What Can the Bible Teach Us about Biology?
Order and Agency in Early Christian Cosmology
A Luncheon Lecture by Fr. Robert Marsland
The past two decades have opened exciting new horizons for theoretical biology. The immense empirical labors of the genomic era have dissolved the dream of achieving a comprehensive mechanistic account of the biosphere. While many biologists have taken this as a cue to leave theory behind, contententing themselves with generating training data for statistical models, others have seen an invitation to explore new ways of thinking previously excluded from mainstream scientific discourse. In this talk, I will argue that the view of the cosmos emerging from the encounter of Hebrew, Christian and Greek wisdom traditions in ancient Alexandria provides a promising context for integrating some of the latest developments in theoretical biology into a coherent world-picture. In particular, I will show how the cosmological speculation of Origen, as further developed by Maximus the Confessor, embraces two central themes in this sector of biological research: the relational identity of organisms as parts of a larger order, and the true agency of organisms as causes of their own goal-seeking behavior.
Fr. Robert Marsland
Fr. Robert Marsland is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei, currently serving as the chaplain for youth activities at Wingren and Arborlea Study Centers in Irving, Texas. He co-facilitated the "Henry Adams Retreats" at AAI while pursuing his PhD in Physics at MIT (2017), and carrying out postdoctoral research at BU on complex ecosystems. Drawing on this experience, he strives to help rising generations of intellectual leaders find an anchor in the shared reality of our physical environment, amid the turbulence of a time of epocal change. He holds an STL in Dogmatic Theology (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, 2024), and is completing a doctoral dissertation on “The Natural Contemplation of St. Maximus the Confessor: An Introduction to Patristic Philosophy of Nature” (2026).