Co‐creating Knowledge in Perilous Times June 25 to July 2, 2016 – Star Island, New Hampshire Co‐Organizers: Pat Bennett, Ruben Nelson, & John Teske pat@transversalthinking.com, rubennelson@shaw.ca, teskeja@etown.edu

What does knowing and living reliably and humanely now require of us—as persons, communities, institutions and whole societies?

How do we know that these are perilous times? How do we know what is to be done? Does knowing evolve from imagining? How do religious, scientific, and secular traditions differ? What are the biological foundations of morality? What might “know yourself” really mean? What have we been missing in the science/religion dialogue?

These are not abstract questions. Our fate—global, societal and personal—hangs on them. The reason, of course, is that what we commit to doing and becoming is largely a function of what we think we actually know.

Given the destructive culture wars of our time—ecological, economic, societal, political and personal—we simply cannot afford to agree to disagree on what is to be taken as reliably known. Rather, we need dialogues that foster personal and shared learning; we must explore afresh the nature and demands of reliable knowing.

Tensions between the ways of knowing that underlie the sciences and those of other historical, cultural and religious perspectives often inhibit working together for human and planetary well‐being. Pointing to the rapid progress and obvious power of the natural sciences, many assume that only the scientific method fosters reliable ways of knowing. Many scientists, as well as others who emphasize the ambiguities of history and the co‐creative power of persons and communities, disclaim such a contention and emphasize the need for a thorough going self‐critical awareness.

How Can We Know? Co‐creating Knowledge in Perilous Times —the 2016 IRAS Summer Conference—has been designed to explore the above focal question in light of the emerging conditions of the early 21st Century.

The narrative arc of the week and the daily rhythms of the conference are being designed to enable participants to test and expand their own understandings of what it is to know more reliably and live more coherently. We will create an open and respectful atmosphere conducive to dialogue and shared learning among persons with diverse backgrounds.

Each of the main plenary sessions will be centered around a dialogue: first between two invited speakers and then among all participants. The conference will also include a few selected papers, several workshops, and small collaborative groups which use a variety of creative formats.

This is an exceptional opportunity to get away from daily routines long enough to engage in deep and transformative learning; to participate in respectful dialogue informed by scientific, religious, spiritual, and philosophical insights. All of this is on Star Island: a place that is physically beautiful, child and family friendly, and committed to sustainability. A children's program will be available, and babysitting can be arranged.

The Narrative Arc of the Week: We will begin by looking at the complexity of the knowledge required to guide us to an ecologically humane and sustainable planetary civilization. In this light, we will explore and seek to move beyond the limitations of our present scientific, religious, and secular traditions as we seek to meet the challenges of truly inclusive knowing and living.

Confirmed Speakers:

Pat Bennett has a background in medicine and theology, and is currently the program development worker for the Iona Community in Scotland. She was unanimously chosen for the 2014 Research Prize of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology for her doctoral research on Relationality and Health: A Transversal Neurotheological Account of the Pathways Linking Connection, Immune Function, and Health Outcomes. She was organizer of the 2013 IRAS conference on Scientific, Spiritual, and Moral Challenges in Solving the World Food Crisis. Dr. Bennett will also be our Chapel Speaker.

Warren Brown is Director of the Lee Edward Travis Research Institute and Professor of Psychology at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. He has published extensively in scientific journals such as Neuropsychologia, Psychophysiology, Biological Psychiatry, Developmental Neuropsychology, Cortex, Nature Review Neuroscience, and Science. His newest co‐authored books are Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion: Illusions, Delusions, and Realities of Human Nature (2009), and The Physical Nature of Christian Life; Neuroscience, Psychology, and the Church (2012).

Phillip Cary is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern University in St. Davids, PA. He has published Good News for Anxious Christians: 10 Practical Things You DON'T Have to Do (2010), Inner Grace: Augustine in the Traditions of Plato and Paul (2008), Outward Signs: The Powerlessness of External Things in Augustine's Thought (2008), and Augustine's Invention of the Inner Self: The Legacy of a Christian Platonist (2000). He has also taught Teaching Company courses on Philosophy of Religion, Augustine, and Luther. He considers himself a “Postmodern Maclntyrean Orthodox Christian.”

Chris Corbally is a Jesuit astronomer for the Vatican Observatory Research Group, for which he has served as vice‐director, and liaison to its headquarters at Castel Gandolfo, Italy. He is Adjunct Associate Astronomer at the Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, and ministers to a wide variety of Catholics, including Native Americans. He is a past president of IRAS, and co‐organizer for the conference on Life in the Universe. He has published often in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, and is co‐founder of the Human Sentience Project.

Wentzel van Huyssteen was the James J. McCord Professor of Theology and Science at Princeton Theological Seminary for 20 years. He was the author of a major initiative on Transdisciplinarity that was behind the Metanexus conference on Subject, Self, and Soul: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Personhood in Madrid in 2008. He also delivered the Gifford Lectures in Edinburgh in 2004 on Exploring Myth and Meaning in Prehistoric Cave Paintings. He is both the first South African and the first scholar from Princeton Seminary to receive this distinguished honor.

Jonathan Marks is Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He has published extensively in physical anthropology and has served on editorial boards of several journals. He has written What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee (2002) and Why I am Not a Scientist (2009). Major themes of his work and publications include the importance of distinguishing good science from bad science and the application of biological models to human evolution. He is a member of AAAS, and has been a visiting research fellow at the Genomics Forum in Edinburgh, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, and the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study.

Margaret Boone Rappaport is a co‐founder of the Human Sentience Project. A cultural anthropologist, she is a futurist, lecturer, and science fiction novelist. As president of Policy Research Methods, Inc. she was a contractor to federal and state agencies for over twenty years. She earned her doctorate at Ohio State University in 1977 with a dissertation on the adjustment of Cuban refugee women and families. She is also a prize‐winning short‐story and poetry writer.

Louise Sundararajan has doctorates in the history of religions (Harvard) and in counseling psychology (Boston University), chairs the Task Force on Indigenous Psychology for the American Psychological Association, is a past president of the International Society for the Study of Human Ideas, and is a recipient of the Abraham Maslow Award (2014). She has just published Understanding Emotion in Chinese Culture (2015). She sees Eastern and Western cultures as mirror images in terms of rationality, relational thinking, and symmetry or harmony.

John A. Teske is Professor of Psychology at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses on emotion, personality, and the history of psychology. He has published research in several subfields of psychology, as well as a dozen articles in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science and a recent book chapter on the emotional psychology of religious diversity. He is a past president and academic Fellow of IRAS, and co‐organized their conference The Mythic Reality of the Autonomous Individual.

For more information, visit the IRAS website To register, please contact Marion Griswold, Registrar, at mbgriswold@yahoo.com For instructions on how to register online, go to and click on 2016 CONFERENCE REGISTRATION.