There was a time when science and theology were good friends, understood in some circles as two windows each seeking truth. In those days, each discipline with its own discrete methodology fed and often challenged the other. Over the centuries, the relationship went through some bad patches, but a renaissance is afoot in the past fifty years or so, and has been steadily gaining momentum.
For me, one of the most riveting and inspiring stories is that of Georges LeMaître, a Belgian cosmologist and Roman Catholic priest, who insisted – as have many other Christian scientists – that there was no conflict between faith and science. His mentor, the distinguished astronomer Arthur Eddington, called the attention of other cosmologists to a seminal but unnoticed paper written by LeMaître in 1927. Together with Edwin Hubble’s observations, using the world’s largest telescope, LeMaître’s paper convinced the majority of astronomers that the universe was indeed expanding, and this revolutionized the study of cosmology.
Exploring the work and thought of men and women who, like LeMaître, expanded the parameters of God’s revelation, seems like a worthy project, especially when it’s tuned into seminary education which, through no fault of its own, has sometimes been missing this extravagantly exciting link.
Doris Donnelly
The Cardinal Suenens Center
John Carroll University
Biography
Doris Donnelly is a professor of Theology at John Carroll University and the Director of The Cardinal Suenens Center in Theology and Church Life established in 1998 with a gift from Mrs. J. Peter Grace of New York City. The Center serves to keep alive the unfinished agenda of the Second Vatican Council through conferences and “Living Water” awards to those who have served the spirit of VCII with distinction. She is the mother of two grown adults and four grandchildren, so far. She is also the author or principal editor of eight books including Learning to Forgive (Macmillan, 1979), Mary: Woman of Nazareth (Paulist, 1985), Spiritual Fitness (Harper San Francisco, 1993), Retrieiving Charisms for the Twenty-First Century (Paulist, 1996), Jesus: A Colloquium in the Holy Land (Continuum, 1999) and the forthcoming Sacraments and Justice (Liturgical Press, 2015). She is an editor, along with others, of the proceedings of two conferences sponsored by the Suenens Center: The Holy Spirit, the Church and Christian Unity (Peeters, 2002), and The Belgian Contribution to the Second Vatican Council (Peeters, 2005) Her articles have appeared in Commonweal, America, Worship, Theology Today, Publisher’s Weekly, Reader’s Digest (32 International editions) and the Wall Street Journal; her speeches have been published in Origins, published at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. She has served as president of Pax Christi USA and as president of the North American Academy of Liturgy.
For full c.v.: http://facultymedia.jcu.edu.s3.amazonaws.com/sneconference/files/2014/01/cv-publications-Doris-Donnelly.pdf