Scientist and Theologian Sjoerd L. Bonting to Speak on Chaos Theology for Thursday Night Supper, April 12

The Rev. Prof. Dr. Sjoerd L. Bonting, a biochemist, theologian and author, will speak about his theory of chaos theology on Thursday, April 12, as part of the Thursday
Night Supper Program. At 4:00 p.m. , Bonting will present a proseminar in the
Memorial Room, Second Floor, Faunce House. At 5:00 p.m. , he will then be the guest speaker for the Thursday Night Supper (TNS) Program held at 58 Keene Street, the home of the chaplain of the University, the Rev. Janet Cooper Nelson. Both events are open to the public.

Directions to 58 Keene Street are available here . Learn more about the 40-year tradition of the Thursday Night Supper Program at Brown.

Bonting, who is an ordained Episcopal priest, is the author of Creation and Evolution: Attempt at Synthesis (1996), Human, Chaos, Reconciliation (1998), Between Belief and Unbelief (2000), Chaos Theology: A Revised Creation Theology (2002), and Creation and Double Chaos, Science and Theology in Discussion (2005). His website is titled “Chaos Theology.” In addition to these theological works, he has published 363 scientific papers, edited 9 books, was editor of Advances in Space Biology and Medicine (7 vols.1989-99), and sponsor of 52 Ph.D. dissertations.

Born in 1924 in Amsterdam, Bonting studied chemistry at the University of Amsterdam, receiving a B.Sc. chemistry degree in 1944, an M.Sc. biochemistry degree cum laude in 1950, and a Ph.D. biochemistry degree in 1952, after which he was a postdoctoral fellowship of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. From 1952 to 1960, he worked at the Universities of Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois; then he returned to NIH for five more years. In 1965, he became chairman and professor of biochemistry at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. From 1965 to 1985, he and his students researched the visual system and the active sodium transport system. After a 20-year absence, he returned to the United States as a scientific consultant for NASA at the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, for preparation of biological research on the International Space Station, which he worked on for the next eight years.

While involved with his research at the NIH, Bonting studied theology from 1957 to 1963, and in 1964 he was ordained an Episcopal priest at the Washington Cathedral. When he returned to the Netherlands, he ministered to English-speaking parishes, eventually founding four congregations in Nijmegen, Eindhoven, and Arnhem en Twente between 1965 to 1985. From 1985 to 1993, he was assistant priest at St. Thomas' Church, Sunnyvale, and St. Mark's Church, Palo Alto, in California. Since his return to the Netherlands in 1993, he continues to be active with Anglican congregations there, but his main activity is in the science-theology dialogue.

Image courtesy of Chaos Theology