Science-faith project launches global partnerships

Bringing faith and science together

The Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science (ECLAS) project was established in 2013 to help senior Christian leaders to confidently engage with science.

Its mission is to foster science-engaged theology, brining science and faith together to change the Church’s engagement with science from fear to joy.

Now, as part of a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation, ECLAS is embarking on a five-year project to establish research hubs with partners around the world to explore the impact of different contexts and cultures on equipping Christian leaders to engage with science.

Each of the partner hubs will serve as centres for theological and sociological research into Church leaders’ perspectives on science.

The new research hubs will include:

• St Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya;
• Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland;
• Singapore Bible College, Singapore;
• United Theological College, Bangalore, India.

National and cultural context

This will see the project move beyond Western confines and examine the different geographical, cultural, theological, denominational, national and political settings that church leaders work in.

ECLAS Project Director the Reverend Professor David Wilkinson said: “Our vision is to form a global community of enquiry and practice so that we can understand both the opportunities and challenges that context gives to equipping Christian leadership in an age of science.

“As we learn about different contexts, we’ll learn even more about the limitations and insights of our own context.”

Find out more

• Watch a video about the new ECLAS international partners.
• Visit the ECLAS project website.
• Read our news story about the £6.2m grant for ECLAS from the John Templeton Foundation.