitive Science, Religion and Theology” (Templeton Press) and the four-volume Routledge “Psychology of Religion”—Prof. Barrett was previously the Director of the “Cognition, Religion, and Theology Project” at the University of Oxford and research associate of the Ian Ramsey Centre; he now is the Thrive Chair of Developmental Science at Fuller Theological Seminary.

We propose to bring Prof. Barrett to Colombia to discuss the interface between cognitive science and Christian theology at leading Protestant and Catholic institutions. The host institution, the Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia (FUSBC), is Colombia’s top Protestant seminary. Prof. Barrett will offer a public lecture at FUSBC on the subject of his 2012 book “Born Believers”, to which we will invite local church leaders as well as faculty members from the psychology, theology, and education departments at local Catholic universities. Prof. Barrett will also offer a more advanced seminar on science and religion to the FUSBC students and faculty, and over the course of the rest of his time in Medellín he and his host, Dr Christopher M. Hays, would meet with a range of students and faculty to discuss science and religion and to explore future collaborative possibilities between Fuller Theological Seminary and FUSBC.

Prof. Barrett and Dr Hays will thereafter travel to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, where Prof. Barrett will to speak to the Colombian Philosophy, Science and Religion Network (led by Dr Carlos Miguel Gómez of the Universidad del Rosario). He will provide both a public lecture and a half-day seminar on how beliefs are formed and what are the philosophical and theological implications of the Cognitive Science of Religion.

Host Institution
Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia, Colombia

Host Scholar
Christopher M. Hays

Personal Identity and Agency

Dr Georg Gasser is a trained philosopher and theologian working at the Institute for Christian Philosophy, Innsbruck University. His areas of specialization are metaphysics, personal ontology, action theory and philosophical theology. We decided to invite this young and promising scholar because his broad research interests fit perfectly with ours and because of the chances to establish a long-term collaboration with him.

Dr Gasser will mainly engage with the interdisciplinary research group based at Universidad Austral. The group is formed by scientists, philosophers and theologians. Over the past two years the group has focused mainly on philosophical questions raised by life- and cognitive sciences, e.g. the nature of consciousness and naturalism, determinism and free agency or cognitive impairment and personhood.

The main activities of the visit are a ten-hour course and a two-day-workshop. Both activities are addressed to an interested scholarly audience from Austral and from other institutions in Argentina. The activities will focus on the importance of agency for personal identity by explicitly taking into consideration empirical research too. Sample questions to be tackled are: (i) Is our consciousness action oriented? (ii) Is agency a pre-condition for our sense of personal identity? (ii) How does work on intention formation relate to the personal identity debate? (iv) What do empirical accounts of second-person relatedness tell us about personal identity?  We expect to produce at least three manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals either in Spanish or in English resulting from Dr Gasser’s visit.

We intend to take occasion of his stay for reaching out to a broader audience too. We will record and upload a longer interview with him about the question how our pre-scientific concept of personhood is challenged by neuroscientific research and naturalistic interpretations thereof. Finally, a half day workshop with students is planned.

Host University
Universidad Austral, Argentina

Host Scholar
Juan Francisco Franck

Philosophy and the Limits of Science

Professor René van Woudenberg is professor of philosophy at VU University Amsterdam and the Director of the Abraham Kuyper Center for Science and Religion. Prof. van Woudenberg will help us in our beginning efforts to develop the study of the interaction between science and religion at the University of Costa Rica. He will be our guest speaker in our III Spirituality and Science Forum on The Limits of Science. He will also give two major lectures open to the public, and will have discussions with graduate students in science and their professors. We will take advantage of Prof. van Woudenberg’s visit to organise a research project on the interaction of science and religion, as well as to explore options with our university authorities to create new opportunities to do interdisciplinary work in this area. He will engage with our Spirituality and Science working group during several meetings, as well as the directors of different graduate programs in science and in philosophy.

Host University
Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica

Host Scholar
Luis Fernando Aragón-Vargas

The Unicity of the Living: From the Beginning of Life to the Formation of Habits

Francisco Güell is a Doctor of Philosophy from the Universidad de Navarra (UNAV), with undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Biology. Since 2011 he has been a member of the “Mind-Brain Group: Biology and Subjectivity in Philosophy and Contemporary Neuroscience,” a research project at the Instituto Cultura y Sociedad (ICS) at UNAV. As an Associate Professor of Philosophy at UNAV, he has been responsible for the subject “Scientific Rationality” in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Sciences; in the Master of Philosophy program he teaches the subject “Philosophical Anthropology”. Güell has been a visiting researcher at King’s College of London, Georgetown University and Stanford University. Besides serving as a speaker at numerous seminars, both nationally and internationally, he has been a guest lecturer at the Kennedy Institute of Bioethics, the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University, the University of Maastritch, Universidad Austral, and the School of Health and Social Care at Oxford Brookes University. Since 2009 he has been a professor in the Master of Bioethics Research program at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid. Author of “The biological and ontological status of the human embryo: the epigenetic paradigm of the 21st Century, from the theory of essence of Xavier Zubiri” (Peter Lang, 2013), he has specialized in the epistemology of biology and neurosciences; more specifically, he works on issues related to the genetic and epigenetic dimensions of organic development, and the characterization of the unicity of the living beings, in theories of mind and actions, as well as bioethical issues related to the pre-implanted embryo. Dr. Güell will interact with students and professors, both undergraduate and graduate levels, through several courses, seminars and simposia. He will also contribute in some publications and research projects.

Host University
Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla

Host Scholar
Héctor Velázquez Fernández

Towards an Integral Understanding of Reality: Science and religion in Dialogue

Prof. Dr. Dirk Evers holds the chair for Systematic Theology at Martin Luther Universität at Halle Wittenberg and is the current president of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT). He has published extensively on Science and Religion, particularly focusing on issues related to cosmology, evolutionary anthropology, modal logic, epistemology and ontology. In Colombia he will meet and work with the professors and students belonging to the Philosophy, Science and Religion Network, at which five of the most important national universities take part: Rosario, Javeriana, Nacional, Valle and Sabana. His main activities, aimed at impacting on a very large and diverse audience, are:

(1) A residential three-day workshop for 25 participants.

(2) The V Inter-University Colloquium of Science and Religion, which would take place during the VI Colombian Conference of Philosophy (10th -14th August, Barranquilla). This is the most important Philosophy Conference in Colombia and would give us the opportunity to interact with the philosophical community at large.

(3) Two public lectures in Bogotá, open to the general public and held in some of the universities of the Network.

Host University
Universidad del Rosario, Colombia

Host Scholar
Carlos Miguel Gómez Rincón