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Kirk Wegter McNelly

Kirk Wegter McNelly

Kirk Wegter-McNelly is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, Bronx, New York, where he teaches courses focused on the relation between religion and science. He received his doctorate in systematic and philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, in 2003. He also holds an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, and a B.A. in physics from Central College, Pella, Iowa. After college Kirk lived for a year in mountainous Western Pennsylvania supervising volunteer groups working on low-income housing rehabilitation projects. Prior to his theological studies, he also spent a year working at the University of Nebraska’s Medical Center in Omaha as part of a research team investigating the etiology of alcoholic liver disease.

In 1992 Kirk joined Princeton Seminary’s Dr. Wentzel van Huyssteen to explore the relation of theological rationality to scientific epistemology; in the spring of 1995 he received the seminary’s first Neidhardt Prize in Theology and Science. In the fall of the same year, Kirk joined Dr. Robert John Russell at the GTU to pursue doctoral studies and became intimately involved in activities of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, a GTU affiliate. He worked closely with the editors of the CTNS/Vatican Observatory Research Series to produce two volumes dealing with divine action, one focused on evolutionary biology and the other on the neurosciences. Most recently, he served as co-editor for the latest volume of the series, Quantum Mechanics: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (CTNS/VO, 2001). He also served as co-editor for a CTNS volume of interviews and essays with scientists entitled, Science and the Spiritual Quest: New Essays by Leading Scientists (Routledge, 2002).

Kirk’s own research focuses on the engagement between Christian theology and contemporary physics. His essay, “Difference in Theology of Nature: The Strategies of Intelligibility and Credibility,” was awarded the New England Center for Faith and Science Exchange’s Publishing Prize in Science and Religion and was subsequently published in Journal of Faith and Science Exchange (vol. 4, 2000). His dissertation, “The World, Entanglement, and God,” offers a reassessment of relationality within creation in light of the latest scientific advances and philosophical reflection on the remarkable phenomenon of quantum entanglement.

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Topic Sets Available

AAAS Report on Stem-Cells

AstroTheology: Religious Reflections on Extraterrestrial Life Forms

Agency: Human, Robotic and Divine
Becoming Human: Brain, Mind, Emergence
Big Bang Cosmology and Theology (GHC)
Cosmic Questions Interviews

Cosmos and Creator
Creativity, Spirituality and Computing Technologies
CTNS Content Home
Darwin: A Friend to Religion?
Demystifying Information Technology
Divine Action (GHC)
Dreams and Dreaming: Neuroscientific and Religious Visions'
E. Coli at the No Free Lunchroom
Engaging Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: An Adventure in Astro-Ethics
Evangelical Atheism: a response to Richard Dawkins
Ecology and Christian Theology
Evolution: What Should We Teach Our Children in Our Schools?
Evolution and Providence
Evolution and Creation Survey
Evolution and Theology (GHC)
Evolution, Creation, and Semiotics

The Expelled Controversy
Faith and Reason: An Introduction
Faith in the Future: Religion, Aging, and Healthcare in the 21st Century

Francisco Ayala on Evolution

From Christian Passions to Scientific Emotions
Genetic Engineering and Food

Genetics and Ethics
Genetic Technologies - the Radical Revision of Human Existence and the Natural World

Genomics, Nanotechnology and Robotics
Getting Mind out of Meat
God and Creation: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on Big Bang Cosmology
God, Humanity and the Cosmos: A Textbook in Science and Religion
God the Spirit - and Natural Science
Historical Examples of the Science and Religion Debate (GHC)
History of Creationism
Intelligent Design Coming Clean

Issues for the Millennium: Cloning and Genetic Technologies
Jean Vanier of L'Arche
Nano-Technology and Nano-ethics
Natural Science and Christian Theology - A Select Bibliography
Neuroscience and the Soul
Outlines of the Science and Religion Debate (GHC)

Perspectives on Evolution

Physics and Theology
Quantum Mechanics and Theology (GHC)
Questions that Shape Our Future
Reductionism (GHC)
Reintroducing Teleology Into Science
Science and Suffering

Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (CTNS/Vatican Series)

Space Exploration and Positive Stewardship

Stem-Cell Debate: Ethical Questions
Stem-Cell Ethics: A Theological Brief

Stem-Cell Questions
Theistic Evolution: A Christian Alternative to Atheism, Creationism, and Intelligent Design...
Theology and Science: Current Issues and Future Directions
Unscientific America: How science illiteracy threatens our future
Will ET End Religion?

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