Book Launch: “Unlocking Divine Action: Contemporary Science and Thomas Aquinas” by Fr. Michael Dodds, OP

April 23, 2013

A key issue in the dialogue between theology and science has been the question of God's action in the world. Given all that science explains about the world's happenings, is there really any "room" for God to act? Unlocking Divine Action: Contemporary Science and Thomas Aquinas explores that question in light of the discoveries of contemporary science in quantum mechanics, chaos theory, emergence, cosmology and biology that have exploded the narrow, determined world of Newtonian science. It shows how such discoveries, fascinating in themselves, have also unlocked the very idea of causality, giving us new ways to speak of God's action. Those new ways, however, often echo the teachings of Thomas Aquinas and so invite a retrieval of his thought. Exploiting both Aquinas and contemporary science, the book finds new ways to understand God's action in the natural world and in human life, including such topics as Providence, prayer and miracles.

Presenters:

• Dr. Robert John Russell , Founder and Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley
• Dr. Ted Peters , Professor of Systematic Theology, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley
• Dr. Lara Buchak , Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of California Berkeley
• Fr. Mariusz Tabaczek, OP, GTU doctoral student from the Dominican Province of Poland

Remarks by the author and Q&A followed.