“Scientia et Fides” (SetF) is an open access online journal published twice a year. It is promoted by the Faculty of Theology of Nicolaus Copernicus University, in Torun, in collaboration with the Group of Research “Science, Reason, and Faith” (CRYF), at University of Navarra. SetF aims to present rigorous research works regarding different aspects of the relationship between science and religion. For this reason, SetF articles are not confined to the methodology of a single discipline and may cover a wide range of topics, provided that the interdisciplinary dialogue between science and religion is tackled. The Journal accepts articles written in English, Spanish, Polish, French, Italian and German, which will be evaluated by a peer-review process. "Scientia et Fides" is clasified as Q1 in Philosophy and Q1 in Religious Studies according to Scimago. "Scientia et Fides" journal is listed in the following databases: - CiteFactor (Impact factor 0,82), - Dialnet, - Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), - Emerging Sources Citation Index, - e-Revist@s: Plataforma open access de revistas científicas eletrónicas españolas y latinoaméricanas, - Erih Plus, - Google Scholar, - Index Copernicus International (ICV 2023165.00), - Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals (MIAR), - REDIB, - Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), - Scopus, - The American Theological Library Association (ATLA) - The Philosopher's Index <!-- [if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!-- [if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:HyphenationZone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> 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Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu
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Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Why Middle-Sized Matters to Science and Religion
This special issue explores both the metaphysical and theological significance of “middle-sized things” — everyday objects, persons, and sacraments — in light of developments in contemporary science and philosophy. Against prevailing neo-Humean and microphysicalist backdrops, where only microphysical entities are taken as fundamental, contributors interrogate the ontological reality and causal powers of the macroscopic domain through engagements with quantum physics, biology, the metaphysics of substance, and sacramental theology. Essays range from arguments for Aristotelian hylomorphism and critiques of reductionism to narrative theories of identity and teleological accounts of divine action. Together, they examine whether middle-sized entities can be causally efficacious, metaphysically basic, and theologically significant.
Copyright (c) 2025 William Simpson, Christopher Oldfield https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Artificial Intelligence and Spirituality
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into spiritual life raises critical questions about whether it enhances engagement or reduces spirituality to mechanized, algorithmic interactions. As a left-hemisphere-driven system, AI excels in data processing, analytical reasoning, and personalization but lacks intuition, relational depth, and transcendence. Nevertheless, AI offers accessibility, tailored support on the spiritual path, and theological insights. This article examines AI’s impact through the three dimensions of spirituality—personal-experiential, communal-institutional, and rational-reflective—outlined by Platovnjak and Svetelj (2024), incorporating Sheldrake’s (2014) integrative approach to spirituality. AI-driven prayer apps, chatbots, and automated religious education tools have expanded participation in spiritual practices, facilitated interfaith dialogue, and provided immediate pastoral care. However, potential risks include depersonalization, algorithmic bias, misinformation, and the commercialization of spirituality. AI remains unable to replicate embodied rituals, lived faith, and human spiritual discernment, which are essential for holistic spiritual development. Thus, while AI can serve as a supplementary tool for spiritual engagement, its ethical integration requires discernment to preserve the depth, relationality, and transformative power of spirituality. Ultimately, spiritual wisdom and transcendence remain uniquely human experiences, grounded in contemplation, communal worship, and embodied faith.
