Kennedy Lecture

The Kennedy Lecture is an annual event that is the gift of Thomas and Richard Kennedy, in memory of their parents, Keith and Joan Kennedy. This series aims to challenge us and to stimulate thinking by engaging prominent persons in the field of religion and ethics. It is held on a Saturday morning and is open to all at no charge.

Our next lecture...

Guy J. Consolmagno, SJ

"The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Search for God"

   Below are the lecture notes from Br. Guy

   Consolmagno's  presentation: 

   Lecture Notes (Word format)

   Lecture Notes (PDF format)

(click on a topic below for more information)
Topic
About the Speaker

Location

Parking

Past Lecturers

Committee 

Topic

1. Cosmology -- how we understand our place in the Universe, Biblically and today. The cosmology of the times when Genesis was written was actually very different from that during the time of Christ, and of course very different from today's cosmology. St. Paul insists, however, that rather than trying to "fit" Christ into any contemporary cosmology, the important truths are those that remain the same no matter how we thing the universe works.

2. What does the Star of Bethlehem story tells us about how God speaks to us through creation? Whether you think Matthew's account is a pious story or an incomplete account of planetary occultations, the very fact that this story was written into the Gospel and has generated so much inspiration throughout history tells us important things about ourselves and the way we use the physical universe to get to know what God is trying to tell us.

3. Surprised by joy in the heavens -- why do we do astronomy? It doesn't make us rich or famous... but it is something that everyone finds fascinating, from the Pope to the kids I met in my Peace Corps days in Africa. The Italian word for an amateur astronomer is an "astrophilo" -- one who loves stars. What does this love tell us about our own human longings? How is this hunger also a hunger for God? And how is the joy of discovery like the joy of prayer?

About the Speaker

Consolmagno attended the University of Detroit Jesuit High School before he obtained his B.A. (1974), M.A. (1975) degrees at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. (1978) at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, all in planetary science. After postdoctoral research and teaching at Harvard College Observatory and MIT, in 1983 he joined the US Peace Corps to serve in Kenya for two years, teaching astronomy and physics. After his return he took a position as Assistant Professor at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

In 1989 he entered the Society of Jesus, and took vows as a brother in 1991. On entry into the order, he was assigned as an astronomer to the Vatican Observatory, where he also serves as curator of the Vatican Meteorite collection, positions he has held since then. In addition to his continuing professional work in planetary science, he has also studied philosophy and theology.

His research is centered on the connections between meteorites and asteroids, and the origin and evolution of small bodies in the solar system. In addition to over 40 refereed scientific papers, he has co-authored several books on astronomy for the popular market, which have been translated into multiple languages. During 1996, he took part in the Antarctic Search for Meteorites, ANSMET, where he discovered a number of meteorites on the ice fields of Antarctica. An asteroid was named in his honor by the International Astronomical Union, IAU in 2000: 4597 Consolmagno, also known as "Little Guy".

He believes in the need for science and religion to work alongside one another rather than as competing ideologies. In 2006, he said, "Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism – it's turning God into a nature god." Consolmagno was recently the Chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, serving from October 2006 to October 2007.

Consolmagno is a popular speaker as well as a writer of popular science. He has been a guest of honor at several science fiction conventions, including ConFusion and Duckon, in his native state of Michigan in 2002, Boskone in 2007, and ConClave in 2009. He was an invited participant in Scifoo in 2008 as well. He appeared on The Colbert Report in December, 2009 to promote his book, The Heavens Proclaim.

Bibliography

• Worlds Apart (with Martha W. Schaefer, Prentice Hall, 1993)
• Turn Left at Orion (with Dan M. Davis, Cambridge University Press, 1995)
• The Way to the Dwelling of Light (University of Notre Dame Press, 1998)
• Brother Astronomer, Adventures of a Vatican Scientist (McGraw Hill, 2000) Review
• Intelligent Life in the Universe? Catholic belief and the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life (Catholic Truth Society, 2005)
• God's Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make Sense of Religion (Jossey-Bass, 2007)
• The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican (Vatican Observatory Publications, 2009)

Location (handicap accessible)

St. Peter Catholic Church (for lecture)

Biss Hall (for coffee & registration)

501 S. Tryon Street

Between Stonewall and 2nd St. (now M.L. King Jr. Blvd.)

Charlotte, NC 28202

Parking

There is free parking for all St. Peter events in the underground parking lot, “The Green,” to the left of the church, on S. Tryon Street. Look for signs and for people to direct you. There are elevators from all the parking levels.

Past Lecturers

2000    Sidney Callahan                          Tomorrow’s Church: New Roles for Men and Women

2001    Megan McKenna                          Parables: Visiting the Kingdom 

2002    Stanley Hauerwas                       Why the American Way of Death is not the Christian Way

2003    James F. Keenan, S.J.               Living With an Adult Conscience

2004    Susan A. Ross                             Women’s Work as Unopened Gift

2005    Luke Timothy Johnson               Faith and Possessions

2006    Thomas J. Reese, S.J.               Survial Guide for Thinking Catholics

2007    Shawn Copeland                         Who is My Neighbor?

2009    Edward Kessler                           Challenges in Jewish-Christian Relations

2010    Margaret O'Brien Steinfels         Reinventing Catholic

2011    Fr. William O'Neill, SJ                 Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration
                                                                          and its Theological Origins 

Kennedy Lecture Committee

Cynthia Aziz
Lou Bonaiuto, Co-Chair
Stephen Keener

Jan Valder Offerman
Martha Schmitt, Co-Chair

Ann Weber

Missy Weld