2016-07-27
What can humanoid robots teach us about what it means to be made in the image of God? Can neuroscience prove that functions normally associated with the soul are embedded in the brain's basic circuitry? Join Trinity Institute in exploring how new discoveries about human beings fit with our traditional religious views.



Speakers

Foerst Anne Foerst
Anne Foerst is a Research Scientist at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab and Theological Adviser to MIT's Cog and Kismet robot projects. Her research centers on questions of embodiment and social interaction as central elements of personhood. She is working on a book entitled "On Robots, Humans and God."
Ann Foerst's Vita

Gergen Kenneth Gergen
Kenneth Gergen is the Mustin Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College. He is best known for his widely acclaimed book "The Saturated Self." The proponent of a reform movement in psychology called "social construction," Gergen maintains that "relationships" are primary in shaping human beings.
Kenneth Gergen's Page at Swarthmore


BrownWarren Brown
Warren Brown is Director of the Research Institute for Cognitive Neuropsychology at Fuller Theological Seminary in California and Adjunct Professor at the UCLA Brain Research Institute. Brown has discovered that many of the cognitive faculties unique to human beings are relational in nature.
Fuller Warren Brown's Page at Theological Seminary
Fuller Theological Seminary Faculty Overview - Warren Brown

GuntonColin Gunton
Colin Gunton is Professor of Systematic Theology at King's College, London. He has written a groundbreaking book on the Trinity called "The One, The Three and The Many" and is soon to publish a sequel, "From the Dust of the Earth," that explores the relational nature of being, both divine and human.
Colin Gunton at King's College

HurlbutWilliam Hurlbut
William Hurlbut is a physician and lecturer for the Program in Human Biology at Stanford University, where he teaches a course on "Changing Images of Human Life in the Biotechnical Age." Hurlbut's recent publications focus on empathy as the relational attribute that distinguishes human beings.
More on William Hurlbut



The 32nd Trinity Institute National Conference, entitled "Who Are We?" is produced by Trinity Institute.

Trinity Institute is a continuing education program directed by the Rev. Dr. Frederic B. Burnham and dedicated to theological renewal within the Episcopal Church. It is an outreach ministry of the Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New York, the Rev. Dr. Daniel Paul Matthews, Rector. All rights reserved. Copyright c 2001 Parish of Trinity Church.

Return to this page during the week of May 6 to view videos from Trinity's "Who Are We?" conference, which was held on May 3 and 4.

Topics include:

  • Neuroscience and the soul
  • Cognitive psychology and the sacred
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Evolutionary biology and empathy

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