Is Pope Francis’ recent encyclical on the environment compatible with current scientific thought? What is its vision for the future and how do faith and science work together or separately to point us towards our future and our ultimate meaning? That is the subject of an upcoming lecture in honor of the inauguration of Loyola Marymount University President Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D.
The Wednesday, Sept. 30, lecture by John F. Haught, distinguished research professor in theology at Georgetown University, is the first in a series of events celebrating Snyder’s Oct. 6 inauguration. The lecture starts at 4:30 p.m. in LMU’s Life Sciences Building Auditorium. Snyder, who on June 1 became the university’s 16th president, will provide an introduction.
The university will continue to celebrate Snyder’s inauguration with the dedication of LMU’s new, cutting-edge Life Sciences Building on Monday, Oct. 5. Inauguration Day, Oct. 6, begins with a 10 a.m. Mass, followed at 1:30 p.m. by the Inauguration Ceremony, which is expected to draw university leaders from across the country as well as local dignitaries, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Haught’s lecture – titled “Science, Faith and the Cosmic Future” – will discuss whether the pope’s hope for the cosmic future in his recent encyclical, Laudato Si, is intellectually compatible with the current scientific understanding of nature. In the teaching document, the pope addresses a range of environmental issues and defines climate change as a moral issue for the Church and the people of the world.
Haught is the author of 20 books, including his most recent, “Resting on the Future: Catholic Theology for an Unfinished Universe.” His area of specialization is systematic theology, with a particular interest in issues pertaining to science, cosmology, ecology, and religion.
The lecture, which is sponsored by the Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination, is free and open to the public.
