Upcoming Conferences and Events

Upcoming and past events of ISSR are listed here. For a complete list of current events related to the field of science and religion, from both ISSR and its Fellows, please visit the Calendar page above.

ISSR 2025 Summer Conference – Ecology between Religions and Sciences: Minds and Bodies in Nature

ISSR is pleased to be hosting a summer confrence this year on 30 June to 03 July 2025. This conference is in reponse to our new priority research area on ecology and the environment. Please click here for more information on the conference and for submission details.

Past Conferences and Events

ISSR Subscription

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 Parliament of the World Religions,

The Parliament will convene 2-6 November, Toronto

UNISA

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.

Hynes Center Boston

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.

Hynes Center Boston

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”

St Anne's College, Oxford

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.

UPAEP Mexico

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.

San Antonio, Texas

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.

Atlanta Georgia

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.

Sigmund Freud University, Vienna

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.

San Diego Convention Center

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.

Baltimore USA

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…

San Diego Convention Center

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’.

Baltimore USA

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.

Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford

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.

Cambridge UK

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.

Cambridge UK

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).

Boston USA

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 Spain

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’.