News Archive
7 April 2022 Thirteenth Anniversary of the Death of Fr Stanley Jaki
While on his way back home to the United States, Father Jaki passed away on 7 April 2009 in Madrid, Spain.
May he rest in peace!
Our prayers go with him!
Seton Hall University Scholars Forum
21 April 2021 4pm New Jersey Time
Link for this meeting
The Scholars' Forum in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition returns this spring after a successful series of five sessions in the fall. This forum consists of faculty discussing their recently published or soon-to-be published books. It is co-sponsored by the University Core, the Catholic Studies Program, the Catholic Studies Center, the Department of Religion, and Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology.
On Wednesday, April 21, at 4 p.m., the ninth scheduled event in the series (and the sixth and last event for the spring semester) will be given by two professors, Father Paul Haffner and Father Joseph Laracy, both of whom are Catholic priests and both of whom teach in Catholic Studies and the Core. They are also both scientists and are carrying on the legacy of the famous Father Stanley Jaki, whose work is celebrated in their scholarship. Fathers Haffner and Laracy will be presenting on their recent book, Stanley Jaki Foundation International Congress 2015 (Gracewing 2020), a compilation of scholarship from the conference held in honor of Father Jaki in 2015.
7 April 2021 Twelfth Anniversary of the Death of Fr Stanley Jaki
While on his way back home to the United States, Father Jaki passed away on 7 April 2009 in Madrid, Spain.
May he rest in peace!
Our prayers go with him!
Commemoration of the twelfth anniversary of Fr. Stanley Jaki OSB
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
The Catholic Studies Program, the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture, and the Department of Physics, in collaboration with the Stanley Jaki Foundation, are pleased to present an online conference, "Jaki, Science, and Chesterton." The conference panelists are Rev. Paul Haffner, Rev. Joseph Laracy, Dr. Dermot Quinn, and Dr. Stacy Trasancos. The conference will be moderated by Dr. M. Alper Sahiner and facilitated by Dr. Jose L. Lopez. The conference will be streamed online via ZOOM on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, from 2:00 – 4:30 pm EST.
Join Zoom Meeting here
Meeting ID: 926 8077 0857
Passcode: 9XwkBA
This event is free and open to the public.
Seton Hall University is proud to have been home to Rev. Stanley L. Jaki, OSB, who was a world-renowned author, physicist, philosopher, and theologian. The scholarship of Fr. Jaki, who attained the rank of Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Seton Hall, focused on the intersection of science and faith, which is found in the pursuit of Truth. The panelists in this discussion, which honors the tradition and spirit of Fr. Jaki's research and ministry, will explore the ways in which G. K. Chesterton's philosophy correlated with Fr. Jaki's own, tracing the two philosophers' focus on dialogue and realism.
The panelists, sharing from their own areas of expertise, will discuss the interdisciplinary nature of the work of Jaki and Chesterton and applications of their thought to challenges we face today.
In "Chesterton's Realism and the Work of Stanley L. Jaki," Rev. Paul Haffner, STD, will explore how Chesterton, while not furnishing a systematic notion of realism, offered an inspiring discursive approach which squares well with Jaki's more systematic guide to a real approach to the universe.
In "Seer of Science: Benedict XVI," Rev. Joseph R. Laracy, STD, will discuss Fr. Jaki's 1986 book, Chesterton, A Seer of Science, in light of the ongoing problem of the presumed conflict between the principles and methods of the empirical sciences and the doctrines of the Christian faith, in addition to the possibility that Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI is a contemporary "seer of science."
In "Chesterton, Jaki, and the Challenge of Science," Dermot Quinn, DPhil, will elucidate how Chesterton's attitude toward science and scientism, brilliantly explored by Fr. Jaki in his book Chesterton, A Seer of Science, may be seen as a distinctly Chestertonian effort to determine both the limits and the possibility of knowledge.
In "The Thrilling Romance of Orthodoxy and Modern Science," Stacy Trasancos, PhD, will explain how Fr. Stanley Jaki's thesis about the birth and limits of modern science provides us with the tools to navigate orthodoxy, of which Chesterton proclaimed, "there was never anything so perilous or exciting."
Congress in Győr 2019
In the footprints of a Templeton prize winner: commemorating Stanley L. Jaki OSB
10 December 2019
Location: Hungary, Győr
Czuczor Gergely Bencés Gimnázium Széchenyi tér 8-9
Program
10.00-10.10 Welcome
10.10-10.20 Szilveszter Vizi E.: Jáki Szaniszló OSB a tudós, a hit védelmezője
10.20-10.40 Zoltán Frenyó (MTA-BTK) The Cosmological Argument in Stanley L. Jaki’s Thinking, and the Roads of the European Metaphysics
Starting from Stanley L. Jaki’s work God and the Cosmologists, and taking into account the cosmological argument, the lecture compares the concepts of the created world and the eternal world, and aims to relate Greek and Christian ontology.
