At the Crossroads of Faith & Science | Jaynotes | Vol. 47 No. 2 | Spring/Summer 2021

At the Crossroads of Faith & Science

by Jeremy Reuther ’01

At the risk of stoking old fears, let's start with a pop quiz.

In response to Galileo formally teaching and promoting heliocentric in 17th century, the Catholic Church...

A. BURNED GALILEO AT THE STAKE.

B. SENTENCED GALILEO TO HOUSE ARREST.

C. EXCOMMUNICATED GALILEO.

D. IMPRISONED GALILEO TO PREVENT HIS TEACHING.

As you think about the question, also think about how a class of high school sophomores at Jesuit might answer it. Is one of the answers just a little too obvious to be the correct one? Is there a common assumption that the teacher is trying to uncover with the question?

These and countless other testtaking strategies come to mind for a sophomore who couldn’t quite find enough time to study the material. For most of us, whose precise knowledge of the historic relationship of the Catholic Church to scientific inquiry is as fuzzy as the unprepared sophomore, the mishandling of the Galileo affair by the Church appears to be a paradigm for all that is (at worst) backwards and superstitious about religious belief, and (at best) simply embarrassing.

Eight Jesuit faculty members spent their summer taking a hard look at this big issue and others at the intersection of science and theology. How should Catholics interpret the creation story of Genesis 1 in light of the scientific theory of evolution? What does the archeological evidence for man’s hominid ancestors mean for the Catholic doctrines of original sin and the special creation of the human soul by God?

Over the course of two week-long seminars, a mix of theology and science teachers from Jesuit sharpened their scientific and philosophic tools to navigate these questions in the hopes of offering greater clarity to their students. Participating theology teachers included Daniel Augustin ’15 (Christology), Roger Bacon ’10 (sacraments, morality), Susan deBoisblanc (Christology, bioethics), and Scott Delatte ’06 (Christ in Scripture, ecclesiology). From the science department were Matthew Firmin ’10 (biology, environmental science), Karen

Harper (environmental science), Khanh Nguyen (physics), and Jeffrey Reuther ’99 (chemistry).

Hosted by the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, the program included stout offerings of theological essays, in-person labs and simulations of scientific concepts, seminar discussions, communal prayer, and sharing of best-practices with other mission-driven educators from around the country. Participants also received a generous stipend from the McGrath Institute and a collection of reading materials. At the end of the program, Jesuit teachers reinforced their understanding that the Galileo affair, far from being the paradigm for the Church’s hostility to scientific inquiry, is actually the exception to the rule of an otherwise lavish patronage of the sciences through the ages.

A quick survey of Catholic priests or clerics making ground-breaking contributions to scientific knowledge makes the point well. St. Albert the Great (a German Dominican priest) and Roger Bacon (an English Franciscan Monk, to be distinguished from the Jesuit teacher of the same name) were instrumental in the incorporation of Greek science and the early discoveries and inventions of the 13th century. The list is extensive from then until more recent contributions of Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian priest honored as the founder of genetics, and George Lemaître, a Belgian priest known as one of two originators of the Big Bang theory. Interestingly, Nicholas Copernicus himself, though not a priest, held ecclesiastical office as the “canon” of Frauenberg Cathedral.

The Jesuits especially were no strangers to scientific enterprise. Jesuits have classically been sent by the pope “to the frontiers,” and the fields of astronomy and mathematics have certainly been historical frontiers through the scientific boon of the latter half of second millennium. Christoph Clavius, S.J., just years after the formation of the Jesuit order, combined astronomical observation and mathematical genius to help Gregory XIII revise the Julian calendar. Christoph Scheiner, S.J., a contemporary of Galileo, published a massive treatise on his observations of sunspots. Many more Jesuit astronomers follow from Gian Battista Riccoli, S.J., Francesco Grimaldi, S.J., and Matteo Ricci, S.J., in the 17th century to Pietro Angelo Secchi, S.J., in the 19th century.

This rich history should cast suspicion on any claim that faith and science are essentially in conflict. Granted, real intellectual work is needed to harmonize the teachings of the Catholic faith with scientific findings related to human origins and quantum theory, but we can all be confident that Jesuit teachers are putting in the time to do that work so that students get the very best from the Catholic intellectual tradition.

St. John Paul II said it well in a letter to George Coyne, who was a Jesuit priest, astronomer, and director of the Vatican Observatory: “the Church and the scientific community will inevitably interact; their options do not include isolation. Christians will inevitably assimilate the prevailing ideas about the world, and today these are deeply shaped by science. The only question is whether they will do this critically or unreflectively, with depth and nuance or with a shallowness that debases the Gospel and leaves us ashamed before history.”

This level of depth and nuance in discovery harkens back to the opening question about Galileo. Many today do not escape a shallow

grasp of the facts relevant to big questions. Many incorrectly assume that Galileo’s punishment was much worse than house arrest. A week of prayer and reflection for these faculty members has been an antidote for shallow assumptions about science and religion and a salve of resting in the glory of God in the majesty of creation.

Jesuit’s participation in the McGrath Institute program is part of a larger movement to integrate the academic disciplines around a Catholic and Jesuit worldview. The Athanasius Kircher Fund allowed these eight faculty members to pursue these studies with depth and nuance, and more projects will be made possible as the fund grows.

These projects will drive an academic vision articulated in the same letter by St. John Paul II: “Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.” Jesuit High School remains committed to a faith that nourishes understanding, fostering in each student a capacity to find God in all things. •