Philip Hefner
| Philip Hefner | |
|---|---|
Philip Hefner
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| Born | December 10, 1932 Denver, Colorado |
| Residence | Chicago |
| Fields |
Systematic Theology Philosophy of Religion Theology of Culture |
| Institutions | Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago |
| Alma mater |
University of Chicago (Ph.D.) Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (B.D.) Midland University (B.A.) |
| Notable students | Ann Pederson, Anne Kull, Mladen Turk, Eduardo Cruz, Stewart Herman |
| Influences | Jaroslav Pelikan, Ralph Wendell Burhoe, Joseph Sittler, Bernard Meland |
Philip Hefner is a professor emeritus of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
His research career has focused on the interaction of religion and science, for which he is most well known. Hefner has held several dozen visiting teaching and lecturing appointments at seminaries, colleges, and universities in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and has taught in numerous Lutheran seminaries in America.
In 1988, Hefner was instrumental in bringing to fruition the vision of Ralph Wendell Burhoe by helping to create the Chicago Center for Religion and Science, which later was renamed the Zygon Center for Religion and Science. He was the first director of the center and remained in that capacity from 1988 until 2003, at which point Antje Jackelén succeeded him.
He is the former editor for Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science the leading journal of religion and science in the world. He retired as editor at the end of 2008. Dutch scholar Willem B. Drees was named as his successor at the Journal. Hefner was four times co-chair of the annual conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS). In this activity he has been a leader in the discussions there on the evolving paradigm of Religious Naturalism. Hefner is a prominent figure in this emergence belief. It distances itself from traditional religions seeing religious aspects in the world which can be appreciated in a naturalistic framework rather than relying on the supernatural. He is an individualist in his approach to it.
Hefner writes - “A second alternative response, often identified as “religious naturalism,” is composed of a cross-section of people, many of whom are scientists, who are fashioning a religious worldview that is consistent with their personal outlook and/or free of those encumbrances of traditional religion which they consider conceptually anachronistic and morally dangerous. Religious naturalism is a variety of naturalism which involves a set of beliefs and attitudes that there are religious aspects of this world which can be appreciated within a naturalistic framework.”
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