Dr. Marco Ventura is Professor of Law and Religion and Religious Diplomacy at the University of Siena in Italy. Trained in bioethics and biolaw at the University of Strasbourg, he has advised the European Parliament, the OSCE, and various governments on the intersection of religion and rights. He directed the Center for Religious Studies at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento and chairs the G20 Interfaith Working Group on Religion, Innovation, and Technology and Infrastructures.

Marco is the author of numerous books, including From Your Gods to Our Gods and Nelle mani di Dio, la super religione del mondo che verrà. Over the past decade, he has helped shape the emerging field exploring the encounter between religion and innovation.

In this episode, we explore Marco's work on bioethics and technoscience, their influential position paper mapping out this emerging field of religion and innovation, and what innovation really means in a religious context.

In our conversation, we discuss:

1. The balance between tradition and contemporary art
2. The story of St. Francis and “repair my church” as a metaphor for renewal
3. Distinction between technological innovation and social innovation
4. Why religious actors want a voice in innovation-driven global agendas
5. The use of innovation in a religious context
6. The language of innovation
7. How do religious communities decide what kind of change is desirable?
8. Innovation, markets, and technology as rival meaning systems
9. Resistance movements as responses to innovation
10. Politicization and polarization in debates about markets and capitalism

To learn more about Marco’s work, you can find him at:
https://credo.unisi.it/about/secretariat-and-experts/person/marco

Links Mentioned:
Religion, Innovation, Position paper, FBK 2019 - https://isr.fbk.eu/en/about-us/position-paper/
Fondazione Bruno Kessler – https://www.fbk.eu/
G20 Interfaith Forum – https://www.g20interfaith.org/
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – https://www.osce.org/

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This episode is sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust (https://templetonreligiontrust.org/)

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