Dear ISSR Member,
As we enter October, and the second wave of COVID-19 has hit, I do hope that you and yours are staying well.
Today I bring to you a rich list of news from our members.
Call for Fellowship Nominations and Other ISSR Business
- ISSR is pleased to announce that we are opening the nominations process for new Fellows earlier this year—beginning today. Nominations for Fellowship of ISSR may only be made by existing Fellows and are made on the basis of four categories of achievement. When considering a potential nomination, please do so using these categories:
- Major contribution (e.g. books) to the field of science/religion; or
- Excellent standing in one of the relevant areas (science, religion, philosophy) together with a sustained interest in or support of the science/religion debate; or
- Demonstration of significant organizational and entrepreneurial skills within the science/religion field, especially in geographical regions or religious traditions in which science-religion studies are not yet well-developed.
- Early career scholars whose publications in the science-religion field indicate outstanding promise.
If you would like to submit a name for nomination, please send me an email that includes the nominee’s name, a link to their academic profile or website, and their CV. (Please note: If we cannot find their CV easily on-line, we will ask you to source a copy to send to us.)
The deadline to submit nominations for new Fellows is 15 December 2020.
You may send your nominations, and relevant materials, to me at admin@issr.org.uk)
- This is a reminder that ISSR is still looking for suggestions on focused discussion groups to potentially become new avenues for research and scholarly discussion. You can find more details in Fraser Watts’ earlier blog where he suggested this here: https://www.issr.org.uk/blog/july-2020-blog-post-what-is-issr-for/
- In case you missed the previous announcement, ISSR has just concluded the inaugural year of the ISSR Book Prize in Science and Religion. You can read about the prize, and the winners, here: https://www.issr.org.uk/issr-statements/blog-post-for-inaugural-issr-book-prizes-in-the-field-of-science-and-religion/
New Publications
- Warren Brown and Brad Strawn have a newly released book entitled “Enhancing Christian Life: How Extended Cognition Augments Religious Community” from IVP Press. In it, they make heavy use of work being done in embodied and extended cognition. You can see more about the book here: https://www.ivpress.com/enhancing-christian-life
- William R. Klemm has a new article out in Religions titled, “God Spots in the Brain: Nine Categories of Unasked, Unanswered Questions.” You can read this open-access article here: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/9/468
- Alan Padgett has a new book out with Eerdmans, Ecotheology: A Christian Conversation, edited by Padgett & Kiara Jorgenson. In it, four contributors, Richard Bauckham, John F. Haught, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda and Steve Bouma-Prediger, engage with each other in a roundtable format. It also includes a forward by Katharine Hayhoe. You can find out more here: https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7441/ecotheology.aspx
- Calum MacKellar has published a new book with IVP, Christianity and the New Eugenics: Should We Choose to Have Only Healthy or Enhanced Children? An interesting and timely book, you can find out more in the attached flyer: https://www.issr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Published-Book-Presentation-Christianity-and-the-New-Eugenics.pdf
Opportunities and Positions
- The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge is now offering study abroad programmes for undergraduates who wish to spend up to a year studying in Cambridge as part of their degree (see attached for detailed information). If your institution is interested to offer this programme as an option for study abroad students, please get in touch with Dr Pui-Him Ip by email (phi21@cam.ac.uk). Please see the attached detailed programme for both full-year and second-semester offerings. The Institute would be grateful if you passed along this information to your students and departments.
Obituaries
- It is with great sadness that we announce the death of John D. Barrow (1952-2020), who died late September after his battle with cancer. Brian Heap has written an obituary which he has kindly shared with both ISSR and the Faraday Institute. You can read this here: https://www.issr.org.uk/issr-statements/professor-john-barrow-frs/
ISSR’s newsletter is supplied primarily by our members. If there is anything you have or something you come across that would be of benefit to our international community, please share it with me at admin@issr.org.uk. Also, our blog is put out around the 15th of each month, so if you have a blog idea you may contact me for that as well.
Good luck, stay safe, and do let me know if you need anything or have any questions.
All best,
Anthony K Nairn
ISSR Administrator
