Join us in returning religion to evolution
We will hold our annual conference virtually Friday, May 2 through Sunday, May 4Â (in Eastern US time zone). Sessions will be held Friday evening and all day Saturday, with closing remarks and a shared liturgical service on Sunday morning. Learn more below and contact us with questions.
For student scholarships, submit this application and our team will follow up with registration instructions.
Vision
According to recent Pew Studies, religion is waning as spiritual secularism is rising. While the data has sounded alarm bells, there may be good reason why religion has become irrelevant while spirituality has become a cultural icon.
This conference aims to suture the relationship between religion and spirituality by relocating religion at the heart of cosmic life.
Religion has not gone away but it is advancing in new ways. Formal or institutional religion has sidetracked the modern person by placing constraints around religion and segregating its core energies in creeds and doctrines. Teilhard de Chardin realized that religion is essential to the direction of evolution. We will explore how a renewed sense of religion in evolution can reinvigorate planetary life, especially in an age of technology.Â
Conference Speakers
Philip Clayton
Dr. Philip Clayton is a scholar working at the intersection of philosophy, theology, and science, with a recent focus on ecotheology—exploring the connections between climate science, ethics, religion, and social philosophy. He has held the Ingraham Chair at Claremont School of Theology, directed its PhD program in comparative theologies and philosophies, and published over two dozen books and 350 articles. Clayton is President of the Institute for Ecological Civilization and the Institute for the Postmodern Development of China, both of which promote sustainable societies through global collaboration and education. He has also served in senior academic leadership roles and contributed to major interfaith events, including the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
Ilia Delio
Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD, is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC, and an American theologian specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics, and neuroscience and the import of these for theology.
Ilia currently holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University and is the author of twenty books, including "Care for Creation" (coauthored with Keith Warner and Pamela Woods), which won two Catholic Press Book Awards in 2009: first place for social concerns and second place in spirituality. Her book "The Emergent Christ" won a third-place Catholic Press Book Award in 2011 for the area of Science and Religion. Her recent books include "The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love" (Orbis, 2013), which received the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award and a third-place Catholic Press Association Award for Faith and Science. Ilia holds two honorary doctorates, one from St. Francis University in 2015, and one from Sacred Heart University in 2020.
John F. Haught
John F. Haught (Ph. D. Catholic University, 1970) is Distinguished Research Professor, Georgetown University, Washington DC. He was formerly Professor in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University (1970-2005) and Chair (1990-95). His area of specialization is systematic theology, with a particular interest in issues pertaining to science, cosmology, evolution, ecology, and religion. He is the author of 24 books including God After Einstein: What’s Really Going on in the Universe? (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022)
 and The Cosmic Vision of Teilhard de Chardin (Maryknoll: Orbis Press, 2021)
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Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Grace Ji-Sun Kim (Ph.D. University of St. Michael’s College) was born in Korea, educated in Canada and now teaches in the USA as Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion. She is the author or editor of 24 books, most recently, When God Became White, Surviving God, Invisible, and Spirit Life. Kim is the host of Madang podcast which is sponsored by the Christian Century. She blogs on her substack: Loving Life and has written for Huffington Post, The Nation, Sojourners, Baptist News Global, Faith and Leadership and TIME. Kim has appeared on MSNBC, PBS and C-Span. She has been a guest on BBC Radio, ABC Soul Search Radio, WBEZ Radio, and Keep Hope Alive Radio. She is a book series Co-Editor for Palgrave Macmillan Series, “Asian Christianity in the Diaspora,” and has served on the American Academy of Religion’s Board of Directors. Kim is honored to be included in the Englewood Review of Book’s list of “Ten Important Women Theologians That You Should Be Reading” and Sojourners included Kim as one of “8 Christian Women Shaping the Church in 2023.” Englewood Review of Books included her latest book, When God Became White, in their list of “15 Important Theology Books of 2024”. She is an ordained PC(USA) minister and enjoys being a guest preacher on most Sundays.
Robert Nicastro
Robert Nicastro is a Ph.D. candidate in the Theology and Religious Studies program at Villanova University. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Arts in Theology from Saint Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland. His research focuses on the interrelationship of contemporary science, philosophy, and theology, and the implications of a coherent metaphysical worldview for addressing issues of social and enhancement technologies. He recently defended his dissertation, titled The Future as Sole Support: Metaphysics, Hyperphysics, and the Theology of Teilhard de Chardin.
Thomas Jay Oord
Thomas Jay Oord, Ph.D., is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord directs the Center for Open and Relational Theology and doctoral students at Northwind Theological Seminary. He is an award-winning author and has written or edited more than thirty books. A gifted speaker, Oord lectures at universities, conferences, churches, and institutions. He is known for his contributions to research on love, science and religion, open and relational theology, the problem of suffering, and advocacy for the full inclusion of queer people.Â
Session Schedule and Details
All times are in Eastern Time (ET) | GMT-4 (New York). Please adjust accordingly if you're in a different time zone.
