From: george murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Sat Aug 10 2002 - 14:29:02 EDT
Name: George L. Murphy
Age: 59 (b.24 Dec. 1942)
Family: Dona & I celebrated our 40th anniversary in June. We have 2
daughters: Anastasia, through whom we have 3 teenage step-grandchildren &
Katherine, who is expecting in November.
Vocation: After teaching college physics & related subjects in for 12 years
I was ordained (1983) as a pastor in the American Lutheran Church (now
ELCA). I'm now 1/2 time at a large Episcopal parish in Akron OH with
primary responsibilities in adult theological education, preaching, & other
roles in worship.
I consider helping the larger church to deal with issues of science
& technology to be a major part of my calling, & the other 1/2 time is
devoted to writing, speaking &c on those matters. Among other things, I
write a column on issues of science & technology in ministry for _Lutheran
Partners_, a journal for clergy, lead workshops on preaching, parish
education &c, & have just had my 4th book in the area accepted for
publication.
Education: B.S. (physics), Ohio U., 1963
Ph.D. (physics), Johns Hopkins, 1972 (Dissertation:
Topics in Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics)
M.Div., Wartburg Seminary, 1983.
Positions held: Instructor & Asst. Prof., physics, Westminster College
(PA), 1968-1975
Lecturer in physics, U. of Western Australia,
1975-1977
Asst. Prof., physics, Luther College, 1977-1979, 1983
Adjunct faculty, Trinity Luther Seminary (Columbus),
1994-present
Pastor, St. Mark Lutheran Church, Tallmadge OH,
1984-1998
Pastoral Associate, St. Paul's Episcopal Church,
Akron OH, 1999-present
Church background: Baptized as an infant in the Lutheran Church (which does
not mean "baptized Lutheran") & grew up in the Missouri Synod. I am now a
member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America & am under call from my
synod council to serve at an Episcopal Church. (This has been made possible
by the recent mutual recognition of ministries of the ELCA & Episcopal
Church in the USA.)
Faith-science story: I was interested in both science and theology while I
was growing up, reading the article on Relatvity in the World Book
Encyclopedia (which I realized later was written by Leopold Infeld, one of
Einstein's co-workers) and about christology in my father's copy of the Book
of Concord. My parents gave me John Klotz's _Genes, Genesis and Evolution_,
a fairly moderate YEC book by a Missouri Synod pastor & biologist, & I did a
9th grade science project titled rather ambitiously "A Refutation of the
Theory of Evolution." But Missouri was in the process of opening up at the
time, my pastors were generally pretty sensible guys, & I was able to
outgrow the need for anti-evolution & YEC without any great trauma.
After graduate work & teaching & research in physics for a number of
years I found I was getting more interested in the theology-science issues
and eventually decided to go to seminary. At first this was simply to get
some formal theological training but I soon felt a real call (inner & outer)
to pastoral ministry. My major theological discovery here was Luther's
theology of the cross and its implications, & I soon began work on the
project that I've called "chiasmic cosmology", the attempt to see the
scientific and technological world in the context of a theology of the
cross. This made it possible not just to "accept" evolution & other
scientific results but to begin to make sense of them theologically. The
book which is to be published next year (God willing) is a distillation of
this project.
Major theological influences: Luther, Bonhoeffer, Lewis,
Athanasius, Barth (though contrary to rumor I am not a "standard Barthian"),
Torrance, Teilhard, Justin Martyr, Juengel. I realize that that's a very
eclectic bunch. There are also a lot of individuals whose names most
wouldn't recognize. I will just mention one whose name even I don't
recall. She was an old lady in the hospital while I was doing my chaplaincy
requirement in seminary. I went in to see her, & listened rather
condescendingly as she rambled for a bit about how God was going to take
care of her &c. & then she said, "Ever' mornin' he just tell ol' death,
'Stand back!'" & I thought, "That's the best theology I've heard all day!
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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