Religion and Innovation in Human Affairs (RIHA)
Exploring the Role of Religion in the Origins of Novelty and the Diffusion of
Innovation in the Progress of Civilizations
Public Discussion
Religion and Innovation in Science, Medicine, and Technology ($165,000). The Center for the
Study of Technology and Society. PI: Adam Keiper
The project is structured around the commissioning, editing, and publishing of essays and
articles in the quarterly journal The New Atlantis. The essays study how science, that great
source of and force for innovation, has intersected with the major faith traditions, both
historically and today; to explore how the scientific enterprise was shaped by the religious
beliefs of its founders; to plumb the relationship between scientific innovation and religion;
and to report on the complicated interplay of religion and medical innovation in the
developing world.
An example of the kind of discussions published under auspice if the RIHA Grants
Program is Timothy Dalrymple’s “Redeeming Technologies,”(The New Atlantis, Sept.
2013). Daltymple discussed the project of charting a new trajectory for redemptive
technological innovation. He asks: how can Christians today stand at the forefront of
emerging technologies, shaping material culture and human experience in profound ways,
and then articulating their work with spiritual depth and theological sophistication? How
can wearable technology, or augmented reality, or nanotechnology, or robotics, or quantum
computing, or organ printing, or technologies still unimagined, be directed overtly to the
alleviation of human suffering, the blossoming of human liberty, or the deepening of human
worship?
Major Outputs:
Articles:
• Andrews, Lewis M. “Character Formation and the Origins of AA,” The New Atlantis: A Journal of
Technology & Society (Winter/Spring 2013): 100-11.
• Blackmer, Stephen D. “The Sacred Power of the World,” The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology &
Society (Winter 2014): 51-62.
• Hurlbut, William. “St. Francis, Christian Love, and the Biotechnological Future,” The New Atlantis:
A Journal of Technology & Society (Winter/Spring 2013): 92-99.
• Hutchinson, Ian H. “The Genius and Faith of Faraday and Maxwell,” The New Atlantis: A Journal of
Technology & Society (Winter 2014): 81-99.
• Jacobs, Alan. “Fantasy and the Buffered Self,” The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology & Society
(Winter 2014): 3-18.
• Nicol, Caitrin. “Doctors Within Borders,” The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology & Society (Fall
2012): 101-12.
Forums/Symposia:
The New Atlantis, Symposium on Science, Technology, and Religion (Summer 2013)
! Rubin, Charles T. “The Golem and the Limits of Artifice”: 56-72
! Bottum, Joseph. “Disenchantment and Its Discontents”: 74-79
! Dalrymple, Timothy. “Redeeming Technologies”: 80-88
! Ahmad, Imad-ad-Dean. “The Trouble with the New ‘Islamic Science’”: 89-100
! Raman, Varadaraja V. “Implicit Science in Hindu Thought”: 101-6
! Verhoeven, Martin J. “Science through Buddhist Eyes,”: 107-18
! Morales, Peter. “Science and the Search for Meaning”: 119-23
The New Atlantis, Symposium on the Religious Beliefs and Practices of Isaac Newton
(forthcoming Aug or Sept 2014)
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