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Religious Studies
Professor Kirk Wegter-McNelly

Kirk Wegter-McNelly

Dona and Marshall Robinson Assistant Professor of Science, Philosophy and Religion Program in Religious Studies
Lamont 203
(518) 388-6214
wegtermk@union.edu
Religious Studies, STS

Additional media

Areas of interest

I am a theologian who studies how cultural developments, especially those related to the sciences, affect religious beliefs and behaviors. The courses I teach typically focus on the relationship between the religious dimensions of life, on the one hand, and some prevalent aspect of contemporary culture, such as science, food, or literature, on the other hand. I am currently developing an approach to the study of theology in which religious claims are evaluated from a secular perspective as hypotheses to be investigated alongside those of science. My analysis hinges on the notion that not all hypotheses worth considering are testable.

Selected Publications

  • The Entangled God: Divine Relationality and Quantum Physics. Routledge, 2011.
  • “Fundamental Physics and Religion.” In The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science. Edited by Philip Clayton and Zachary Simpson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  • Science and the Spiritual Quest: New Essays by Leading Scientists. Routledge, 2002 (co-edited with Mark Richardson, Robert John Russell, and Philip Clayton).
  • Quantum Mechanics: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action. Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences/Vatican Observatory, 2001 (Co-edited with Robert John Russell, Philip Clayton, and John Polkinghorne).

Academic credentials

B.A., Central College; M.Div., Princeton Theological Seminary; Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union