WEEK 8
12 March 11am-12.30pm (Seminar in the Gibson Building)
5pm-6.30pm (Lecture in the Gibson Building)
Dr Bethany Sollereder, University of Edinburgh
11am Seminar: ‘Pentecostal meets Process: A Patchwork Quilt Model of Divine Action’
Abstract: The Divine Action Project worked to show that God could work through objective non-interventionist ways. In short: miracles are possible, but only through specific “loose joints” in the laws of nature. In this paper, I draw on Pentecostal and Process perspectives to argue that miracles are possible. Not just through the loop holes of the universe’s laws, but also through direct intervention of the type that is often avoided in respectable theological company.
5pm Lecture: ‘A Theology of Hope for Climate Change Failure’ Abstract: The chances of averting dramatic climate change now seems like a lost hope. What can theology offer in times when hope needs renewal? This lecture will draw from Jonathan Lear’s book Radical Hope and from theological and ecological resources to offer theoretical and practical avenues of hope in light of a changing global environment.
Dr Bethany Sollereder is a Lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of Edinburgh. She specialises in theology, evolution and the problem of suffering. She is currently working on theological aspects of climate change. Bethany received her PhD in Theology from the University of Exeter and taught at the University of Oxford. She is the author of God, Evolution, and Animal Suffering: Theodicy without a Fall (2020) and Why is there Suffering? Pick your own theological expedition (2021) and co-editor of the volumes Emerging Voices in Science and Theology: Contributions by Young Women (2022) and Progress in Theology: Does the Queen of the Sciences Advance? (2025)