The Role of Religion | A Pardee Center Conference

World Religions
World Religions

The conference brought together some 40 experts from various disciplines to ponder upon the “great dilemma” of how science, religion, and the human future interact. In particular, different panels looked at trends in what is happening to religion around the world, questions about how religion is impacting the current political and economic order, and how the social dynamics unleashed by science and by religion can be reconciled.

Organized with support from the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs

Co-Organized by the School of Theology and the Department of Religion, Boston University

Read the BU Today news article on the conference.

Keynote: A Tour d’horizon by Prof. Peter Berger, Boston University

Keynote: The Great Dilemma: Science, Religion, and the Human Future by Charles Harper, John Templeton Foundation.

Panel Discussion: Where Is Religion Going?

Panel Members:

  • Prof. Ralph Buultjens, New York University
  • Amb. Phillips Talbot, former U.S. Ambassador and former President of the Asia Society
  • Jane Kramer, former European correspondent, The New Yorker
  • Prof. Christopher Marsh, Baylor University
  • Prof. Michael J. Smith, University of Virginia
  • Dr. Steven N. Simon, Council on Foreign Relations

Panel Discussion: What Can Religion Offer to the Modern World?

Panel Members:

  • Prof. Benjamin Friedman, Harvard University
  • Prof. David Fromkin, Boston University

Panel Discussion: Must We Choose Between Religion and Science?

Panel Members:

  • Prof. Kirk Wegter-McNelly, Boston University
  • Sir Hans Kornberg, Boston University
  • Prof. Owen Gingerich, Boston University