THE VARIETIES OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
Friday, March 10, 2023 - Sunday, March 12, 2023
Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana
The twenty second annual Goshen Conference on Religion and Science was held Friday, March 10, 2023, through Sunday, March 12, 2023. The keynote speaker for the 2023 conference was Dr. Andrew Newberg, director of research at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health and a physician at Jefferson University Hospital. He is board certified in internal medicine and nuclear medicine.
Dr. Andrew Newberg
has been asking questions about reality, truth, and God since he was very young, and he has long been fascinated by the human mind and its complex workings. While a medical student, he met Dr. Eugene d’Aquili, who was studying religious experiences. Combining their interests with Andrew’s background in neuroscience and brain imaging, they were able to break new theoretical and empirical ground on the relationship between the brain and religion.
Andrew’s research now largely focuses on how brain function is associated with various mental states—in particular, religious and mystical experiences. His research has included brain scans of people in prayer, meditation, rituals, and trance states, as well as surveys of people’s spiritual experiences and attitudes. He has also evaluated the relationship between religious or spiritual phenomena and health, and the effect of meditation on memory. He believes that it is important to keep science rigorous and religion religious.
Andrew has also used neuroimaging research projects to study aging and dementia, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, depression, and other neurological and psychiatric disorders.
–From AndrewNewberg.com
The conference comprises three lectures by the invited speaker, Dr. Andrew Newburg, as well as discussions (limited to registered attendees).
Two of the lectures are free and open to the public
- 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 10
How God Changes Your Brain
- 10:30 a.m., Saturday
Principles of Neurotheology
Registered participants will:
- Take part in the third lecture, The Varieties of Spiritual Experience
- Join the registrant-only conference sessions, including respondent reactions and discussions with the lecturer.
Conference program: 2023 Conference Program
Trauma and the Environment: How Then Shall We Live?
Friday, March 11, 2022 - Sunday, March 13, 2022
Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana
The twenty first annual Goshen Conference on Religion and Science took place Friday, March 11, 2022, through Sunday, March 13, 2022. The speakers for the 2022 conference were Dr. Ann Pederson and Dr. Jennifer Gubbels of Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota who presented the conference message together.
The titles of the lectures are as follows:
Lecture #1: Seeing the Place of Science and Religion: Epigenetics and Extended Mind
Lecture #2: Inherited Trauma: Epigenetics and Preterm Birth
Lecture #3: Trauma and Resilience: Memory, Place, and Religion
Download the conference schedule (PDF).
Dr. Ann Pederson
Dr. Ann Milliken Pederson teaches Christian theology, with particular emphases in religion and medical sciences, feminist theologies, theology and the arts, and Lutheran constructive theology. She is also an adjunct professor in the Section for Ethics and humanities at the Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota. Pederson has written five books: Where in the World is God? Variations on a Theme (Chalice Press, 1998), God, Creation, and All That Jazz (Chalice Press, 2001), The Music of Creation, co-authored with the Rev. Dr. Canon Arthur Peacocke, (Fortress Press, 2006), The Geography of God's Incarnation: Landscapes and Narratives of Faith (Wipf and Stock, 2013), and Our Bodies Are Selves, co-authored with Philip Hefner and Susan Barreto (Wipf and Stock, 2015). She has also authored entries in the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science, and numerous articles in Zygon, Word and World, and other periodicals. She is also a Fellow in the International Society for Science and Religion.Dr. Jennifer Gubbels
Dr. Jennifer A. A. Gubbels is an Associate Professor and Chair of Biology at Augustana University. She teaches introductory biology, physiology, immunology, and has team-taught courses on medical ethics along with history and religion professors. Her research is in reproductive physiology, where she has published 12 peer-reviewed publications on ovarian cancer, and has recently begun studies to determine the molecular cause for preterm birth. In addition, she has led a research project to determine the stressors experienced by American Indian pregnant women on reservations in SD. Gubbels has also published in journals outside of her main area of expertise, including the Journal for Microbiology and Biology Education as well as Zygon, a religion and science journal (along with Dr. Ann Pederson). She has been an invited guest lecturer to seminaries as a part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science “Science for Seminaries” grant. Gubbels is a member of the Society for Reproductive Investigation.
The 2021 Goshen Conference on Religion and Science was rescheduled for 2022.
In Whose Image?
Perspectives from Intersections of Brain Science and Abrahamic Mindfulness
Friday, March 6, 2020 - Sunday, March 8, 2020
Goshen College, Goshen Indiana
The twentieth annual Goshen Conference on Science and Religion took place on the campus of Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana, Friday, March 6, 2020, through Sunday, March 8, 2020. The speaker for the 2020 conference was Dr. Michael Spezio.
The first lecture is entitled, "Imagining the True Self: Apophatic Experience beyond Aseity". This lecture introduced positive accounts of Abrahamic mindfulness and distinguish them from several influential, westernized Dharmic forms of mindfulness prior to considering how contemporary apophatic theologies can go beyond aseity in defining human selves and identities, drawing on conceptions in western psychological and brain sciences.
The second lecture is entitled, "Humility as Kenotic Empathy: A Positive Account of Humility and its Dependence upon Theory of Mind and Imaginaries of the True Self." Empathy and theory of mind are typically understood in the West as related to the uncertainty of other minds and the need for knowledge about them. However, empirical work with transformative communities that have positive constructions of humility shows a stronger connection between empathy and humility in openly welcoming and affirming another person as a fully valued "I". This lecture will present these models, connect them with the thought of Edith Stein and with future directions in computational decision neuroscience.
Dr. Michael Spezio
Michael Spezio is Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Scripps College in Claremont, CA, and holds a Visiting Scientist appointment at the University Medical Center (UKE) in Hamburg, Germany. Michael is also an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He heads the Laboratory for Inquiry into Valuation and Emotion (The LIVE Lab) at Scripps College. The LIVE Lab uses computational models of semantic relations, mental processes, and neural systems to study the dynamic valuation of self and other critical for choices about how to live. This work includes studies of empathy, compassion, forgiveness, virtuous formation, mindfulness, prayer, theory of mind, belief and value updates using available evidence, and the extent to which both temporal horizon and evidence weighting influence interactive learning during cooperation and competition. He developed the first course in Data Science Ethics and Justice at the Claremont Colleges and works on virtue in the practices of science. He is Co-Editor of the journal Philosophy, Theology, and the Sciences (Mohr Siebeck) and of the Routledge Companion to Religion & Science. Michael gratefully acknowledges funding from the National Science Foundation, the Templeton Religion Trust, and the John Templeton Foundation.Michael Spezio is Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Scripps College in Claremont, CA, and holds a Visiting Scientist appointment at the University Medical Center (UKE) in Hamburg, Germany. Michael is also an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He heads the Laboratory for Inquiry into Valuation and Emotion (The LIVE Lab) at Scripps College. The LIVE Lab uses computational models of semantic relations, mental processes, and neural systems to study the dynamic valuation of self and other critical for choices about how to live. This work includes studies of empathy, compassion, forgiveness, virtuous formation, mindfulness, prayer, theory of mind, belief and value updates using available evidence, and the extent to which both temporal horizon and evidence weighting influence interactive learning during cooperation and competition. He developed the first course in Data Science Ethics and Justice at the Claremont Colleges and works on virtue in the practices of science. He is Co-Editor of the journal Philosophy, Theology, and the Sciences (Mohr Siebeck) and of the Routledge Companion to Religion & Science. Michael gratefully acknowledges funding from the National Science Foundation, the Templeton Religion Trust, and the John Templeton Foundation.