Ferrum College - The Ferrum Newsstand

    Philip Hefner, professor emeritus of systematic theology of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and editor-in-chief of “Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science,” will give a lecture on Monday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m. titled "The Importance of Religion in a Scientific World." The lecture will be held in Vaughn Chapel at Ferrum College and is sponsored by the college’s Boone Honors Program.

     Hefner is also a senior fellow at the Zygon Center for Religion and Science and an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He was director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science from 1988 until May 2003.
A selective list of Hefner’s awards include the Susan Colver Rosenberg Award for Original Research from the University of Chicago, the Russell Fellow from the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, the Academic Fellow from the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science and Lifetime Service Award from the Center for Advanced Studies in Religion and Science (CASIRAS), 2001.

     Hefner has spent his career teaching in Lutheran seminaries, in Springfield, Ohio, Gettysburg, Pa., and in Hyde Park, Chicago. In his teaching he has balanced a concern for the theology of the Christian tradition, with attention to contemporary culture, particularly the arts and the natural sciences. His first serious attention to religion-and-science issues began in 1962, just after receiving his doctorate, when he was invited to lecture on the subject. This led to more study, the establishment of a faculty dialogue group at Wittenberg University (Ohio), where he was teaching, and in 1967 to a 35-year association with Ralph Wendell Burhoe, the founder of “Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science,” co-founder of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science, and recipient of the 1980 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

     Hefner has authored eight books and more than 150 scholarly articles, about half of which deal with religion and the natural sciences. His books include “The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, Religion” (Fortress Press, 1993) and “Technology and Human Becoming” (Fortress Press, 2003).

     Hefner has held more than 50 visiting teaching and lecturing appointments at seminaries, colleges and universities in the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has also represented his church on a number of ecumenical commissions, including, most recently, the dialogue commission between the Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and as a member of the U.S.A. Lutheran-Reformed Coordinating Committee. As the first senior fellow appointed by the Metanexus Institute, he delivered six lectures in 2003-04 at the University of Pennsylvania and organized a one-day program on “Science and Spirituality” at the Parliament of the World Religions, in Barcelona in July 2004.

    Ferrum College is a four-year, private, co-educational, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s degree programs at a cost well below the national average for private colleges. For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu.

Ferrum to Host Lecture on the "Importance of Religion in Scientific World"
For immediate release: August 29, 2006	Contact: Dean Browell, (540) 365-4301, dbrowell@ferrum.edu
Philip Hefner, professor emeritus of systematic theology of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and editor-in-chief of “Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science,” will give a lecture on Monday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m. titled "The Importance of Religion in a Scientific World." The lecture will be held in Vaughn Chapel at Ferrum College and is sponsored by the college’s Boone Honors Program. Hefner is also a senior fellow at the Zygon Center for Religion and Science and an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He was director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science from 1988 until May 2003. A selective list of Hefner’s awards include the Susan Colver Rosenberg Award for Original Research from the University of Chicago, the Russell Fellow from the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, the Academic Fellow from the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science and Lifetime Service Award from the Center for Advanced Studies in Religion and Science (CASIRAS), 2001. Hefner has spent his career teaching in Lutheran seminaries, in Springfield, Ohio, Gettysburg, Pa., and in Hyde Park, Chicago. In his teaching he has balanced a concern for the theology of the Christian tradition, with attention to contemporary culture, particularly the arts and the natural sciences. His first serious attention to religion-and-science issues began in 1962, just after receiving his doctorate, when he was invited to lecture on the subject. This led to more study, the establishment of a faculty dialogue group at Wittenberg University (Ohio), where he was teaching, and in 1967 to a 35-year association with Ralph Wendell Burhoe, the founder of “Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science,” co-founder of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science, and recipient of the 1980 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Hefner has authored eight books and more than 150 scholarly articles, about half of which deal with religion and the natural sciences. His books include “The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, Religion” (Fortress Press, 1993) and “Technology and Human Becoming” (Fortress Press, 2003). Hefner has held more than 50 visiting teaching and lecturing appointments at seminaries, colleges and universities in the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has also represented his church on a number of ecumenical commissions, including, most recently, the dialogue commission between the Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and as a member of the U.S.A. Lutheran-Reformed Coordinating Committee. As the first senior fellow appointed by the Metanexus Institute, he delivered six lectures in 2003-04 at the University of Pennsylvania and organized a one-day program on “Science and Spirituality” at the Parliament of the World Religions, in Barcelona in July 2004. Ferrum College is a four-year, private, co-educational, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s degree programs at a cost well below the national average for private colleges. For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu.
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