Aquinas 101: Science & Faith – Trailer Premiere and Live Q&A
Join the Thomistic Institute for an online launch event for Aquinas 101: Science & Faith. Watch the premiere of the series’ trailer, then asks questions to the series’ creators.
Are miracles possible according to science? How should we interpret Genesis? What are the benefits and limitations of the scientific method? Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., director of the Thomistic Institute, will discuss these topics and more with Prof. Karin Öberg, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University, and Fr. Jordan Schmidt, O.P., assistant professor of sacred scripture at the Dominican House of Studies. Bring your questions!
Wednesday, March 10
7:00 PM
YouTube, Facebook, and Zoom. Register through Eventbrite to access the Zoom webinar.
Aquinas 101: Science and Faith, which launches Tuesday, March 16, seeks to dispel the notion that scientific learning and Christian belief are incompatible with each other. The videos, created by an expert team of scientists, theologians, and philosophers, will explore themes, theories, and misconceptions that have proven especially thorny in the history of science and religion.
Topics covered by the series will include: neuroscience, miracles, quantum mechanics, the book of Genesis, evolution, the scientific method, the “theory of everything,” Schrödinger’s cat, free will, artificial intelligence, and transhumanism, among many others.
The series’ trailer will soon be released at Aquinas101.com.
About the speakers:
Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and Assistant Professor in Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001, after having practiced constitutional law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has also taught at The Catholic University of America Law School and at Providence College. He is the author of The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Karin Öberg is Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. Her specialty is astrochemistry and her research aims to uncover how chemical processes affect the outcome of planet formation, especially the chemical habitability of nascent planets. Dr. Öberg obtained her B.Sc. in chemistry at Caltech in 2005, and her Ph.D. in astronomy, with a thesis focused on laboratory astrochemistry, from Leiden University in 2009. She did postdoctoral work at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as a NASA Hubble fellow, focusing on millimeter observations of planet-forming disks around young stars. In 2013 she joined the Harvard astronomy faculty as an assistant professor. She was promoted and named the Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor in Astronomy in 2016, and promoted to full professor with tenure in 2017. Dr. Öberg’s research in astrochemistry has been recognized with a Sloan fellowship, a Packard fellowship, the Newton Lacy Pierce Award from the American Astronomical Society, and a Simons fellowship.
Fr. Jordan Schmidt, O.P., grew up in North Dakota, and entered the Order of Preachers in 2006. Upon his ordination in 2012, he was appointed associate pastor of St Mary’s parish in New Haven, CT. He was subsequently assigned to the priory of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC to undertake doctoral studies in biblical theology at the Catholic University of America. After graduating in January 2018, Fr. Jordan was appointed to the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception where he teaches various courses in the Old Testament.