I am looking forward to presenting a paper at an ing colloquium in Berekely on July 16-20: “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem: Dialogue between Philosophy and Theology in the 21st Century.”

From the colloquium press release:

The Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus (Western U.S.A.) and its center of studies, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, will host a colloquium to discuss the intersection of philosophy and theology, titled: “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Dialogue between Philosophy and Theology in the 21st Century.” Scheduled for July 16-20, 2014, in Berkeley, California, the event will gather scholars from academia and from the Dominican Order throughout the world. Philosophers and theologians will explore the theological implications of current work in philosophy, as well as philosophical questions that arise in theology today. This is to be the first of a triennial series on the intersection between philosophy and theology.

Plenary session presenters include John Searle from the University of California at Berkeley and Michael Dodds, OP, from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, as well as many others from around the world, including Edward Feser (Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California), Alfred Freddoso (University of Notre Dame), John O’Callaghan (University of Notre Dame), Michał Paluch, OP (Dominican House of Studies, Krakow, Poland), Robert Sokolowski (Catholic University of America), and Linda Zagzebski (University of Oklahoma). Details, including registration information, may be found at www.dspt.edu/conversation2014.

I presented a paper in 2009 at the Claremont Philosophy of Religion Conference that focused on the question of Stoic philosophical currents in the New Testament (here). I am excited to further explore this historical interaction between philosophy and theology this summer. The title of my paper is “Alive from the Dead: Asceticism between Athens and Jerusalem, Ancient and Modern, East and West.”

The broader discussion is one likely of interest to our readers. Economics began as a sub-discipline of moral philosophy, and I at least firmly believe that both economists and theologians — just as much as philosophers and theologians — have much to learn from one another today. As the Dutch Reformed theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper once said, “Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest.” While, naturally, some tensions between disciplines persist and have no easy resolution, that does not overshadow the many fascinating areas patibility and convergence nor, by any means, do away with the necessity and fruitfulness of such dialogue.

If you will be in the Berkeley area this July 16-20 (or even if you wouldn’t be otherwise), I would encourage you to attend this colloquium and participate in the discussion.

More information, including a tentative schedule, can be found here.