Upcoming Lecture

IRT PUBLIC LECTURE:

EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN: SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER
J. Brian Cassel, Ph.D.
Senior Analyst
VCU Massey Cancer Center
Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center

WHEN:
Monday, January 28, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
WHERE:
Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education
Watts Hall
3401 Brook Road
Richmond, VA 23227
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
There will be a reception in the Watts Hall Lobby immediately following the lecture.

In recent years two major scientific studies of distant, intercessory prayer were completed and published. These are but the latest attempts to use scientific methods to assess claims of the efficacy of such prayers. Dr. Cassel will review these studies, and explore their philosophical and theological assumptions. He will discuss the underlying questions of the proper relationship between science and religion, the Providence of God, and the role of prayer in health and illness.

Dr. Cassel is Senior Analyst in the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. His studies of the outcomes of palliative care are influential in the growing palliative care movement in the US, and he is a member of the Palliative Care Leadership Center at VCU, training teams from hospitals across the country in establishing and sustaining palliative care programs.

Cassel’s doctorate (CUNY, 1995) was in social-personality and health psychology. His dissertation defined a typology of AIDS volunteers; this prospective, longitudinal study revealed the antecedents and consequences of altruistic behavior. He has taught at State University of New York, New York University, and VCU in BS, MS and PhD programs on psychology, research methods, and science-and-religion.

Cassel holds appointments as assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and adjunct professor in VCU Life Sciences, where he directs the Life Sciences and Religion Initiative. He has been co-director of the grant-funded “Life Sciences and Religion Community Forum of Central Virginia” for the past three years, and has co-taught the "Faith and the Life Sciences" undergraduate course at VCU for 5 years.

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