This page evolves from a 1979 global dialogue between scholars in the natural sciences, the humanities and theology. It was originally formulated to provide discussion materials for a conference at MIT entitled, Faith, Science and the Human Future.

It is re-created here because it became the template for the Big Board – little universe project. Since 2011 many more scholars, along with celebrities and other thought leaders, have all been listed.

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My 1979 selection of scholars by Bruce Camber (very limited updating)

The purpose of this project was to summarize those comprehensive worldviews and powerfully suggestive ideas of living scholars (bold equals the “still living” the last time we checked!).  All vetted back in 1979 within their community as leading thinkers, the hope was that there might be a dynamic exchange and synthesis of ideas and information that would open new and deeper insights and wisdom. Based on their experiences, observations, historical analysis, hypotheses and testing, informed speculations, and even visionary insights, each person’s  work was placed within one of three perspectives: The Small-Scale Universe, The Human-Scale Universe, and The Large-Scale Universe.  And then, with each perspective, there were three groups of scholars: (1) Natural Scientists, (2) Philosophers/Theologians and (3) The Boldly Speculative.

Small-Scale Universe To Be – Reality. What is it? Scholars seek to define fundamental units of reality, experience and/or being.	Human Scale Universe To Know – Ways of Knowing Scholars seek to understand basic interactions from cells to populations of people. What makes life human? What gives life meaning?	Large-Scale Universe To Envision the Cosmos Scholars seek to understand cosmology — the parts, laws, and operations of the universe. They seek to know the origin and nature of the universe.
1979: All Living Scholars. Selected by their peers Listings are alphabetical listings of Scientists, Philosophers and Theologians.  Each listings is followed by a school designation and links go to published work.
•  Ian Barbour, Carleton, Northfield (MN) Issues in Science and Religion	•  Michael Arbib, Massachusetts, UCLA Brains, Machines and Mathematics	•  Hannes Alfven, Uppsala, Stockholm Cosmic Plasma
•  Ted Bastin, Cambridge Quantum Theory & Beyond	•  Peter Berger, Boston College The Sacred Canopy	•  Hermann Bondi, London The cosmological scene
•  Charles Birch, Sydney Biology and the Riddle of Life	•  Percy Brand Blanshard, Yale The Nature of Thought	•  Margaret & Geoffrey Burbidge, UCSD (CA) The Abundances of the Elements
•  David Bohm, Birkbeck, London Fragmentation & Wholeness	•  Kenneth Boulding, Colorado The World as a Total System	•  Buckminster Fuller, Pennsylvania Synergetics I & II
•  Mario Bunge, McGill, Montreal Treatise on Basic Philosophy	•  Erwin Chargaff,Columbia Heraclitean Fire	•  Stephen Hawking, Cambridge On the Shoulders of Giants
•  Fritjof Capra, Lawrence Berkeley The Tao of Physics	•  Noam Chomsky, MIT Language and Mind	•  Fred Hoyle, Cambridge, Cal Tech Ten Faces of the Universe
•  John Cobb, Claremont (CA) Process Studies	•  Freeman Dyson, Institute for Advanced Studies Disturbing the Universe	•  Stanley Jaki, Seton Hall (NJ) Science and Creation
•  Richard Feynman, Cal Tech Theory of Fundamental Processes	•  John Eccles, SUNY-Buffalo Understanding of the Brain	•  Bernard Lovell, Manchester, JBO Emerging Cosmology: Convergence
•  Lewis Ford, Old Dominion, Norfolk (VA) Lure of God	•  Richard Falk, Princeton A Study of Future Worlds	•  Roger Penrose The Emperor’s New Mind
•  Sheldon Glashow, Harvard The charm of physics	•  Paul K. Feyerabend, Berkeley Science in a Free Society	•  Arno Penzias,  Bell Labs (NJ) The Origin of the Elements
•  David Griffin, Claremont (CA) Archetypal Process	•  John N. Findlay, Boston Plato: The Written and Unwritten	•  Carl Sagan, Cornell Contact  and  Cosmos
•  Charles Hartshorne, Chicago The Zero Fallacy	•  Hans-Georg Gadamer, Heidelberg Truth and Method	•  Fred A. Wolf The Dreaming Universe
•  Krishnamurti, California The First and Last Freedom	•  Langdon Gilkey, Chicago Maker of Heaven and Earth	•  Tarthang Tulku (Berkeley, CA) Time, Space, and Knowledge
•  H. Pierre Noyes, Stanford Bit-String Physics	• Steven Grossberg, Boston Studies of Mind and Brain	• Steven Weinberg, Harvard, Texas The First Three Minutes
• Shubert Ogden, SMU, Dallas (TX) On Theology	• Jürgen Habermas, Max Planck, Starnberg The Fear of Freedom	• Yakov B. Zel’dovich Creation of particles in cosmology
• Harold Oliver, Boston A Relational Metaphysic	• Gerald Holton, Harvard Scientific Imagination	NEW: Today’s Living Scholars
• Gian-Carlo Rota, MIT Foundations of Combinatorics	•  William Johnston, Sophia, Japan Still Point	Who shall we add in each category? Who are today’s leading living scholars?
•  Julian Schwinger, UCLA Einstein’s Legacy	•  Gustavo Lagos, Chile (in process)	•  John Baez, UCR (CA) Knots and quantum gravity
•  Henry P. Stapp, Lawrence Berkeley Mindful Universe	•  Erwin Laszlo, UN Systems View of the World	•  Lisa Randall, Harvard Warped Passages
•  Victor Weisskopf, MIT The Joy of Insight	•  Bernard Lonergan, Regis Insight: A Study of Human Understanding	•  Richard Dawkins, Oxford The Magic of Reality
•  Carl F. von Weizsäcker, Max-Planck (Starnberg) The Structure of Physics	•  Lynn Margulis, Massachusetts (Amherst) Early Life	•  Daniel Shechtman, Technion Icosahedral Quasiperiodic Phase
•  John Wheeler, Princeton, Texas Spacetime Physics	•  Ali A. Mazrui, Michigan, SUNY-Binghamton A World Federation of Cultures	•  Jim Yong Kim, World Bank, Dartmouth, Toward a Golden Age
•  Eugene Wigner, Princeton Symmetries & Reflections	• Marvin Minsky, MIT The Society of Mind	•  Ben J. Green, Oxford On arithmetic structures…
	•  Jürgen Moltmann, Tübingen The Spirit of Life	•  Brian Green, Columbia (NYC) The Elegant Universe
Selection committee	•  Wolfhart Pannenburg, Munich Theology and the Philosophy of Science	• Agnieszka Zalewska, Krakow, CERN Large Hadron Collider
included Marx Wartofsky, J. Robert Nelson, Alan Olson,	•  Karl Popper, London All Life Is Problem Solving	Who shall we add in each category? Who are today’s leading living scholars?
and Bill Henneman, all of Boston University.	•  Karl Pribam, Stanford The End of Certainty
Every scholar selected was also invited to nominate others.	•  Ilya Prigogine, Brussels The End of Certainty
Every scholar was also invited to critique the selections.	• Karl Rahner Theological Investigations
Bruce Camber initiated and coordinated this effort.	• Theodore Roszak, San Francisco State The Making of a Counter Culture.
Who shall we add in each category? Who are today’s leading living scholars?	• Huston Smith, Syracuse The World’s Religions
	• William I. Thomson, Lindisfarne, Passages about Earth