Dr Ignacio Silva, research fellow at the Philosophy Institute, participated of a consultation at the University of Oxford, organised by SCIO (Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford) and the Protestant Theological University, Groningen. The event, funded by the Templeton Religion Trust, was held at St Hugh’s College, between 29 April and 1 May 2019, and was attended by twenty scholars from Southeast Asia (Sri Lanka), Africa (Kenya), Europe (United Kingdom, Portugal, and the Netherlands), and the Americas (the United States and Argentina). Among the most prominent academics involved were professors Alister McGrath and John H. Brooke, the current and the first Andreas Idreos Professors of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford.

The goal of the event was to carry out a discussion about the notions of universality and catholicity within the framework of the dialogue between science and faith, considering the different geographic and cultural contexts. These discussions contemplated the academic, popular, and indigenous levels, aiming at arriving at a more global narrative of the issues between science and faith then what is usually held in more common discourses about the matter.

Dr Silva gave two presentations: one on the past, present, and future issues for the dialogue between science and theology in Latin America; and the other on the notion of catholicity within the theology of the Roman Catholic Church in the science and faith dialogue.