Copyright (c) 2025 Snezana Brumec, Ivan Platovnjak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Magisterium AI in Theological Inquiry and Religious Education
Since 2019, artificial intelligence (AI) has played an increasingly central role in daily life. Yet, this phase in AI’s evolution is only the beginning of even greater advancements. Catholic institutions, cognizant of the crucial role the Church must assume in the development of AI, have increasingly engaged with this technological frontier. Among these institutions is Longbeard, which has undertaken the creation of Magisterium AI, a compound AI system that leverages several AI technologies and a large database of Catholic knowledge to produce faithful answers. This article offers a critical analysis of the current state of Magisterium AI, drawing on its 2025 Report, Investor Deck, user feedback, and direct engagement with the system to evaluate its alignment with Catholic ethical principles. Specifically, it highlights the expansion of the database as a key area for improvement, while reflecting on the complexities inherent in such an undertaking. The article concludes that the development of a Catholic AI entails more than simply amassing documents in a database. It requires endowing the AI system with a profound grasp of Scripture and its interpretive traditions; a comprehensive knowledge of theology as a whole; a broad acquaintance with the history of ideas, including the development of culture, art, philosophy, and theology; and a finely honed awareness of the evolving nuances of language and cultural sensibilities through which eternal truths are expressed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kenny Ang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
The Traditions of the Nativity and Epiphany Between Faith and Science
In Western tradition, the Nativity of Jesus is placed on December 25, 1 BC, according to the calculation made by Dionysius Exiguus in the sixth century. In Eastern tradition, January 6 is associated with both the birth of Jesus and the Epiphany (visit of the Magi). The historicity of events related to the Star of Bethlehem and the accuracy of tradition in determining the beginning of the Christian era have long been debated. This study, conducted through astronomy and the reconstruction of ancient calendars, has shed new light on this longstanding issue. In fact, an ancient fourth-century source, the Apostolic Constitutions, indicates that the Nativity of Jesus occurred on the 25th of Kislev, the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The same source places the Epiphany of Magi on the 6th of Tevet. The astronomical-calendar analysis shows that, under certain assumptions, the 25th of Kislev and the 6th of Tevet can exactly coincide with the dates of the Eastern tradition for both the Nativity and the Epiphany, i. e. January 6 , precisely at the beginning of the Christian era, according to the calculation made by Dionysius Exiguus. The probability that this is coincidental is so low that it implies these traditions must necessarily have a historical origin, demonstrating the reasonableness of the faith passed down to us by the early Christians.
Copyright (c) 2025 LIBERATO DECARO, Fernando La Greca https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Seeking God’s Help is Rational Since the Human Condition is Desperate
The paper argues for God as the rational object of our desire and action, with respect to help-seeking. I begin by characterizing the desperate situation as one that is very bad in ways that are beyond one’s control. Knowing that one’s situation is desperate, it is rational to feel desperation about it. Desperation, I argue, involves an impulse to seek help; to find and entreat a helper. So, feeling and expressing that impulse in a desperate situation is rational. The human condition itself seems to be desperate, due to things like our mortality, fragile well-being, and philosophical ignorance. So, it is rational to feel desperate about the human condition and to seek help regarding it. I argue that God is the best target of that impulse, arguing from common consent, by showing that God best satisfies the criteria for a helper, and from a Neo-Platonic conception of God as the cause of all help.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marcus Hunt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Fundamental Physics and Middle-Sized Dry Goods
I consider the debate between those who believe in microphysical reductionism, and those who believe in the irreducibility of macroscopic objects. I consider, in particular, recent arguments that physics itself refutes the hypothesis of reductionism – from, among others, George Ellis and Barbara Drossel. I raise some questions about the effectiveness of these arguments, and I suggest that this debate is based on an unclear, but emotionally fraught, understanding of what “reduction” means.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hans Halvorson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
This paper responds to Halvorson’s reflections on hylomorphism by addressing its quantum application (Koons and Simpson) and contextually emergent physics (Ellis and Drossel). It also critiques physicalist interpretations of quantum mechanics and argues for the fundamental nature of thermodynamic phenomena. Koons, Simpson, Ellis and Drossel defend hylomorphism as a framework that challenges dogmatic semi-physicalism. They examine causal pluralism, semantic indeterminacy and the limited validity of quantum mechanics, emphasising the role of micro and macroscopic elements in shaping a consistent worldview.
Copyright (c) 2025 Robert C. Koons, William M R Simpson, George F R Ellis, Barbara Drossel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Many Worlds and Narratives of Personal Identity
This paper examines personal identity in the context of the Everett interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. According to Everett, the universe branches many – perhaps an infinite number of – times per second. This leads to a universe in which many versions of ‘you’ exist, many of whom are living different lives to yours. How are we to make sense of the continuation of the self in this context? This is of particular importance for Christian theism, which is committed to an enduring self that can be held responsible for past actions and can develop an ongoing relationship with God. The paper argues that the best way to understand identity in the Everettian world as fundamentally narrative in nature.
