ISSR Events
Here are events ISSR is planning, leading, sponsoring, or taking part in.
Details of the Boyle Lectures, upcoming and past, are on the Boyle Lectures page.
Upcoming
AAR 2026 – Denver
For AAR 2026, ISSR will be hosting the following two events:
Historical and Philosophical Science-Engaged Theology (HPSET)
The panel asks what it looks like for theologians to engage with science critically rather than naively. Science-engaged theology has faced criticism for scientism and methodological neglect, and the panel argues that the history and philosophy of science offer the resources to address those worries. Panelists work out the idea through specific theological problems: providence, comparative theology, original sin, and confessional theology in the Wesleyan tradition.
- Presider: J. Matthew Ashley (Santa Clara)
- Papers: Eugenia Torrance (Oxford), Josh Reeves (Samford), Matthew Gummess (Notre Dame), Simeon Zahl (Cambridge), Logan Patriquin (Notre Dame)
- Respondent: Joanna Leidenhag (Cambridge)
Panel on the work of Simon Conway Morris
Peter Harrison is organizing this panel on the work of Simon Conway Morris, the recent Templeton Prize laureate. Simon will attend, and the John Templeton Foundation will cover his travel.
The Turn to Spirituality: Varieties of Spiritual Experience
A conference is being planned for June 2027 in the UK titled “The Turn to Spirituality: Varieties of Spiritual Experience,” as the culmination of the current ISSR research grant. More information will be added as this develops.
Centre for Science and Faith, Copenhagen
ISSR will join the Centre for Science and Faith in Copenhagen in organising a one-day symposium on Thursday 27th August 2027 on “Can Spiritualities be Compared? Can their Effects be Measured”, with presentations arising from the ISSR research project by Fraser Watts, John A. Groeger, and Harris Wiseman, and a response from Tobias Anker Stripp. The day will also include a presentation on “Spiritual Health: Being Connected” by Tobias Anker Stripp, Per Torp Sangil, and Niels Henrik Gregersen. This will be followed on Friday, 28th August, by the Annual Symposium of the Centre for Science and Faith, on “Biology, Psychology and Spirituality”.
AAR 2027 – Washington, DC
ISSR will also have a presence at AAR in Washington, DC, from November 20–23, 2027.
Past
ESSSAT 2026 – Lost in Translation?
ISSR supported the ESSSAT conference in Leeds, UK, in August 2026, titled “Lost in Translation? Celebrating Language Diversity in Science and Religion,” where the winners of the 2026 Book Prize were announced. There were also two ISSR-led sessions, with Fraser Watts speaking on “Varieties of Spiritual Practice: A Psychological Approach” arising from ISSR’s current SORSE research grant, and Niels Henrik Gregersen speaking on “Ecology between Religions and Sciences: ISSR’s focus on lived ecologies”, arising from ISSR’s ecological priority area (which was the theme of our 2025 conference, see below).
ISSR one-day conference, Bangalore
ISSR held a one-day conference in Bangalore on Friday, 28th November 2025, chaired by Professor Brandon Vaidyanathan and attended in person by most ISSR Fellows in India and by Dr Fraser Watts online, to review science and religion activities in India and discuss their distinctive focus and prospects for the future. That meeting followed a public panel discussion on science and spirituality on Thursday, November 27th, at the National Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Bangalore, organized by Dr. Sangeetha Menon, and linked to a grant held by Dr Brandon Vaidyanathan on Spiritual Yearning in Science.
ISSR 2025 Summer Conference – Ecology between Religions and Sciences: Minds and Bodies in Nature
ISSR hosted a summer conference from 30 June to 03 July 2025. This conference was in response to our new priority research area on ecology and the environment. Video of the Plenary talks are available on our YouTube channel.
ESSSAT 2024 – Sciences, Theologies, fictions
ISSR supported the ESSSAT conference in Split, Croatia, in September 2024, titled “Sciences, Theologies, fictions: The construction of narrative in science and religion,” where the winners of the 2024 book prize were announced. There was also an ISSR symposium on narrative in science and religion, chaired by the President of ISSR, which is available to watch on our YouTube channel.
ISSR 2023 Summer Conference – Artificial and Spiritual Intelligence
ISSR will be hosting its first conference since 2019 this coming 20-23 June 2023. Part of the Understanding Spiritual Intelligence grant ISSR has been issued by TWCF. We have a general, open Call for Papers for anyone working on the intersection of science, religion, and artificial and/or spiritual intelligence from now until 14 February 2023. Please see the conference page for more information and submission details.
ISSR 2022 AGM
ISSR will be hosting its 2022 AGM on 07 September at 15.00pm (BST). Subscribed members will receive additional details, including documents and Zoom links, by mid-August. Please watch your email for updates.
