Students win major science and religion prizes
Three recent Divinity students have swept the board in world’s foremost awards for the study of science and theology.
The students – Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie, Jaeho Jang, and Joanna Leidenhag – have been honoured at the prestigious European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT) Prizes, the biggest scholarly society of its kind.
All three won for work carried out as part of New College’s Science and Religion programme.
Congratulations to Sarah, Jaeho and Joanna for their magnificent success. When we started the Science and Religion programme in 2012, we had no idea that it would soon be winning awards, let alone sweeping the boards at the ESSSAT awards. I'm very proud, and it’s a wonderful testimony to the hard work of our many students and staff.
Divine intervention
Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie won the ESSSAT Research Prize for her PhD thesis, With God in Mind: Divine Action and the Naturalisation of Consciousness.
The judges commended her “fine analysis” of debates around divine intervention in the world, showing the main limits in attempting to describe such action, while suggesting alternative ways to understand God’s action, respect scientific worldviews and recognise fresh theological insights.
Evolution and God
Dr Jaeho Jang was given an Honourable Mention in the ESSSAT Research Prize Category.
His work argued that Western evolutionary theodicies – the exploration of how evolution’s inherent suffering, death and extinction can coincide with the existence of a loving God - would benefit from engagement with Asian Christian contexts, which greatly impressed the jury.
Quantum consciousness
Joanna Leidenhag won the ESSSAT Student prize for her essay, The Revival of Panpsychism and its Relevance for the Science-Religion Dialogue.
Her work argues that panpsychism - the belief that all things have a mind or a mind-like quality - is compatible with and can find some limited, but significant, areas of resonance with natural sciences such as evolutionary biology and quantum physics.
The winners will be presented with their awards at the upcoming European Conference on Science and Theology, to be held in Lyon, France, April 17-22, 2018.