High school students will be pondering ways to address climate change in light of their faith at this summer’s Gustavus Academy for Faith, Science and Ethics at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. The program now in its third year is titled “Faith and Science in a Changing Climate: Modeling a Just Response.” Speakers include: Rev. Dr. Barbara Rossing, Professor of New Testament at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; James Martin-Schramm, Professor of Religion at Luther College; Jeff Jeremiason, Professor of Chemistry and Program Director in Environmental Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College; and Rev. Abby Mohaupt, Moderator of Fossil Free PCUSA and Co-Director of the Green Seminary Initiative.

The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS) will hold its annual conference on the topic of the emerging gene editing technique CRISPR. The conference, titled “The CRISPR Apple on the Tree of Knowledge: Bioengineering, Gene Editing and the Human Future,” will look at the technology and how it is developing and is already in use. Organizers say that scientists, theologians and religious scholars and ethicists will offer perspectives on the issues surrounding the use of CRISPR.

Speakers and program committee members include:  Michael Ruse, Florida State University; Ted Peters, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary; Arvin Gouw, Rare Genomics Institute; and Arthur Sutherland, Loyola University Maryland.