Friday, May 2nd
7:00 PM | Introduction and Welcome
7:15 – 8:30 PM | Ilia Delio
From Monotheism to Undivided Wholeness: Second Axial Religion
Teilhard de Chardin claimed that the principles of Christianity were compatible with the principles of evolution and spoke of Christianity as a religion of evolution. His ideas have been largely rejected, however, by theologians who insist that Greek metaphysics can be reconciled with modern science. Can religious doctrine be changed in an age of science? Ilia Delio will discuss the fears, hopes, and challenges of a new theology in a scientific age.
Saturday, May 3rd
9:00 – 10:15 AM | Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Earthbound: God at the Intersection of Climate and Justice
Climate change is deeply intertwined with theological perspectives on God and is intersectional as various issues come together to continue to affect climate change. Furthermore, if we continue to view God in masculine and patriarchal images and metaphors, then we will continue to live a destructive life toward the Earth. God in patriarchal terms legitimizes our acts of domination towards the Earth. To foster a sustainable relationship with the planet, it is imperative to reimagine God through new metaphors that emphasize care, interconnectedness, and stewardship. Such a theological shift can inspire collective action toward planetary solidarity and ecological justice.Â
This presentation argues that addressing climate change requires not only systemic change but also a transformation in how we conceptualize the divine. By challenging patriarchal theological frameworks and embracing inclusive, life-affirming metaphors, we can reorient our relationship with the Earth and work together to safeguard the planet for future generations.
10:30 – 11:45 AM | Robert Nicastro
God Beyond Creeds: A New Theology for a New World
This presentation weaves together the insights of Teilhard de Chardin with the rich witness of scripture to reclaim the central biblical metaphor of love—not as sentiment, but as the source of creativity that binds all things together, inspires the unfolding process of life, and bears the strongest resemblance to the nature of God. In a cosmos where relationship forms the very fabric of existence, love emerges as the generative energy driving the universe toward greater complexity, unity, and consciousness. We will explore how this vision invites a new theology for our moment—one that embraces mystery, affirms evolution, and dares to speak of God not as a distant architect, but as the living pulse of wholeness and transformation at the heart of the world.
1:30 – 2:45 PM | Philip Clayton
When Religion Embraces the Evolving Cosmos and the Two Become OneÂ
As the title suggests, Philip Clayton has decided to accept Ilia Delio’s bold challenge and run with it. If religio means “re-binding,” what happens when we re-bind religion to the sacred, freeing it from institutions and dogmas so that it can re-join the cosmos in motion? The journey will take us to Teilhard de Chardin and Whitehead, of course, but also to an even wider universe of process resources, to the self-styled “evolutionaries,” to hope and the primacy of the future, and to the place where “contingent moral realism” and “contingent christological realism” meet. In these (somewhat chaotic) places the centre cannot hold, immanent and transcendent fuse, and ― at least in principle ― the walls between the religious and the spiritual begin to collapse.
3:00 – 4:15 PM | John F. Haught
Rethinking Resurrection in the Age of Science
Resurrection hope implies that what is most real, essential, and alive can take hold of us only as we turn toward the Future. We can arrive at a sense of cosmic meaning and a feeling for life not by looking toward what lies fixed in the past, or descends from eternity, but by allowing ourselves—and the rest of nature—to be grasped by the coming of the Future. Only by adopting the posture of cosmic hope, in other words, may we begin to encounter the fullness of being, the realness of life and the meaning of Resurrection. In order to do so, however, Christian theology needs to recover from its Platonic captivity and return to the embrace of a more Abrahamic appreciation of time.
7:00 – 7:30 PM | 2025 C4C Award Presentation
7:30 – 8:30 PM | Audience Q&A with Speakers
Sunday, May 4th
9:00 – 10:15 AM | Thomas Jay Oord
Ten Ways to Rethink Religion in Light of Science
Both the scientific consensus and the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary science offer resources for religion. In fact, we should rethink some religious beliefs and commitments in light of science. In this lecture, Thomas Jay Oord identifies particular scientific claims or assumptions that can help religion—especially Christianity—adopt a more coherent and experientially satisfying account of God and reality.
10:30 – 11:15 AM | Panel Discussion
11:30 – 12 PM | Closing Ritual with Emily DeMoor
12 PM | Closing Remarks from Ilia DelioÂ
Register
For student scholarships, submit this application and our team will follow up with registration instructions.
Registration grants online access to all programming via Zoom. Access information and other updates will be sent to the email provided. All registrants will receive recordings of the sessions within two weeks of the event.