Topics

          It is in this perspective that we plan to undertake our project “Cosmos in Science and Religion”. We will focus on the representations of the Universe-Cosmos, as developed by Science and Religion. The two paradigms (Cosmos in Science vs Cosmos in Religion) will be compared and analyzed. The main topics to be approached, through seminars and colloquia, are:

1. Cosmogenesis
   How the world was born. Cosmogenesis in ancient mythologies. Cosmogenesis and ancient greek thought. Genesis and Bible.
2. The birth of Science
   The ancient Ionians. Logic and beauty in Cosmos. The founding beliefs of Science. The first scientific systems. Democritos, Platonic Timeos, Aristotle. Physics and Metaphysics.
3. Cosmos and Religion
   Nature and God. St. Maximos the confessor and the unification of knowledge. Creation as Eucharist. Nature and “the image of image”. The salvation of Nature.
4. Scientific Revolution and the Break
   The premises of the Scientific Revolution. Descartes, Leibniz, Newton. The new outlook. The supremacy of the subject and the reign of quantity. Classical Mechanics. The conflict with Religion.
5. Creation and Evolution
   Darwin and the new discoveries in biology. Creation, an instantaneous act, or a continuous process? The human being and the rest of Nature.
6. 20th Century Science and the new Encounter
   Mathematics and Physics of the 20th Century. Cantor's infinities, Godel's theorem. Quantum Mechanics. Levels of knowledge and triadic structures. The paradigm of Charles Sanders Peirce. The theology of Pavel Florensky. The apophatic tradition. Cosmos as a domain of convergence among Science and Religion.