SAMUEL DORSKY SYMPOSIUM ON PUBLIC MONUMENTS: Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Donald M. Reynolds
(212) 643-8730
DonRey1@msn.com
http://www.webmark.com/monumentsconservancy/

MONUMENTS CONSERVANCY PRESENTS 20th ANNUAL
SAMUEL DORSKY SYMPOSIUM ON PUBLIC MONUMENTS

AN ANNUAL TRIBUTE TO RUDOLF WITTKOWER
Annual Perennial Wisdom Medal to be Presented

MONUMENTS TO SCIENCE AND FAITH
“I have completed a monument more lasting than bronze.” (Horace, on the publication of his Odes, 23BC)

AN HOMAGE TO REV. W. NORRIS CLARKE, S.J. (1915 – 2008)

New York...On Friday, March 19th, 2010, The Monuments Conservancy will present its 20th Annual Symposium at the Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, 1271 Avenue of the Americas (at 50th Street), The Henry Luce Room (2nd floor), 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It is open free to the public. To reserve a seat call (212) 764-5645 Ext. 10, or e-mail SYMPOSIUM@NATIONALSCULPTURE.ORG.

This year, scholars in the fields of astronomy, paleoanthropology, physics, biology, chemistry, philosophy, education, and art history will gather to explore the relationship between science and faith, paying homage to Rev. W. Norris Clarke, priest, philosopher, and teacher. Topics will include the controversy surrounding evolution and “divine design,” the origin of the spiritual sense, and whether faith and reason are incompatible.

Father Clarke, Co-Founder and Editor of the International Philosophical Quarterly, was a disciple of St. Thomas Aquinas, and believed in “the extraordinary interconnectedness of all things in our material and personal universe, which keeps mounting every day through the findings of science.” He observed that according to physicists, if he but wiggled his finger here on Earth, some minuscule influence would reach the furthest stars, confirming man’s “interconnectedness” with the universe.

Given the recent celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, the 150th anniversary of the publication of his On the Origin of Species, and the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first turning the telescope to the heavens, it seems to be an appropriate time to reflect upon that phenomenon of man and the “interconnectedness” of the universe that Father Clarke found so compelling.

Each year, the Symposium honors Professor Rudolf Wittkower, whose work and spirit of collaborative inquiry became not only “a standard for the finest art historical scholarship of the entire 20th century,” but also for the third millennium.

The symposium was founded in 1991 by Donald M. Reynolds on the 20th anniversary of Rudolf Wittkower’s death, and it has been made possible through the generosity of the late Samuel Dorsky and the Dorsky Foundation.

LIST OF SPEAKERS FOLLOWS

LIST OF SPEAKERS AT 2010 SAMUEL DORSKY SYMPOSIUM
In order of presentation

DONALD M. REYNOLDS, Art Historian; Director, The Monuments Conservancy, New York City, sees in this exploration of the relationship between science and faith may be seen as a metaphor for what Father Clarke saw as the “interconnectedness” of all things in the universe.

REV. JOHN PIDERIT, S. J., President, Catholic Education Institute, New York City, recalls critical points in the career of his long-time colleague and friend and Father Clarke’s conviction that metaphysics could be a mediator between Revelation and the natural sciences.

OWEN GINGERICH, Professor of Astronomy and the History of Science, Emeritus, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, addresses the tension points between religious belief and the idea of evolution.

IAN TATTERSALL, Paleoanthropologist, American Museum of Natural History, New York City, offers a scenario for the origin of the spiritual sense, noting that the most distinctive characteristic of modern humans is their ability to think symbolically.

ROBERT SHAPIRO, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Senior Research Scientist, New York University, New York City, points out that science and myth can often provide answers to the important questions concerning our existence, but how the distinctions have been blurred in the origin-of-life field.

ROBERT POLLACK, Professor of Biological Sciences, Director, Center for the Study of Science and Religion, Adjunct Professor of Religion, Columbia University, Lecturer at the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, and Adjunct Professor for Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, asks if there are parallels between the “moment of insight” in science and the emergence of the “unknowable” in religious faith.

AILEEN O’DONOGHUE, Associate Professor of Physics, St. Lawrence University, Cortona, NY, reflects on doubt, faith, and a life in science. She describes her journey from atheism back to the Catholicism of her childhood, revealing that the God she now believes in and the place of the Church in her life is very different from what they would have been without her study of science.

DAVID RUEL FOSTER, Professor of Philosophy, Seton Hall University, S. Orange, NJ, tackles the difficult topic of whether faith and reason are incompatible, or need each other in pursuit of the truth.

A BRIEF Q&A SESSION WILL FOLLOW EACH TALK. AFTER THE TALKS, A PANEL DISCUSSION
WILL BE OPEN TO QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS FROM THE AUDIENCE.

The Perennial Wisdom Medal, created in 1999, is presented to each participant in the symposium as an interpreter of perennial wisdom to an unstable world. The medal was fashioned by the celebrated sculptor Eugene Daub and cast in bronze. The obverse bears a profile likeness of the Latin poet Horace, the words “Exegi monumentum aere perennius” (“I have completed a monument more lasting than bronze,” from his three volumes of odes, published in 23 BC), “XXIII BC,” “The Monuments Conservancy,” and the sculptor’s name. On the reverse, the names of Rudolf Wittkower and Samuel Dorsky flank the inscription, “Interpreter of Perennial Wisdom,” which is accented by a perennial bloom. The medal was produced and patinated this year by the distinguished sculptor Andrew Pitynski.

ABOUT W. NORRIS CLARKE, S. J.: Born in New York City in 1915, the future Father Clarke attended Loyola High School, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and entered the Society of Jesus in 1933. He continued his studies at College St. Louis in Jersey, England, received an M.A. in Philosophy from Fordham University, and his theology degree from Woodstock College in Maryland. Ordained in 1945, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in Philosophy at Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Father Clarke taught at Fordham University from 1955 until his death in 2008.