10.45-11.05 László Székely (MTA-BTK) John-Paul II and Stanley Jáki on the Relation between Science and Theology
In the second half of twentieth century, the Vatican discussed the relation between science and theology at least twice at the highest level: in the encyclical of Pius XII On the Proof of Existence of God in the Light of Modern Natural Science in 1951 and in the address of John Paul II on Galileo’s case on 31 October 1992. While the encyclical of 1951 laid emphasis on the difference between science and theology, the analysis of the relation between these two basic fields of human thought by St John Paul II is considerably more discerning and profound. Of course the his approach did not emerge at once. It was carefully prepared by a committee delegated by the Pope, and this committee took into account the results of philosophical and theological research for four preceding decades. Stanley Jáki (who was named by John Paul II an honorary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in September 1990) was one of the most relevant researchers working in this field, whose work (especially concerning the relation between scientific cosmology and theology) was directed at the foundation and elaboration of an approach represented later by the Pope.
In my talk, I compare the views of John Paul II and Stanley Jáki on the relations between science and theology, and indicate that Vatican viewpoint in 1992 corresponds to the concept formulated by Jáki’s. While Jáki held a critical view of Pius XII's encyclical, his approach and that of the Vatican became more harmonious by 1992: one may say that Pope John Paul II espoused the view held by Jáki among others. On the other hand, our honour for him would not be sincere if we remained silent about those aspects of his work with which we are not in complete agreement. At the end of my talk, I will briefly engage his criticism of Teilhard de Chardin’s cosmology and an aspect of his concept of the relation between physics and Gödel’s theorem.
11.10-11.30 Ferenc András (PE-MFTK) Faith, knowledge and understanding — Their role and significance in contemporary language philosophy
The traditional, medieval, distinction of faith and knowledge, faith and reason, has a different focus but has the same importance in modern linguistic philosophy in the XX-XXI centuries. The focus of my presentation is the change of conceptual roles. Behind these can be seen the paradigm shift of the modern age. In my historical review, I examine turning points and the reasons for turning points that made the concepts of "knowledge" and "understanding" inseparable from the social character of man.
11.50-12.10 Péter Soltész (BGE) Jaki-Islam-Benedict
The analysis of the relationship between faith and reason goes along the important scientific work of Father Stanley Jáki. He was prepared for this educationally: first, he received his doctoral degree in theology in Rome and some years later a doctorate in physics under the guidance of Victor F. Hess, a Nobel Prize physicist. In addition, his dedication to studying helped him achieve important results in the field of comparative research of major world religions, with particular attention to the relationship between religion and the mind.
Father Jáki considered the birth of modern natural sciences to arise from the conceptualisation of the three fundamental laws of motion. One of his finest results was the demonstration of why the milieu of non-Christian religions was not conducive to the birth of modern science and why the Christian spark made it possible. This comparative study generated countless important consequences. In particular, Jáki’s thought resulted in tangible effects upon the thinking of the Pope Benedict XVI, who, already as Cardinal Ratzinger, was acquainted with several works of Father Jáki. This intellectual cross-fertilisation is especially detectable in speeches touching upon the relations between Christianity and Islam, showing that the Holy Father, having no firm background in natural sciences, trusted Jáki’s thinking in the field of religion and science.
An outstanding example is the first papal speech (Regensburg) of Benedict XVI, misinterpreted—more or less deliberately—by Western liberal journalists, which generated a reaction worldwide Western as well as in Islamic circles. The striking conjecture of a hidden relation between the Regensburg speech—and other discourses—of Pope Benedict and his departure from the papal throne may not be far from the truth.
12.15-12.35 Neuman Péter (BME-GTK) Verseny a kevesebb tudásért — stratégia váltások a modern fizikában avagy: Mit írnánk ma Hilbert sírjára?
12.40-13.00 Gergely Bognár (Révai Miklós Gimnázium és Kollégium) The dogmas of science
Religion is being frequently criticized because of its dogmatic base, while the fact is mostly forgotten, that the natural sciences are based on evidences, or if you like dogmas, just as religion. This presentation reveals some natural scientific evidence in the work of Stanley L. Jaki; based on the history of science it shows their religious roots.
4-5 April 2019
International Conference
The legacy of Fr Stanley L. Jaki, ten years after his death
Commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the death of Fr. Jaki
15 March 2019
Celebration with SETON HALL UNIVERSITY
17:00
CASA SANTA MARIA DELL'UMILTA'
Piazza della Pilotta, 1
00187 Rome
President's discourse
