CTNS is a Program of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), the largest partnership of Catholic and Protestant seminaries, a doctoral program in religion, and centers for other world religions in the US. The GTU provides the ideal context for CTNS's programs in theology and science. This project will assess three major CTNS programs funded by JTF: “Science and Religion Course Program”(SRCP, 1998-2002),“Science and the Spiritual Quest”(SSQ, 1996-2003),and “Science and Transcendence: Advanced Research Series” (STARS, 2005-2008).* The assessment includes three technical written surveys of the approximately 500 participants of these programs and phone interviews with some of them. Outputs include the consultants' reports and the Full Report of the project leader while Outcomes following this project include the wider impact of CTNS’s programs at the GTU and the Bay Area and new grant initiatives inspired by these programs. By the end of the project it will be clear what the future programming should look like with specific guidelines/plans/benchmarks mapped out. Evidence of a wider impact following the end of the project and based on its outputs includes tracking, against baselines, the number of Bay Area scientists, undergraduates, and graduate students CTNS brings to the GTU. The impact of this program should include increased Bay Area recognition of CTNS/GTU for s/r, attendance of our s/r courses and a greater science-in-dialogue culture at the GTU.
*SRCP offered 336 grants of $10,000 to faculty to create new courses in s/r internationally. SSQ identified 120+ world-class scientists committed to spirituality via physics, cosmology, biology, cognitive and computer science. They lectured on all continents and we published their autobiographies. STARS sponsored research by small teams of scientists and humanities scholars on the ways science, in light of philosophical and theological reflection, points towards the nature, character and meaning of ultimate reality.
