The Insight Project (Insight), is a multi-year program series that seeks to put theology in conversation with a wide range of partners in the humanities, social sciences, and the natural sciences. At its core, Insight seeks to redefine our understanding of theology, not simply through the reformulation of doctrine but through a reframing of imagination.
Insight holds that theology is at its creative best when it is in living encounter with the widest range of conversation partners on vital issues of this contemporary moment. With a diverse array of thought-provoking lectures, screenings, performances, and on-stage conversations, Insight demonstrates that theology still matters, and matters most when it helps us to reimagine and care for our all too fragile world.
Upcoming Insight Events
Insight Leadership
John J. Thatamanil
, Associate Professor of Theology & World Religions at Union, directs Insight, mapping out themes to be showcased in multiple public dialogues held throughout the academic year and culminating in a student-led scholarly conference at the end of the spring semester.
Dr. Thatmananil is committed to the work of comparative theology— a theology that learns from and with a variety of traditions. For more information about Dr. Thatamanil, visit his bio.
Thatamanil is supported in this endeavor by Union students and faculty including former Insight co-convener, Robert Wright, Visiting Professor of Science & Spirituality.
Past Insight Events
Power, Privilege, & Environmental Protection
Featuring with Dorceta Taylor, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Michigan School of Environment and Sustainability
God in the Age of Science
Featuring John Haught, Distingushed Research Professor at Georgetown University
The Weirdness of Physics
Featuring Brian Greene, bestselling author and award-winning physicist
Climate Change & the Unthinkable
Featuring Amitav Ghosh, acclaimed author
Special Thanks
Insight is made possible by a generous gift from Union alumna, Dr. Mary C. Coelho ’78. Coelho is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based award-winning artist whose works have been exhibited on the East Coast and in Argentina. She is also the author of Awakening Universe, Emerging Personhood: The Power of Contemplation in an Emerging Universe (Wyndham Hall Press, 2001). For more information about her work, visit her webpage.
Coelho’s goal for Insight is to deepen discourse around the ‘big questions’ and to provide space—particularly for students—to engage in dynamic, interdisciplinary conversations across curricular boundaries.