The Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (ITEST) began in the summer of 1966 when Father Robert Brungs, SJ (a physicist) and Dr. John Matschiner (a biochemist) recognized the need to alert the Christian churches to the advances in the sciences and technologies. It was clear even then that the so-called warfare between science and faith/religion existed less in the sciences and in religion and more in the philosophical assumptions of “scientism” and “religionism.”

Recognizing that the problem was far more complex and far more widespread than any two people could even begin to influence, they decided to gather others and incorporate as a not-for-profit corporation in 1968. Since then ITEST has addressed itself primarily to scientists, technologists and religious believers. Recognizing the complexity of current issues, it also invites the integrating participation of economists, lawyers, social and behavioral scientists, physicians, philosophers, theologians and those concerned with the opportunities and challenges of contemporary and future scientific development. ITEST is concerned with the meaning of scientific and technological advance as that relates to a Christian understanding of the human and of creation.

Since its beginning ITEST has seen the faith/science scene change significantly. First, there are now more groups involved in this work than there were individuals in the middle 1960s. More importantly, there is a perceived shift in the relationship between faith and science. Instead of the “warfare,” there is clearly a growing sense of at least neutrality if not the desirability of active alliance between these two major elements in human society. There is a growing realization that both Christian faith and science must live and work in the world-as-it-is.

From 1969-1996 ITEST sponsored twice-yearly conferences/workshops on faith/science topics. From 1997 to the present ITEST has focused on one major symposium each year and ad hoc regional one day workshops. ITEST functions in the spirit expressed by the U.S. Catholic Bishops at the 1977 Synod of Bishops in Rome: “If the gospel is to … bring about a transformation of `humanity’s criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life,’ the world of science cannot be ignored.”

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