Enter the conversation where love and complexity converge.
Save the Date: October 16–18, 2026
The Villanova Inn · Villanova, Pennsylvania
In 2026, we celebrate ten years of the Center for Christogenesis—a decade of imagining love as the energy of transformation. To mark this milestone and deepen our shared journey, we invite you to gather with us in person (and online) for our 10th Anniversary Conference at Villanova University.
More details on costs, accommodations, and how to participate (in person or online) are coming soon—for now, save the date and plan to join us!
Save the Date:
October 16–18, 2026
The Villanova Inn
Villanova, Pennsylvania
In 2026, we celebrate ten years of the Center for Christogenesis—a decade of imagining love as the energy of transformation. To mark this milestone and deepen our shared journey, we invite you to gather with us in person (and online) for our 10th Anniversary Conference at Villanova University.
More details on costs, accommodations, and how to participate (in person or online) are coming soon—for now, save the date and plan to join us!
Vision
As conflict and division rapidly intensify, the Center for Christogenesis offers a transformative vision of the forces shaping our world. Love, so often misunderstood and reduced to mere sentiment, is revealed in Teilhard’s evolutionary framework as the fundamental energy of the cosmos: the power that draws all life toward greater complexity and consciousness.
Rather than viewing love and conflict as opposing enemies, this approach shows them as complementary dynamics essential for growth and transformation. At a time when humanity faces pivotal choices, this conference invites us to see our current struggles not as insurmountable obstacles, but as essential ingredients in the ongoing story of an unfolding cosmos that continues to give rise to new possibilities for depth, meaning, unity, and transcendence.
Diana Butler Bass
Diana Butler Bass (Ph.D., Duke) is an award-winning author of eleven books, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America's most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality, especially where faith intersects with politics and culture.
Her bylines include The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN.com, Atlantic.com, USA Today, Huffington Post, Christian Century, and Sojourners. She has commented in the media
widely including on CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, CBC, FOX, Sirius XM, TIME, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and in multiple global news outlets.
Her website is dianabutlerbass.com and she can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. She writes a twice-weekly newsletter—The Cottage—which can be found on Substack.
Ilia Delio
Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD, is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC, and an American theologian specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics, and neuroscience and the import of these for theology.
Ilia currently holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University and is the author of twenty books, including "Care for Creation" (coauthored with Keith Warner and Pamela Woods), which won two Catholic Press Book Awards in 2009: first place for social concerns and second place in spirituality. Her book "The Emergent Christ" won a third-place Catholic Press Book Award in 2011 for the area of Science and Religion. Her recent books include "The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love" (Orbis, 2013), which received the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award and a third-place Catholic Press Association Award for Faith and Science. Ilia holds two honorary doctorates, one from St. Francis University in 2015, and one from Sacred Heart University in 2020.
Kathleen Duffy
Kathleen Duffy, SJ, PhD, is Professor Emerita of Physics, Director of the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College, President of the American Teilhard Association, Associate Editor of Teilhard Studies, and serves on the Board of Cosmos and Creation. Kathleen is the recipient of the Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa from Iona College, New Rochelle, NY, October 18, 2009; was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Catholic Witness, St. Hubert High School in 2005; and received the John Templeton Foundation Quality and Excellence in Teaching Award in 1998.
Her current research interests concern the religious essays of Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, his spirituality, and the relationship of his synthesis to modern developments in science. She has published award-winning books including Teilhard’s Mysticism: Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution; Teilhard’s Struggle: Embracing the Work of Evolution; an edited volume of essays about Teilhard’s life and work entitled Rediscovering Teilhard’s Fire, as well as many book chapters and articles. Kathleen also guides evening, weekend, and week-long retreats on topics related to Teilhard’s life and work.
Dan Horan
Daniel P. Horan, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy, Religious Studies and Theology and Director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. He is also Affiliated Professor of Spirituality at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. A columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, he is the author or editor of more than fourteen books, including Catholicity and Emerging Personhood: A Contemporary Theological Anthropology, A White Catholic’s Guide to Racism and Privilege, and The Way of the Franciscans: A Prayer Journey Through Lent. Prof. Horan’s most recent book is titled Engaging Thomas Merton: Spirituality, Justice, and Racism and his next book, due out in Summer 2024, is titled Fear and Faith: Hope and Wholeness in a Fractured World. He is currently working on a book on Christology tentatively titled, Not Because of Sin: Reconsidering the Reason God Became Human.
His academic research, writing, and teaching focuses on medieval and contemporary spirituality, theological anthropology, Christology, antiracism and LGBTQ issues, and theologies of creation. Prof. Horan regularly lectures around the United States and abroad; and serves on several university, academic, and publication editorial boards. He is recipient of numerous awards for his writing and service and is co-host of The Francis Effect Podcast.
Robert Nicastro
Robert Nicastro, Ph.D., is a theologian and writer whose research explores the convergence of religion, science, and technology. His work focuses on how emerging technologies are reshaping human identity, planetary consciousness, and the future of religious thought. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Christogenesis, promoting an integrative framework of science and spirituality rooted in the thought of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Save the date
October 16–18, 2026
Villanova, PA
More details to come. See you there!