ISSR Events
Here are many of the events ISSR is planning, doing, led, sponsored, or been part of.
All details about the Boyle Lectures, upcoming and past, are listed on the menu page above. Click here to be taken there now.
Upcoming Conferences and Events
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.
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.
ISSR will also have a presence at AAR in Washington, DC, from November 20–23, 2027.
ISSR will co-sponsor the 2026 ESSSAT conference held at Leeds, UK, on 19th to 23rd August 2026, at which there was an ISSR session on Thursday 20th August at which Professor Niels Henrik Gregersen gave a paper Ecology between Religions and Sciences: ISSR’s focus on lived ecologies, and Professor Fraser Watts gave a paper on Varieties of Spiritual Practice: A Psychological Approach, arising from our current research project. The ISSR Book Prizes for 2026 will be announced at the ESSSAT prize ceremony on Saturday, 22nd August.
ISSR will also 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”.
Past Conferences and Events
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.
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 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 click here for more information on the conference and for 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.
ISSR 2022 Boyle Lecture on Science and Religion
ISSR has successfully concluded the 2022 Boyle Lecture. Prof Christopher Southgate gave a wonderful lecture on “God and a World of Natural Evil: Theology and Science in Hard Conversation”, with a lively response from Dr Andrew Davison.
You can watch the Lecture on our YouTube channel by clicking here.
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.
ISSR is pleased to announce that the 2021 Boyle Lecture will be given by Professor Tom McLeish, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of York, on the subject of:
Rediscovering Science as Contemplation
The response this year will be given by The Rt Revd & Rt Hon The Lord Rowan Williams of Oystermouth.
The lecture will be given at 6.00 pm on Wednesday 3rd February 2021. However, due to the ongoing global pandemic, this year’s lecture will be available only online and will be followed by a live online panel discussion of the lecture from 7.15 pm to 8.00 pm.
Links will be made available at a later date closer to the event.
Enquiries can be made to admin@issr.org.uk.
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 annoucing 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 click here.
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. Click image for details.
2019 AAR Annual Meeting
ISSR will again host events at this years 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 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
17 November 2017 at the Hynes Convention Center, Boston.
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
19-22 July 2017 at St Anne’s College Oxford
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
8-10 February 2017 at Puebla in Mexico
ISSR will be joining the 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
18-19 November 2016 in San Antonio, Texas
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
21-24 November 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia
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
27-29 August 2015 in Vienna
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
November 2014 in San Diego
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
22-23 November 2013 in Baltimore USA
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
20-23 September 2012 in Akademie Lokkum, Germany
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
21 -23 June 2011 at American University of Sharjah, UAE
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
7-11 July 2010 at St Anne’s College and The Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford
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
3-5 July 2009 at Cambridge, UK
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
2006 at Cambridge UK
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
2004 in Boston, USA
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
2002 in Granada, Spain
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’.
