Matheny Lecture highlights colloquium on "Medieval Origins of Modern Science"
Contact: Christina Chapple
3/23/06
HAMMOND – The medieval origins of modern science will be the focus of the Southeastern Louisiana University College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’ spring colloquium, April 5-6.
David C. Lindberg, Hilldale Professor Emeritus of the history of science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, will be the colloquium’s special guest. He will present the university’s annual Matheny Lecture on Science and Religion, "The Medieval Church Encounters the Classical Tradition: St. Augustine and Roger Bacon," Thursday, April 6, at 3 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre.
All colloquium lectures are free and open to the campus and community.
On Wednesday, April 5, at 3 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre Lindberg will speak on “The Medieval Myth of the Flat Earth” as part of a panel discussion on “Myths and Reason in the Middle Ages.” He will be joined by Southeastern history professors Jeff Bell and Andrew Traver. Bell will discuss the theology and philosophy of Peter Abelard, while Traver will speak on medieval cartography.
Also on April 5, Lindberg will discuss the famous Galileo affair in a talk entitled "The Florentine Heretic? Galileo, the Church, and the Cosmos" at 7:30 p.m. at St. Albert’s Student Center.
Lindberg is a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, the Académie internationale d’histoire des sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Bellagio Study Center of the Rockefeller Foundation, and a Guggenheim Fellow at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 1994-95, he served as president of the History of Science Society and, in 1999 received the Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society for lifetime scholarly achievement.
He has served on many editorial boards and is general editor of the forthcoming eight-volume “Cambridge History of Science.” Lindberg is the author of “The Beginnings of Western Science,” and “Roger Bacon's Philosophy of Nature.” He is the editor of “God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science” and “When Science and Christianity Meet.”
The colloquium lectures are sponsored by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, St. Albert’s Student Center, the Presbyterian Campus ministry board, the Metanexus Institute of Religion and the Southeastern departments of Biology, Chemistry and Physics, Communication, History and Political Science, Psychology, Sociology and Criminal Justice.
The Matheny Lecture series honors the late Tom Matheny, a Hammond attorney and 1954 Southeastern graduate. Matheny, who was named Southeastern Alumnus of the Year in 1981, had a long and distinguished record of service to the community and to his church, including serving for more than two decades as president of the worldwide Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church. He was also active in numerous civic organizations and as an advocate for the rights of the mentally ill.
For more information, contact Matt Rossano at mrossano@selu.edu or (985) 549-5537.
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