Copyright (c) 2025 Emily Qureshi Hurst https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Hylomorphism and Persons in Odd Situations
Hylomorphism provides an explanation of material composition: the material parts, the Xs, will compose a whole, a Y, belonging to a given natural kind, when those parts are characterized by a substantial form. While there are a number of those who hold that each human person is identical with a human animal – ‘animalists’ – most of these are not hylomorphists. One could worry that hylomorphism contributes little unique to debates about personal identity, collapsing into either a form of property dualism or substance dualism. What I aim to do is apply a robust and classical hylomorphic account of persons (derived from Thomas Aquinas) to two contemporary problems, illustrating the way in which hylomorphic metaphysics can offer elegant solutions to tricky situations posed against animalists. Specifically, I will propose that hylomorphic animalism can help provide principled resolutions to worries that seem to undermine animalist intuitions which are raised by ‘brain transplant’ or ‘remnant person’ scenarios. Hylomorphism can capture the advantages of ‘hybrid’ animalist responses without the cost of denying a singular, biological criterion of personal identity. Further, hylomorphism provides a distinctive upshot for Christian theologians and the moral positions that they want to affirm by rendering morally anodyne apparent epistemic difficulties in identifying personal identity over time.
Copyright (c) 2025 James Dominic Rooney https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics defends a hylomorphic account of substance causation. Recent arguments have developed approaches informed by quantum mechanics (Koons 2021 and 2022, Simpson 2021 and 2023, Pruss 2018). While these arguments have responded to Jaegwon Kim’s critiques concerning overdetermination and causal closure, the ontological status of substantial form, especially as it applies to the category of “thermal substances,” remains an open question. In particular, do the forms of thermal substances (1) qualify as natural kinds, meeting a moderate requirement for naturalistic explanation, and (2) do they actualize the kinds of causal powers needed for substance causation in a way that avoids the event causalist’s critique of explanatory vacuity? This paper defends substance causation on both counts, by relying on a robust reading of Aquinas’s original account of substance causation and its distinction between corporeal and virtual contact. Far from problematizing these recent accounts, a robust Thomistic account in fact vindicates recent contemporary hylomorphic approaches, and even resolves some of the gaps that remain in a sound Aristotelian-Thomistic response to standard critiques concerning substance causation’s naturalistic status and explanatory power.
Copyright (c) 2025 Janice Chik, Daniel Sadasivan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Middle-sized Objects, Hylomorphism and Transubstantiation
The fundamental philosophical problem with transubstantiation, is to give a plausible account of the concept of substance that it deploys. Aquinas admits that Aristotle’s concept of substance does not naturally fit the role (ST III 75 art. 4) and neither does a modern ‘chemical’ concept. I argue that emphasis on the teleological nature, from a Divine perspective, can solve these problems, without falling into the unorthodoxy for which ‘transignification’, as found in Rahner and Schillabeeckx, has been condemned. It also liberates the doctrine from a theory of natural objects, which credits physical nature with the possession and transmission of teleology, and replaces it with one that makes teleology in the physical world the product of God’s design, not part of a natural scientific hierarchy.
Copyright (c) 2025 Howard Robinson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Staunch Transubstantiation and the Metaphysics of Middle-Sized Things
An Aristotelian natural philosophy, with its account of substantial form as the organizing and unifying principle of all substances, including living human beings, is essential to a coherent and theologically accurate formulation of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. I demonstrate this fact by considering a recent proposal by Howard Robinson, which attempts to re-formulate the doctrine within a Cartesian or substance dualist framework. Robinson’s proposal cannot explain the presence of the sensible qualities of the bread and wine, nor the presence of Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity, as requird by the Council of Trent.
Copyright (c) 2025 Robert C. Koons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
La vida como categoría central de la ontología natural
Life as a central category of natural ontology This article addresses the philosophical and scientific challenges of defining life, centering on the concept of biological autonomy as an alternative to reductionist paradigms. Organicism emerged as a holistic framework that views life as the result of the reciprocal organization of its components. However, the article critiques the reduction of teleology to mere self-maintenance, arguing that life exhibits a tendential dynamism that transcends functional explanations. By revisiting classical teleological principles and integrating them with modern biology, it proposes a renewed understanding of life as a metaphysical category, one that reconciles functional autonomy with an orientation toward self-transcendence. This approach restores life’s ontological depth, addressing its intrinsic richness beyond organicist frameworks.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ester Rodriguez-Losada Torres https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0