About Science for Ministry

 

The John Templeton Foundation Science for Ministry Initiative invites organizations to develop programs that will help ministers and the congregations they serve to move away from simplistic “solutions” to the tensions between science and faith. Such solutions typically amount to no more than a rejection of science in order to preserve doctrinal commitments, or a rejection of doctrine in order to preserve science. Relatedly, a common stereotype holds that more conservative groups have tended to reject science in favor of faith commitments, whereas mainline groups have tended to reject such commitments in order to “keep faith” with science. These simplistic solutions and polarizing stereotypes fail to appreciate the interest and potential among people of faith for the cultivation of a more nuanced and integrated understanding of science and religious convictions.

At the heart of the Science for Ministry program is the conviction that pastors, in the course of their preaching, teaching, writing, and care, are key catalysts in developing a more fruitful integration of science and faith among their parishioners. The programs funded through this initiative intend to resource the motivation, imagination, and capacity that pastors need to undertake this work. This website will become a platform for the dissemination of such resources, relevant both to ministers and to anyone seeking such an engagement between science and faith.

People in ministry are intelligent and well-educated—they don’t need simplification and popularization so much as translation of academic ideas into useful tools for ministry. It is our hope that the programs of the Science for Ministry Initiative will help provide them.