Robert C. Neville (b. 1939) is Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Boston University. He is considered “One of the most important and wide-ranging scholars working across the fields of philosophy, theology, and comparative studies today.” [1]

In addition to authoring 19 books, Neville has been the editor of nine, and has published some 200 articles. His books The Truth of Broken Symbols (1996) and Symbols of Jesus (2001) have been on the syllabus for master studies in religion and theology at the University of Agder and the University of Oslo respectively. In the most widely discussed of all his books, Creativity and God (1980 and 1995), Neville challenges the process theology inspired by Alfred North Whitehead.
In his forthcoming volume, Realism in Religion: A Pragmatist’s Perspective (2009)Neville proposes a theology of truth that emerges from the pragmatic tradition. “Standing against the typical nominalist view that regards religious claims as concepts or structures of language, Neville argues that there can be significant and well-tested hypotheses about what is true in religious matters.” [2] He is currently working on a three-volume “Systematic Philosophical Theology.” 

A leading scholar in the discipline of comparative theology, Neville was the director of The Boston University Cross-Cultural Comparative Religious Ideas Project 1995-1999 which included scholars of Chinese religion, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. The project aimed to “develop and test a theory concerning the comparison of religious ideas, and to make some important comparisons about religious ideas of the human condition, ultimate realities, and religious truth.” [3]

Neville is currently Dean of the Danielsen Institute at Boston University, which is established to promote the benefits of a close collaboration between psychology and religion to alleviate human suffering and enhance human growth. He is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and the Dean at the Marsh Chapel of Boston University.

F. LeRon Shults (b. 1965) is Professor of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. He has written or edited ten books, including Reforming the Doctrine of God (2005), The Evolution of Rationality (2006) and Christology and Science (2008), and published over 40 scientific articles and book chapters. Shults is also the Scientific Director of the “Transforming Compassion” project at Stiftelsen Arkivet, a peace-building institute in Kristiansand. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals and is the chief editor of the Brill book series “Philosophical Studies in Science and Religion”.

Other Speakers included

Årstein Justnes, Head of the Institute of Religion, Philosophy and History at the University of Agder

Gro Anita Homme, Master's Student in Religion at the University of Agder

Kari-Mette W. Hidle, Ph.D., Student at the University of Agder

[1] Chapman, J. H. & Frankenberry, N. (eds). (1999). Interpreting Neville: Albany: State University of New York Press. xi, 352 p.
[2]Quote from publisher’s summary at www.sunypress.edu.
[3]Neville, R. C. (2001). Religious truth. The Comparative religious ideas project. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. XXIV, 339 p.