The Human Search for Truth: Philosophy, Science, Theology
The Outlook for the Third Millennium

International Conference on Science and Faith
The Vatican, 23-25 May 2000

One of the most important events that took place in Rome during the Great Jubilee Year was the International Conference on Science and Faith,“The Human Search for Truth: Science, Philosophy, Theology. The Outlook for the Third Millennium,” held at the Vatican from the 23rd to the 25th May 2000, as part of the Giubileo degli Scienziati. “Science” is here understood in its broadest sense, thus encompassing the experimental sciences, the human sciences, and the sciences of the spirit—philosophy and theology. Organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture, this conference emphasized the search for truth as a distinctive feature of all scientific inquiry by promoting a rediscovery of the sapiential dimension of the sciences: that is, research into nature and humanity must include a deeper awareness of its human dimension and of the human values which undergird it, so that as knowledge of the world increases, so too will the ethical values that give life meaning.

This historic event brought together Christians who are professionally involved in the world of science, as well as Christians of other denominations and believers from other religions working in the sciences who concur with the Catholic Church’s approach to scientific knowledge. Scientists and scholars from all branches of science met to discuss and reflect on topics, with special attention given to new questions and challenges in science and technology, specifically in light of the principles offered by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Fides et ratio (1998).

Saint Joseph’s University Press is pleased to make available this collection of the papers presented at this groundbreaking conference that marks a watershed in the renewed effort on the part of the Catholic Church to build bridges between the worlds of scientific research and theological reflection. Not only will this book give a wider public access to this program, but also, hopefully, it will foster further discussion and reflection along the lines of the conference, serve as a resource in college and university courses in the disciplines represented, and inspire similar meetings of more modest proportions elsewhere in the world.

CONTENTS

Preface

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE JUBILEE FOR MEN AND WOMEN FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE (Giubileo degli Scienziati)
His Holiness Pope John Paul II

OPENING ADDRESS
His Eminence Paul Cardinal Poupard
President, Pontifical Council for Culture

I.
PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY, SCIENCE

Introduction
Jean Ladrière

Meditation
Robert Sokolowski

Philosophy and Science in the Context of Contemporary Culture
Josef Seifert

Theology and Its Relation to Experimental Science
Bruno Forte

The Book of Nature and the God of Scientists
According to the Encyclical Fides et ratio
Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti

II.
NATURAL SCIENCES

Introduction
Nicola Cabibbo

Meditation
Peter Hodgson

Science and Faith in Interaction
Michal Heller

The Doctrine of Creation Out of Nothing in Relation to Big Bang and Quantum Cosmologies
Robert J. Russell

Mathematics and Faith
Edward Nelson

III.
SCIENCES OF MAN AND LIFE

Introduction
Juan de Dios Vial Correa

Meditation
Elio Sgreccia

Medicine and Man: Human Ecology
Adriano Bompiani

Medicine in Quest of the Elixir of Life
Andrzej Szczeklik

Artificial Intelligence and the Study of Consciousness
John R. Searle

IV.
SOCIAL SCIENCES

Introduction
Edmond Malinvaud

Meditation
Hanna Suchocka

Faith and the Conception of Humanity in Social Sciences
Margaret S. Archer

Economics from a Christian Standpoint
Rubens Ricupero

Moving from the Turbulent Twentieth Century: A New Vision for Humanity for the Third Millennium
Janos Peréyi

CONCLUDING ADDRESS
New Perspectives for the Relationship between Science and Faith in the Light of Fides et ratio
Joseph M. Zycinski

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

2002, 256 pp., 5 Illustrations
ISBN: 978-0-916101-42-8 (Paper) $35