Tenure
August 25 – September 14, 2017
Emanuele Ciancio
University of Turin and Convitto Nazionale Umberto I
Emanuele Ciancio earned his Ph.D. at the Politecnico di Torino in theoretical condensed matter physics and spent his postdoctoral period as a researcher in quantum information science at the Institute for Scientific Interchange in Turin. After several years experience in industrial applied research working in the field of plasma technologies, he earned a master’s degree in theology from the Northern Italy Theology Faculty, Turin, and began to work on the relationship between contemporary physics and Christian theology. He enjoys a constant teaching activity both at the university level (University of Turin) and at the high school level. His major research interest is the quest for a renewed understanding of theological concepts in terms of categories of scientific thinking, in particular those issued by quantum mechanics (Quantum Theology). He recently published a monograph (in Italian) dealing with such a topic: The Last Heresy: Science and Religion in Contemporary Debate.
Events
ICE Fellows Lecture: The Kairos of Physics: The Time of God and the Time of Science
September 12, 2017, 4:00-5:00 p.m., Wilder 104
In 1975, the physicist Fritjof Capra published The Tao of Physics about the relationship between modern physics and Eastern mysticism. More than 30 years later, the physicist Anton Zeilinger said: "Not even God knows in advance the result of a quantum measurement." Emanuele Ciancio wants to give a full account of this statement, showing an unsuspected concord with Christian theology. To do so, he refers to the key concept used in the New Testament to speak about time: Kairos. Time as Kairos is opposed to Chronos. He will show that the tension between these two conceptual poles may be found in many controversial issues in the long-standing debate about time in physics.
ICE Special Seminar: Physics as Heresy
September 6, 2017, 2:00-3:00 p.m., Wilder 102
Science and religion are often presented as completely antithetic ways of thinking. However, the Western scientific thought has often developed on the model of religious Christian thought. A close inspection of the thinking categories adopted by science, from Galileo’s and Newton’s mechanics to contemporary quantum physics, shows that in many cases they are unsuspectedly derived directly from Christian theology.
