Dr. James Peterson: Benne Center Director 2012-2024
Dr. James C. Peterson, Schumann Professor of Christian Ethics
Roanoke College
West Hall 307
221 College Lane
Salem, VA 24153
(540) 375-4919
jpeterson@roanoke.edu
Previous Director, Benne Center for Church & Society
Editor-in-Chief, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, the seventy-five year academic journal of the American Scientific Affiliation
Co-Chair for Ethicist, Lewis Gale Medical Center
Faculty, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
Publications
Most recent
As Editor-in-Chief of Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, each issue screen proposed articles, select for peer review, guide author rewrites, decide journal content, supervise typesetting, and lead with an editorial. 300 pages of journal double-column text each year, 2011-continuing.
Cover endorsement for Science and Faith in Harmony: Contemplations on a Distilled Doxology, Sy Garte, Kregel, Grand Rapids, MI, 2023. Cover endorsement for At the Margins: A Life in Biomedical Science, Faith, and Ethical Dilemmas, D. Gareth Jones, Resource Publications, Eugene, Oregon, 2022
“Recognizing the Presence of a Person,” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 74:2, pages 106-111, June 2022
“Introduction to Bioethics and a Christian Perspective,” posted by BioLogos on their widely read and linked website biologos.org, 2019.
Created a full course syllabus/curriculum for the Charlotte Mason Institute (CMI), 2018. “Peering into Double-Blind Peer Review,” God & Nature, July 2018. “Peering into Double-Blind Peer Review,” God & Nature, July 2018. Foreword for Being Human, Being Church: The Significance of Theological Anthropology for Ecclesiology, by Patrick Franklin, Paternoster/Wipf & Stock, 2016. “Can You Trust Anything Written on Science by a Christian?” with Lynn Billman, an invited op-ed for the Huffington Post, June 17, 2015. "Genetic Intervention," Journal of Lutheran Ethics, volume 12, issue 6 (November/December), 2012. "The Religion of Genetics in Epistemology and Ethics," Theology and Science, volume 9, issue 2, pages 213-221, 2011. "Homo Sapiens as Homo Dei: Paleoanthropology, Human Uniqueness, and the Image of God, "Toronto Journal of Theology Volume 27, issue 1, pages 17-26, 2011. "Some Pains are Worth Their Price: Discerning Pain to Guide its Alleviation," The Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, volume 12, issue 3, pages 182-194, 2010...
Books
My Genes Made Me Do It! Moral Education, Charlotte Mason, and the New Genetics
The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity
Genetic Ethics: Do the Ends Justify the Genes?
On Moral Medicine: Theological Perspectives in Medical Ethics
Viewing New Creations with Anabaptist Eyes
Recent invited lectures
“Gene Editing and the Good Life” Rothermel Endowed Lecture, New Bern, North Carolina, October 22, 2023 recordings available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDCwKP4BB1Us
“Scholarship and Publication,” workshop at the annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation. University of Toronto Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, July 28, 2023
“Living With Suffering, series”, Grace Lutheran Church, Winston-Salem, NC, 2023
“Science and Christian Faith, series", St John Episcopal Church, Roanoke, VA, 2023
“Is MAiD Making a Bed We Can Sleep In? Physician Assisted Suicide in Canada,” CSCA Presidential Lecture, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, March 26, 2023
“A First Hand Report on the Third International Human Genome Editing Summit (London),” Continuing Ethics Education, LewisGale Medical Center, March 14, 2023
“Relativism: Understanding Colleagues and Patients,” Continuing Ethics Education, LewisGale Medical Center, December 13, 2022
National Academy of Sciences, Working Group on Human Organoids and Chimeras, Washington, DC
“The Diversity of Religious Approaches to Gene Editing,” plenary at the Cordell3 Conference called and funded by Washington University, St Louis
Four one hour plenary lectures on “Faithful Scientists Past and Present,” “What Science Can and Cannot Do,” “The Bible and Science,” and“Genesis, Rocks, Bones, and Genes,” for a 500+ delegate conference sponsored by the Charlotte Mason Institute, June 17-19, recordings available at https://charlottemasoninstitute.org/product/science-faith-recording-package/
"Understanding Colleague and Patient Ethics" four times a year series for Continuing Ethics Education, LewisGale Medical Center, 2014-continuing
Invited lecture on gene editing for the annual meeting of the AAAS (American Society for the Advancement of Science), explaining religion to the sciences, Washington, DC
Invited lecture on gene editing explaining science to religions for the quadrennial Parliament of World Religions, Toronto
Granted 45-minute interview to the Chosun Ilbo (circulation two million in Korea), February 15, 2019
One-hour interview on 99.5fm radio Los Angeles, on the announcement from China of twin girls born with edited genes. Broadcast December 15, 2018 and ongoing pod cast…
“Political Theology,” two graduate student seminars, Divinity College, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON
“Should Caregivers Risk Their Lives for Their Patients,” Annual Meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, Boston, MA
Plenary, annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, Denver
The Annual Barnes Lectures, Rochester, NY
Plenary, annual meeting of the Canadian Scientific and Christian Affiliation, McMaster University, Ontario
Two keynotes for Charlotte Mason Conference, Ambleside, England
Continuing Medical Education, LewisGale Hospital, Salem, Virginia
Plenary, CM Conference, Lexington, KY
Plenary, joint meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation and CSCA, Ontario
Continuing Medical Education, Carilion Hospital System, Roanoke, Virginia
Plenary, annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, Ontario
Continuing Medical Education, Carilion Hospital System, Roanoke, Virginia
Plenary, annual meeting of the American Scientifc Affiliation, Nashville, Tennessee
Continuing Medical Education, Carilion Hospital System, Roanoke, Virginia
Plenary, annual meeting of the Candian Scientific and Christian Affiliation, Ontario
Plenary, annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, San Diego, California
AED Induction, Roanoke College
Booth University College, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Blacksburg, Virginia
Society of Christian Ethics, Washington, D.C.
University of Waterloo, Ontario
Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario
Tyndale Seminary, Toronto, Ontario
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia
Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia
Trinity Western University, Langley, British Columbia
King's University College, Edmonton, Alberta
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
Baylor University, Waco, Texas
Queens University, Kingston, Ontario
Philadelphia Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona
Awards and Fellowships including
Consultant for composition of successful grant proposals totaling over two million dollars 2018-2019
Elected by members to the International Society for Science & Religion, Cambridge University
Charles and Helen Schumann Chair in Christian Ethics, Roanoke College
Fellow, Faculty of Theology, McMaster University Board of Governors
R. A. Hope Chair, Divinity College, McMaster University
Teaching Award, Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley, CA
Fellow for a Science and Theology Project convened by faculty of Oxford University
Fellow in Molecular and Clinical Genetics, grant funded by National Institutes of Health
Fellow, American Scientific Affiliation
Teaching Award, John M. Templeton Foundation
Louisville Institute Research Fellowship
Teaching Award from the Student Government of Wingate University
C. C. Dickson Chair, Wingate University
Spivey Award for Teaching, Wingate University
Jessie Ball duPont Foundation grant for mentoring student research
Luce Scholar, Henry R. Luce Foundation
Davidge Fellow, University of Virginia
Dupont Fellow, University of Virginia
Commonwealth Fellow, University of Virginia
Richard M. Weaver Fellow, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Commencement Address, GCTS of the Boston Theological Institutes
Byington Fellow, GCTS of the Boston Theological Institutes