The Seminary Explores

In this second part of a two-part series, Thomas Rutherford, Licensed Town Guide in Gettysburg Pennsylvania, brings stories of courage and compassion about children amidst the horrors of the Battle of Gettysburg, one as young as 8 or 9 years old: Tillie Pierce, Sadie Bushman, and Charlie McCurdy.

Dr. Leonard Hummel, Professor of Pastoral Theology, Gettysburg Seminary, describes a grant from the Templeton Foundation  that enables the three “c’s”: competencies in science for seminarians, connections with scientists at other institutions and a core that encourages dialogue with science--for example, the connection between a professor of physics and a professor of Old Testament in a course on Genesis and the origins of the universe.

Dr. Collinge discusses the content and context of the encyclical, Laudato si, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi. It is a meditation on created nature and the place of humanity in it. The pope adds something new: he joins the Catholic theology of creation (not anthropology) with the tradition of Catholic social ethics, especially his concern for the poor.