John F. Haught, research professor in Georgetown University’s theology department, will discuss “Science, Theology and Pope Francis’ Ecological Vision,” at Gonzaga University’s Flannery Lecture in March.
“Unless we feel that we truly belong to the natural world, as Pope Francis points out, we will lack sufficient incentive to take care of it as our home,” Haught said in a press release.
Haught contends there is currently a broken connection between humans and nature that has been sanctioned by the notion that the universe has no point, meaning or purpose.
“It is difficult for living and thinking beings, after all, to feel a warm relationship to a universe that seems essentially lifeless and mindless,” he said in the press release.
Haught’s presentation will explore Pope Francis’ affirmation in “Laudato si,” his landmark 2015 encyclical on the environment, that the universe indeed has a purpose, namely: to bring about the self-justifying value of beauty.
Th lecture will be at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 2 in the Cataldo Hall Globe Room at Gonzaga. The event is free and open to the public.
I am eternally grateful to Father Tyrrell for introducing me to this man’s work, and I very much hope to make it.