Religion Seminar Series
Butler Series 2024-2025: Religion and the Mind
This year’s Butler University Series on Religion and Society will focus on Religion and the Mind. We will explore questions like: What happens in the brain during meditation or prayer? Can AI understand or even participate in faith commitments? How do psychedelics impact religious experience? And what are the roles of religious traditions as resources for mental health? All events are free and open to the public and BCR credit for Butler students. Join us to explore these questions and more as we learn about the important intersections between religion and our understanding of the mind.
All events are 7:00–8:30 PM.
Free and open to the public. For more information about the series and virtual attendance, visit butlerartscenter.org
For accessibility information or to request disability-related accommodations, please visit www.butler.edu/event-accommodations.
Butler Cultural Requirement (BCR)
Mysticism and the Brain
September 24 | Shelton Auditorium
7:00–8:30 PM.
What happens in the brain when a Buddhist monk meditates? When a Catholic nun prays? When an Evangelical Protestant loses themselves in singing? At the turn of the millennium Dr. Andrew Newberg represented a pioneering voice in a field that did not yet exist, namely the neuroscientific study of religious experience. Much has changed in the past 25 years, as neuroscientists and theologians have studied this aspect of human mental experience. In this first public lecture of the series, audiences will hear from Newberg as a leading expert in the field he helped create. Newberg is the author of the classic book Why God Won’t Go Away as well as multiple other studies including How God Changes Your Brain, Neurotheology, and The Varieties of Spiritual Experience.
Dr. Andrew B. Newberg is the Research Director at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital in Philadelphia. He has published over 250 peer reviewed articles and chapters on brain function, brain imaging, and the study of religious and mystical experiences. Two of his relevant books include The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives (Oxford University Press), and The Rabbi’s Brain: Mystics, Moderns, and the Science of Jewish Thinking (Turner).
Religion and Artificial Minds
October 29 | Shelton Auditorium
7:00–8:30 PM.
While many of us have long found AI fascinating, it is largely since the splash made by ChatGPT that the general public has become aware of just how much progress has been made in the realm of artificial intelligence. Few computer science departments include a theologian, which makes Dr. Anne Foerst and St. Bonaventure University quite unique. With degrees in both computer science and theology, Foerst is the author of the book God in the Machine: What Robots Teach Us about Humanity and God as well as numerous articles that explore key questions at this important and timely intersection.
Butler University’s Professor of Computer Science, Dr. Ankur Gupta, will serve as a respondent to Foerst drawing upon his recent work focusing on Artificial Wisdom and Artificial Ethics.
Dr. Anne Foerst is a professor for Computer Science at St. Bonaventure University. Her work focuses on the intersection of AI and theology, especially on the question if robots could be persons. Foerst initiated and directs “God and Computers”, a dialogue project initially between Harvard Divinity School, the Boston Theological Institute, and MIT, and now continued at St. Bonaventure. She is the author of God In the Machine: What Robots Teach Us About Humanity and God.
Dr. Ankur Gupta earned his Ph.D. from Duke University and is an internationally recognized expert in algorithm design and analysis, emphasizing text (and pattern) matching, data compression, and Big Data applications. His most recent work studies the concepts of Artificial Wisdom (supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation) and Artificial Ethics.
Religious Experience and Psychedelics
February 25 | Dugan Hall Room 234
7:00–8:30 PM.
It has been clear for decades that certain mind-altering substances can generate experiences that mirror those of mystics. Rev. Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles has done likewise. Clark-Soles is an American Baptist minister and Professor of New Testament, Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Director of Baptist Studies at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She also had the opportunity to participate in a psilocybin study. Since then, Clark-Soles has been speaking and writing not only about New Testament studies but the use of entheogens, which are more commonly known as psychedelics, as part of and within the context of a life of faith.
Clark-Soles will be joined by respondent Fayzan Rab, a medical student researching the reception of psychedelics in an Islamic context. An array of Butler University professors in pharmacy and health sciences, psychology, neuroscience, and religious studies will also contribute to this cutting-edge interdisciplinary conversation.
The event is made possible with co-sponsorship from the Muslim Studies Endowment.
Rev. Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles is Professor of New Testament and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She is currently writing two books: Psychedelics and Soul Care: What Christians Need to Know (Eerdmans) and The Agony, the Ecstasy, and the Ordinary: Experiencing God in the New Testament. Dr. Clark-Soles serves as a Field Scholar for the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality and is an active member of the Transforming Chaplaincy Psychedelic Care Network. She is certified in Psychedelic Assisted Therapies and Research through CIIS.
Fayzan Rab is a Muslim-American, MD candidate, and psychedelic researcher. His passion is bringing together Eastern wisdom with Western science. Rab’s research focuses on attitudes Muslims have towards new treatment modalities like psychedelic-assisted therapy with a focus on how to integrate these innovations with religious and cultural minorities.
Religion and Mental Health
March 25 | Dugan Hall Room 234
7:00–8:30 PM.
In an era of increasing stress and anxiety, what is the role of religion and spirituality in fostering healthy minds? Prof. Leon Pettiway is Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice at Indiana University as well as the Venerable Lobzang Dorje, a fully ordained monk in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. His academic and personal life have explored the intersection of urban geography, incarceration, spirituality, and wellbeing. These are also major themes in his most recent book Only For the Brave At Heart: Essays Rethinking Race, Crime, and Justice.
Serving as respondents at this event will be Dr. David Gotthelf, a licensed clinical psychologist with extensive experience working in the context of public schools; and Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund, the senior pastor of First Congregational UCC in Indianapolis and the Minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice on the national staff of the United Church of Christ. Lund is the author of multiple books on topics related to mental health.
Dr. Leon E. Pettiway, the Venerable Lobzang Dorje, is Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, Bloomington, and one of the few ordained African American Buddhist monks in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In 2016, he established Dagom Geden Kunkyob Ling Buddhist Monastery in Indianapolis, Indiana. Currently Dorje is interested in the roots of social inequality and how Eastern and Western philosophical traditions relate to criminology and justice, as reflected in his most recent book, Only for the Brave at Heart: Essays Rethinking Race, Crime, and Justice.
The Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund currently serves as Minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice on the national staff of the United Church of Christ where she is a liaison to the UCC Mental Health Network and the UCC Disabilities Ministries Board. Rev. Dr. Lund is the senior pastor of First Congregational UCC of Indianapolis, IN. She is the author of several books on the topic of faith and mental health, her first in a series being Blessed are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness, Family, and Church (2014), and most recently Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness with Children and Teens (2022).
Dr. David Gotthelf is a licensed clinical psychologist and nationally certified school psychologist in both Indiana and Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, Dr. Gotthelf worked for over 30 years as a school psychologist and special education administrator, and for over 20 years in settings providing clinical service to individuals and families. He is an adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department at Butler University.