The theology division has introduced a brand new minor in theology, science, and know-how that goals to mix the humanistic strategy of the Jesuit custom with each scientific and technical fields.
“This is a minor that predisposes a willingness to integrate,” stated Theology Department Chair Rev. Andrea Vicini, S.J. “What we learn in theology helps us to be ready to face the complex challenges in our world that we are experiencing.”
Vicini, the Michael P. Walsh Professor of Bioethics, describes the minor as one that’s deeply rooted in the Jesuit custom, a set of beliefs he describes as marked by the intersectionality of disciplines with an eye fixed for innovation.
“Jesuits have a very long tradition of combining the humanities and the sciences since the beginning,” Vicini stated. “Personally, I’m a scientist and a theologian, so that unity for me is part of the way in which I—as a human being—experience a multiplicity of interests.”
Vicini is adamant about infusing the same ardour for interdisciplinary research in those that choose up the minor.
“We are trying to help students in the minor to find ways to create that [interdisciplinary] unity while they deepen their interest throughout their college years,” Vicini stated.
The minor would require college students to finish 18 credit, together with one laboratory science, one know-how or utilized science, two programs in science and know-how in context, and one theology and science.
Applications for the minor open in January, with an preliminary cohort of 15 college students.
Jeffrey Cooley, a pioneer of the minor together with Vicini and others, cites Boston College’s dedication to theology as an important issue for the minor’s inception.
“I think BC’s historical commitment to theology on the one hand and its ever-growing investment in the sciences and engineering on the other have made the university an ideal location for this enterprise,” Cooley, an affiliate professor in theology, wrote to The Heights.
Cooley is assured that college students will graduate from the minor with a broader, extra reflective understanding of themselves and the braveness to tackle the world, citing the interdisciplinary capstone course as a catalyst.
“[The capstone] will provide a deliberative intellectual space in which students critically consider and reflect on their academic experiences in theology, science, and technology at BC up to that point,” Cooley wrote. “It will encourage them to thoughtfully prepare for their lives and vocations beyond their time at Boston College as undergraduates in the light of those experiences.”
In the same vein, Vicini believes that college students who take part in the minor will achieve a broader view of the strands that join many disciplines throughout the University, a ability that can profit future leaders.
“We hope the students will further develop ways of seeing how what they do in a lab is not separate from what they can experience spiritually,” Vicini stated. “The future leaders have to be able to create a synthesis between different disciplinary interests and then benefit from the diversity of different disciplines that, for many others, are separate.”
According to Cooley, the minor is greatest suited to any scholar who might really feel compelled by its mission. He believes, nevertheless, that STEM-oriented college students might achieve essentially the most from its lab and know-how options.
“In principle, the program is suited for anyone who is curious or passionate about the intersection of theology, science, and technology,” Cooley wrote. “I imagine in many cases it will be simplest for students majoring in the natural sciences, global public health, pre-health programs, engineering, or computer science.”
To Vicini, the minor shouldn’t simply be thought-about as a way for higher educating the particular person, but additionally as a way of higher serving these exterior of oneself.
“We embrace the complexity of the world as creatures that have been created in order to find ways to be in this world and learn how it works, and also find ways to make it a better place for humankind,” Vicini stated.
Cooley is assured the University’s robust pillars of progress, rooted in theology, enable college students a premier alternative for such a minor.
“At BC, we seek to find God in all things, and the minor will provide students with a distinctive path to pursue this search,” Cooley wrote.