One of cartoonist Saul Steinberg's most famous illustrations for The New Yorker lampoons a Manhattanite's self-centered belief that all civilization ends west of the Hudson River. In Steinberg's satirical vision, local landmarks such as Central Park and Times Square are rendered in glorious detail, whereas Russia or China are sketchy, insignificant blips on the far horizon.

You can laugh at such myopia, but the fact is, a similar provincialism exists in the academy — especially in the realms of science and theology. In an age which values highly specialized knowledge, mastering one field of study often means ignoring many others. As a result, rare is the physicist who can quote Milton, or a microbiologist conversant with St. Thomas Aquinas.

"The university has become the multi-versity," said Dr. James Proctor, Program Director for Science, Religion and the Human Experience at University of California, Santa Barbara. "We have intellectual fiefdoms and become experts on itty-bitty slices of the pie. As such, it's increasingly tough to put together really good scholars across the board." Tough, but not impossible. The Templeton Research Lectures on the Constructive Engagement of Science and Religion are currently establishing invaluable new forums for interdisciplinary discussion at universities across the globe. With the addition this year of UCLA and the University of Montreal, six distinguished academic communities have responded to this challenge. Begun in 2001, the program provides $100,000 over three years for scholars to develop an on-going platform for debate between differing, sometimes opposing, disciplines within their universities. Distinguished speakers set the tone, including Nobel Laureate Walter Kohn who addressed UC Santa Barbara on the topic, "Reflections of a Physicist after an Encounter with the Vatican and Pope John Paul II."

William B. Hurlbut, M.D., a lecturer in Human Biology, oversaw Stanford University's involvement in 2002. The timing was propitious, since "after 9-11, to discuss religious differences isn't just an intellectual exercise, but is of great significance for global peace," Dr. Hurlbut said. "Religion is deeply rooted both in society and the individual psyche because human beings have not only a cognitive imperative, or the desire to know, but a cosmological imperative, which is a desire to understand the whole."

To increase the lectures' overall impact, each university's faculty and students simultaneously assay ongoing study projects around the same topics. At Columbia University, for example, Dr. Rita Charon, a professor of Clinical Medicine, oversees a first-of-its-kind writing program, in which medical students learn to "narrativize" their patient care experience. Along side the patient's official chart tracking diagnostic tests, lab results and clinical plans, each student keeps a parallel journal of thoughts and memories that arise during clinical interaction. Once a week, the students gather to read each other's impressions. This exercise is "astonishing and revelatory," said Dr. Charon.

"Students who have examined their emotions in this training have an easier time establishing relationships with their patients," she continued. "It increases clinical courage, and allows them not to flinch from death and dying. Some might call this existential, some call it spiritual. Either way, it asks the question, 'what do you believe?'" Teaching medical students to write prose, not just prescriptions, is typical of innovative approaches that the Templeton Research Lectures foster. These new links being formed between science, metaphysics and theology become an exciting part of the ongoing intellectual life of great universities, said Dr. William Grassie, executive director of the Metanexus Institute in Philadelphia which administers the Templeton lecture program.

Though few would question such a high-minded goal, several academics admit that encouraging unity between scientists and theologians presents distinct regional challenges. Dr. Solange Lefebvre, Director of the Religious Studies Center at University of Montreal, spoke of the difficulties she had in arranging a series of lectures on "The Universe, Life, the Person: Continuity or Discontinuity?"

"At first, we wanted to use the title of 'Religion and the Self,' but our neuroscientists didn't want to participate under such a name. They felt non-competent on this topic. They said, 'we are neuroscientists, not theologians.' This, to me, highlights the difficulties of interdisciplinary dialogue," she suggested. "The question always is: what is the common topic we can all agree to work on?"

An altogether different scenario took place at Bar Ilan University in Jerusalem, where the Templeton Research Lectures are overseen by Dr. Noah J. Efron, Chairman of the Graduate Program for History and Philosophy of Science. Bar Ilan was founded, Dr. Efron said, to demonstrate that there is no contradiction between taking the Talmud seriously and being a first-class scientist. "If you tap into important streams of the Jewish identity, you see our status as progressive people, as moderns if you will, is frequently demonstrated through excellence in science," he said. For Dr. Efron, then, the challenge was to counteract a notion that because the lectures took place at Bar Ilan, they would only consider a narrowly religious viewpoint. He therefore went out of his way to invite all branches of Judaism — secular, reformed, orthodox — as well as agnostics and even those with an antipathy towards religion.

"All sorts of people showed up and from all over Israel which, even though this is a small country, doesn't happen as often as you'd think. Meeting after meeting, they'd scream at each other, then talk, then cajole," he recalled. "Getting these different people together has sparked new ideas, which is an enormous, joyful surprise. It feels very fertile." UC Santa Barbara is grappling with still another obstacle. Dr. Proctor explains that California's warm, sunny climate encourages an easy-going and open intellectual atmosphere. Californians, he claims, are so willing to entertain new ideas that the only thing they resist is overt disagreement. "People here want to synthesize science and religion. Because the two fields have traditionally been in conflict, they are anxious for them to be harmonized and brought together into one. Yet, this isn't necessarily what scholars do," he said. "I'm striving to keep our lectures diverse; we want to mix it up as much as possible. I hope we can promote a more critical spirit."

That the Templeton Lectures receive such varying receptions across the globe doesn't surprise Dr. Bob Pollack of Columbia University. In fact, he thinks dealing with heterogeneity is exactly what these lectures are designed to do.

Offering an historical context, Dr. Pollack, who heads the Center for the Study of Science and Religion at Columbia, mentioned Lord Gifford of Scotland, who in his will provided for public addresses to be given annually at the universities of Edinburgh, St. Andrew's, Glasgow and Aberdeen. William James delivered the most famous of these Gifford lectures in 1903 and 1904, later published as his influential book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, which was, in turn, the topic for the 2002 Templeton lectures at Columbia.

A century ago, Scotland was a place of religious homogeneity, Dr. Pollack explains, and there was general agreement as well within the academy on basic scientific principles. William James' insistence that an individual's religious experience is the most authoritative proof of religion was considered quite radical. Nowadays, this call to pluralism is accepted thinking, and presents a whole new set of issues to be negotiated.

"The gift of the last 100 years has been an appreciation of the fundamental equality and uniqueness of each human soul. Today, it's everyone's obligation to address a religious and scientific environment which is much more diverse than it was in James' time," concluded Dr. Pollack. "The brave, and I think exalted, hope of the Templeton Research Lectures is to bring people of fervently diverse beliefs together."

Templeton Lecture Series participants: University of California, Los Angeles; University of Montreal; Stanford University; Bar Ilan University; Columbia University; University of California, Santa Barbara

Stephen Henderson, a writer based in New York City, contributes frequently to the New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, Town & Country, and Religion News Service, as well as other publications.