XIIIth EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY (ECST XIII)
Edinburgh, 7-11 April, 2010
This was a one-off event. ECSTs I-XII were organised by the European Society for the Study of Science And Theology (ESSSAT) alone, and those from XIV onwards almost certainly will be too. But when Celia Deane-Drummond asked me to stand for election, as her successor in the SRF chair, she urged that I should capitalise on having positions in both societies to strengthen links between the two. The opportunity to share this conference seemed a peculiarly appropriate way. So ECST XIII was run jointly by ESSSAT and SRF. ESSSAT's tradition is more lavish, with longer meetings accommodating far more contributed papers (accessible on the web to paid-up registrants), and international invited speakers paid non-trivial honoraria. So we knew the SRF attendance would be the smaller of the two, but could scarcely have foreseen the financial crisis, which amplified the cost disparity by Sterling's slump relative to both Euro and Dollar.
Those SRF members who nonetheless attended enjoyed, as much as the overseas visitors, a most pleasing venue, with residential, excellent eating and all lecture accommodation within five minutes of one another, overlooked by the craggy heights of Arthur's Seat. Only on the final evening did we go to the old city, for an ecumenical service (Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant) in St Giles Cathedral with Polish cellist and Scottish organist; a New College reception; and the conference dinner entertained by clarsach players and a Celtic storyteller.
The intellectual work which earned these rewards was led by five fine plenary speakers on the theme ‘Is Religion Natural?'. Ilkka Pyysiäinen (Helsinki) opened with a quietly serious survey of the field from the standpoint of an agnostic religious anthropologist. Then Justin Barrett (USA/Oxford), Christian cognitive scientist and extrovert presenter, delivered the Gowland Lecture, chaired by Kenneth Wilson, about such matters as western children's concepts of God. Next day Mona Siddiqui (Glasgow), gently humanist scholar of Islam, elicited a response of matching depth from SRF's Roger Paul. That evening Christian Schwöbel (Tübingen) lectured under the Gifford banner on ‘The religion of Nature and the nature of Religion'. On the final morning Lluis Oviedo (Rome) surveyed the meeting in asking whether we need to naturalise religion. His respondent was another known to SRF members, at least if they were in Cambridge last Sept - David Fergusson, who had been our official Edinburgh host. To him, perhaps more than many others, we owed best thanks.
The meeting will have no like again. But I am assured by many rewarding words and letters of thanks that those able to come had a rewardingly memorable experience.
Neil Spurway