ESSSAT 2020 (Delayed to June 2021)
ISSR is joining with ESSSAT for their conference on “Creative pluralism: Images and Models in Science and Religion”. 29 April – 2 May 2020, Los Negrales, Madrid.
ISSR members will be able to register at the same reduced rate as ESSSAT members.
AAR 2020 (online)
AAR will be online this year due to COVID-19. ISSR is pleased to be participating again this year under these new circumstances. We are hosting two sessions, plus announcing the winners of our first annual book prize. If you have registered and are attending AAR 2020, our two events are taking place Tuesday 01 Dec, 17:00-18:30EST, and Wednesday 02 Dec, 11:00-12:30EST. For more information on AAR this year, please see the AAR 2020 site.
ISSR London Lecture
We are hosting a lecture at the end of October on our Religion, Evolution and the Social Brain project by Prof. R. Dunbar. Details (PDF).
2019 AAR Annual Meeting
ISSR will again host events at this year’s AAR in San Diego.
2019 ISSR Summer Conference: Religion, Evolution, and Social Bonding
Please visit www.issrconference.org for abstracts, video of keynote speakers and more.
2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions
The Parliament will convene 2-6 November, Toronto.
2018 SASRF/ISSR Joint Conference: Being Human in a Technological Age
The conference will be held at the University of South Africa, Pretoria – September 6-7th, 2018.
2018 ESSSAT/ISSR Conference, Lyon: Nature and Beyond – Immanence and Transcendence in Science and Religion
The 2018 Conference of ESSSAT was organised in partnership with ISSR. It was held in Lyon, France – April 17th – 22nd, 2018.
ISSR Sessions at the Annual Meeting of AAR, 2017
ISSR hosted two events: “Attending to Symbiosis: Theology and the Connectedness of Nature” and “CRISPR/Cas and Human Germline Gene Editing: Possibilities and Perspectives”.
Joint Conference on Religion, Society & the Science of Life
ISSR is joining the Ian Ramsey Centre in Oxford in organising their annual summer conference in 2017, beginning on the evening of Wednesday 19 July 2017 and ending with breakfast on Sunday 22 July 2017.
IX Latin-American Conference on Science & Religion
ISSR will be joining the Centro de Estudios en Ciencia y Religión, at the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico and the Fundación DECYR, La Plata, Argentina.
ISSR Sessions at the Annual Meeting of AAR, 2016
ISSR is offering at least three sessions featuring new research in science and religion and held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
ISSR North American Regional Conference
The American Academy of Religion met in Atlanta, Georgia and once again ISSR held a 24-hour mini-conference to take place on the eve of the annual meeting.
ISSR Vienna Conference
ISSR collaborated with Sigmund Freud University in Vienna to organize an International Congress during 27–29 August 2015 on Science and/or Religion: A 21st Century Debate.
American Regional Meeting
The ISSR sponsored a 24-hour conference on the eve of the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, which was held in San Diego in late November.
New Challenges in Science & Religion
A North American regional meeting associated with the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. Speakers included Theology & Science Editors Ted Peters, Robert Russell and Joshua Moritz; Philip Clayton, Ronald Cole-Turner…
Human Nature & Embodied Cognition Conference
A conference on the theme of ‘Human Nature and Embodied Cognition’ convened as part of the ISSR project on ‘Human Nature and Embodied Cognition: Perspectives from Science and the World’s Religions’.
Science, Culture & Modernity Conference
The Belief in Dialogue: Science, Culture & Modernity Conference was jointly organised by the British Council, in partnership with the American University of Sharjah and in association with the International Society for Science and Religion. The conference forms part of the British Council’s global Belief in Dialogue programme.
God & Physics Conference
Incorporating an 80th birthday celebration of the work of John Polkinghorne, a book of the conference’s main papers, together with the best essays from an associated essay competition, has been edited by Fraser Watts and Christopher C. Knight.
Evolution, Religion & Suffering
The focus of the first day of the conference was on the Evolution of Religion, developing a critical evaluation and moving towards an alternative approach to currently prevailing views. The second day covered a variety of topics and on the last day of the conference, there was an examination of the reception of Darwin in different world faith traditions.
Understanding Humans in a Scientific Age
The 2006 conference focused on one of the prime issues of the current dialogue of science and theology, and some of its main contributions are to be incorporated in a book edited by Nancey Murphy and Christopher C. Knight, Human Identity at the Intersection of Science, Technology & Religion (Ashgate 2010).
Creation: Probability & Law
In 2004, with its second conference in Boston, ISSR consolidated its presence in the science-religion field, the event culminating in a highly publicized public lecture by three Templeton Prize-winning ISSR members.
Granada Conference
ISSR held the first of its bi-annual conferences in Granada, Spain. Here, ISSR met as a learned Society in an academic environment for the first time and in so doing clearly established itself on the ‘Science and Religion map’.
