A portion of Yale's "Education" window
Mark I. Pinski, one of the better-known names in the realm of religious journalism, offers a pretty salient look in yesterday’s USA Today at the sometimes fractious relationship between faith and science, looking both to the past and the present.
Pinski suggests (rightly, I think) that President Barack Obama’s appointment of renowned scientist Francis Collins (a committed evangelical Christian and author of one of my favorite books, “The Language of God“) to head the National Institutes of Health, is an effort to heal some of the riffs between science and faith. He also finds inspiration in Yale’s famed Tiffany window called “Education,” which has graced the university for around 120 years.
The window, commissioned by businessman Simeon Baldwin Chittenden back in 1889 puts science and faith on center stage, flanking an angelic-like woman with her eyes cast upward. Pinski notes that a thumbnail picture of the window can be found on the Web site for the BioLogos Foundation (an organization founded by Collins).
Collins earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at Yale in the early 1970s, and I find no mention of the Chittenden window in his writings, or whether the NIH head has contemplated its significance to his own life. But in a commentary for the Christian Broadcasting Network, he displays sentiments consonant with the window’s message.
“The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome,” Collins said. “God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God’s majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.”
It’s a beautiful window, reflecting I think beautiful, and truthful, sentiments. Collins is one of my heroes, and I hope he does fantastic work in his new position.
