Centre for Religion and the Biosciences, University of Chester
Professor Celia Deane-Drummond
Funding was provided to establish the centre, which stimulates research and public discussion in areas relating to religion and the biosciences, including medicine. The focus on biosciences allows areas that are not normally considered by the existing research centres to be explored more thoroughly, in particular the ethical issues associated with new developments in biological research, including both medical and environmental issues.
The mission of the centre includes:
- Promoting research and publication in the area of religion and the biosciences;
- Providing a venue for exchange and dialogue with other existing centres in the UK in related fields;
- Promoting research colloquia on particular themes involving researchers participating from a number of different organizations;
- Raising public awareness of issues in religion and science, in particular the biosciences.
The Centre has also developed an MA programme in Science and Religion, successfully validated in 2003.
The Centre has been highly active in a range of activities, including: a yearly series of public lectures with the help of additional funding from Metanexus Institute local society initiative programme; round-table discussion groups which fostered academic debate in small groups; a research colloquium in Human Genetics in 2002; a one-day conference on Biotechnology and Nature in 2004; a further colloquium on Medical Ethics in June 2005; a one-day conference on Animal Welfare in September 2006. Small discussion groups have featured the following themes: ecotheology, biomedical ethics and evolution and complexity. The public lecture series have focused on Globalisation and Ecology (2003/4), Human Genetics (2004/5), Animal Welfare (2005/6) and the Future of Life (2006/7).
The Centre has continued its work of advancing the dialogue and interaction between religion and the biosciences. Its three-fold mission of public service, education and research has continued apace. Public lectures have continued to attract a growing local audience and there have been growing links with the Chester Theological Association, which was established in the summer of 2004. One lecture given by Professor Maureen Junker Kenny from Trinity College, Dublin, was held jointly with the Centre.
University College Chester became the University of Chester in August 2005. The work of the Centre for Religion and the Biosciences helped to pave the road to this success. The funding awarded from the Christendom Trust has been essential in order to enable the centre to offer public lectures, establish a growing place in the local community as a resource for both lay and academic audiences, provide support for the conference on Biotechnology and Nature in 2004 (papers from which have been published in the journal Ecotheology in 2006) and facilitate the publication of key academic books in the field, including:
- C. Deane-Drummond and B. Szerszynski (eds), Re-Ordering Nature: Theology, Society and the New Genetics (London: T & T Clark/Continuum, 2003). (Also presented as a lecture for the Christendom Trust conference in January 2002, see below, ‘Genetically Modified Theology’.)
- C. Deane-Drummond (ed.), Brave New World: Theology, Ethics and the Human Genome (London: Continuum, 2003)
- C. Deane-Drummond, The Ethics of Nature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004)
- C. Deane-Drummond, Genetics and Christian Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006 )
- C. Deane-Drummond and Peter Scott (eds), Future Perfect? God, Medicine and Human Identity (Continuum, 2006)
- C. Deane-Drummond, Wonder and Wisdom: Conversations in Science, Spirituality and Theology (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2006)
- C. Deane-Drummond (ed.), Teilhard de Chardin on People and Planet (Equinox, 2006)
The support from the Christendom Trust has been fully acknowledged in all these publications.
Further details and inquiries about the MA programme or research opportunities can be obtained from Professor Celia Deane-Drummond at trs.crb@chester.ac.uk, University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester, CH1 4BJ. Tel: 01244 375444.
Return to Some of the past work the Trust has supported