John Templeton Foundation :: Milestones [January 2007]

Like coordinates on a GPS map, the recently announced grant–winning projects of the GPSS MAP – Global Perspectives on Science and Spirituality Major Awards Program – can be plotted across a large swathe of Eurasia. There are seven clusters of activity, from Craiova in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, through Prague, Moscow, New Delhi, Wuhan and Shandong in China, to Nagoya in Japan.

Launched in January of 2006, the GPSS MAP is the largest grants competition (in terms of funding) ever to target Asia and Central/Eastern Europe in the field of Science and Religion. Grant amounts for individual projects range from $160,000 to $250,000.

Between 2004 and 2006, the first phase of the GPSS allowed eighteen individuals or small groups of scholars to conduct yearlong research projects. With the Major Awards Program the GPSS now has its sights set on a more ambitious objective. “Our aim,” explains P.I. Pranab Das, Principal Investigator, “is to provide carefully selected program leaders with the means to significantly scale up research activities at local, national and broader international levels. Over the next couple of years we hope to see the emergence of vibrant, increasingly self–reliant ‘hubs’ of research and activity, each with its distinctive perspective on the interface between science and spirituality.”

For Philip Clayton, principal advisor to the project, “The GPSS has revealed the quality of research that can be and is being produced outside the often narrowly viewed boundaries of the science–religion discourse.” What’s at stake now, however, is whether this research output can be coordinated locally. “If we are serious about mining the resources of the religion–science partnership — which was clearly Sir John’s vision — it’s crucial that our investments in time and money be directed towards the building up of local capacities. The GPSS MAP marks an important milestone in this process.”

The winning projects reflect the diversity of the religious or spiritual traditions that shape the way in which the science–religion dialectic is framed in different parts of the world. So, for example, in Prague, Prof. Anton Markos, chair of the department of philosophy and the history of the natural sciences at Charles University, will explore the philosophical roots of an affirmatively European perspective on the “enigmatic phenomenon of life.”

In Russia, professor of philosophy at the Moscow State University and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Ilya Kasavin will explore the interface between science and religion “in the formation of a value system for a new civilization,” a project centered on Moscow but which will involve research teams working in tandem in the university towns of Kursk to the north, Blagoveschensk to the east and Tver to the south.

In New Delhi, Dr. Makarand Paranjape, professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, will coordinate a series of activities around the theme of Indian Perspective on Science and Religion. In February 2006, Prof. Paranjape organized an international conference on Science and Religion in Modern India, inaugurated by his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Following this, in March 2007, he is organizing a conference on Information: The Scientific and Spiritual Dimensions the aim of which will be “to consider whether information can be both science and spirituality at the same time – materially factual and spiritually transformative.”

In Japan, Prof. Paul Swanson at the Nanzan Institute of Religion and Culture, will head up a project entitled Affirming Science and Religion in the Japanese Context. This project will consider the traditional Japanese concept of ‘Kokoro’ —a comprehensive term that includes both mind and heart, thinking and being— as a possible key to understanding the interrelationship between science and religion. The Nanzan team kickstarted their MAP project with a conference entitled We Can Change the World: Building Bridges of Hope with famed primatologist Jane Goodall, and a second on Exploring Controversies in Christian vs. Buddhist Approaches to Bioethics: Is a Transreligious Framework for Reintegration of Science and Spirituality Possible?

It is in the offices of the Interdisciplinary University of Paris, that the GPSS has taken shape over the past few years. As UIP secretary general Jean Staune notes, “From its beginnings the UIP has been committed to the development of the field of science and spirituality through different types of collaboration. The UIP has been instrumental in setting up projects in collaboration with the Vatican, the Christian Orthodox Church, and various initiatives involving scholars of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. We were delighted when the GPSS presented us with an opportunity to pursue the internationalization of the dialogue between science and spirituality.”

For Pranab Das, who has now made Paris his second home, there were various practical advantages in favor of having the project based in France, not least a closer proximity to the regions covered. He adds, “working through the UIP has allowed us to draw on the considerable experience of the permanent staff there and to develop an effective – I believe, unique – methodology for the GPSS which ensures that funds are used in the most effective way.”

One important component of this methodology was the organization of a three–day grant–writing and strategic planning workshop, held in Paris in July. The event was attended by representatives of 25 applicant teams and served to provide guidance on a whole range of aspects to do with the preparation of project proposals, from academic content and justification to strategic planning, impact evaluation and budgeting.

For Dr. Das this was a key moment for the project. “By creating a culture of critical analysis, appraisal and review, the GPSS team has introduced a model of quality scholarship that has led to truly excellent MAP proposals and we look forward to output of deep interest and impact.”

The workshop featured a number of experts including philosopher of science and theologian Philip Clayton, theoretical physicist and philosopher Bernard d’Espagnat, physicist and transdiciplinarian Basarab Nicolescu, and biochemist Pauline Rudd who worked closely with applicant teams to revise and refine their project ideas.

After the event Philip Clayton reflected, “It was fantastic to observe the dialogue and cross–fertilization that took place at the meeting; and to watch leading scholars from Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism engaged in constructive dialogue, seeking answers to common questions on the basis of a shared knowledge of and respect for science. I have never seen such productive discussion before in inter–religious meetings. One sensed that something new and revolutionary was unfolding in the seminar room…”

When the announcement of the winning projects was made, Clayton remarked with some satisfaction that “Western scholars would be impressed by the academic quality of the winning research centers, and humbled, I think, by the enthusiasm and hard work that the leaders are putting into these research programs.”

Tom Mackenzie is director of GPSS MAP that is jointly managed by the Interdisciplinary University of Paris (France) and Elon University (USA).

Asking The Big Questions

Asking the Big Questions entails digging deeply – sometimes into the earth itself, sometimes into prehistory, and often into 21st Century issues.

Are the origins of religion discoverable? Professor Ian Hodder of Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology at Stanford University leads a team of archaeologists, anthropologists, and theologians seeking to understand some of the earliest known remnants of spirituality and religious ritual through finds at Çatalhöyük, the excavation site of a neolithic (7,400 BCE) settlement in Turkey. For the larger excavation project, see www.catalhoyuk.com.

What did religion look like 2500 years ago? Distinguished educator, Robert N. Bellah, Elliott Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley is concentrating his current research on the evolution of religion from prehistory to the Axial age, ranging from Israel to Greece and China. The publication of this significant volume will be the culmination of research interests first published in his influential article "Religious Evolution" in 1964. www.robertbellah.com

How does Islam respond to modern science? Under the auspices of L’Université Interdisciplinaire de Paris (UIP) an international group of scientists, philosophers and theologians seeks to establish a constructive engagement of science and religion from an Islamic perspective. Research programs focus on the nature of ultimate reality, approached through a diversity of subtopics, and scientific and academic disciplines. The research is lead by Professor Jean Staune, founder and general secretary of UIP and Dr. Bruno Guiderdoni, Director of Research at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics.

Expanding the Dialogue

Through Eastern Europe and Asia

Asking The Big Questions