PLTS Keynote Lecture: CRISPR Revolution in Science, Religion, and Ethics

This lecture will present an overview of the CRISPR revolution and the various uses of CRISPR, a  powerful gene editing tool. The questions and issues raised by the scientific, ethical, and religious communities amidst this CRISPR revolution are more important than the answers provided.

Wednesday, February 15, 2023, 10am-12pm MST, 9-11am PST. If you are planning to attend in-person, please register at this link. If you are planning to attend online, please register at this link. Presented by Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and California Lutheran University.

The topics introduced here revolve around the medical uses of CRISPR, but CRISPR can be used to edit the genome of any living organism. The three domains discussed in this lecture (science, religion, and ethics) will need to engage this novel technology. Dr. Ted Peters, Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics, will offer a response. A time for Q&A will be included.

Keynote Speaker

Arvin Gouw PhD is currently working in the field of theology and science at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Divinity. Arvin also co-founded a biotech company, Bacchus Therapeutics, developing targeted therapy against kidney and liver cancers based on his research and discoveries at Stanford University School of Medicine. Prior to Cambridge and Stanford, Arvin did his research fellowships on science and religion at Harvard Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary. Arvin received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, master’s degrees in philosophy from University of Pennsylvania, in theology from SMSU Ecumenical Institute of Theology, in endocrinology and neuroscience from UC Berkeley. His upcoming book is CRISPR Revolution in Science, Religion, and Ethics, co-edited with Ted Peters (Bloomsbury 2023).

Response Speaker

Dr. Ted Peters is Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union and on the faculty of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union. Dr. Peters and Dr. Gouw together with Brian Patrick Green recently published an edited book, Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics (Lexington). Dr. Peters and Dr. Gouw are finishing up an edited book to be published this summer, The CRISPR Revolution in Science, Religion, and Ethics.