Science and Religion Study Group

The Science and Religion Study Group meets monthly. Attendees are seeking to clarify their own Christian faith and the bridge between science and religion.

Monday January 30, 2012 at 7:15 PM in the Oak Room
*Please note that this date is two weeks later than our usual 3rd Monday.

Is it possible to be a scientifically informed person of faith?

The evening program will center on a 30 minute video presentation with Dr. John Polkinghorne. One of the leading authorities on the relationship between religion and science, Polkinghorne is a distinguished physicist from the University of Cambridge, England, and also an Anglican clergyman. Given his 25 years as a particle physicist he has the standing to back up his observations.

Chuck Smith will host and lead the discussion. The evening will be an excellent opportunity to learn what Science and Religion is all about.

Monday, February 27, 2012 at 7:15PM in the Oak Room
 From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians

This four hour PBS series explores the life and death of Jesus, and the men and women whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom created the religion we now know as Christianity. Drawing upon historical evidence, the series challenges familiar assumptions and conventional notions about Christian origins. Archaeological finds have yielded new understandings of Jesus' class and social status; fresh interpretations have transformed earlier ideas about the identity of the early Christians and their communities.
Through engaging on-camera interviews with twelve scholars--New Testament theologians, archaeologists, and historians--the series presents their contributions to this intellectual revolution.

The scholars together represent a range of viewpoints and diversity of faiths and a shared commitment to bring new ways of thinking about Christianity to a public audience. They discuss the value in a historical approach to Jesus and the Bible and whether Christian faith can be reconciled with such an approach.

Tonight we view Part Two of the four part series exploreing the period just after the crucifixion and resurrection in which the Apostles spread the Gospel around the Eastern Mediterranean, and the first communities of believers began to form in cities such as Antioch and Corinth. A key feature of this period was the rise of The Jesus Movement, so called because the Christian communities had not yet become an organized church. The video presents new, fresh interpretations and scholarly insight into the early years of Christianity.

Contact Doug Clarke 925-330-6972.