"Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories"

Pontifical Gregorian University
Rome, 3-7 March 2009

A century and a half since Charles Darwin's “The origin of species”, cornerstone of evolutionary biology, and after very important recent scientific developments, this issue of biological evolution deserves a careful and serious reconsideration from a scientific point of view as well as in a philosophical and theological perspective, avoiding the ideological positions that have often dominated the debate.

With this conviction and with the more general purpose of promoting a fair and fruitful dialectical relationship between Science, Philosophy and Theology, the Pontifical Gregorian University, in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA), under the high patronage of the Pontifical Council for Culture and in the framework of the STOQ Project (Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest), is organizing a series of workshops and an International Conference.

The whole initiative aims at giving its contribution to the idea that Science, on the one hand, and Theology, on the other, represent different fields of analysis and interpretation, though often they are incorrectly overlapped, causing confusion and ideological controversies.

A serious philosophical reflection can be a benefit for both Science and Theology, showing where points of convergence can be found and how these fields could be integrated.