Matthew Pinson SJ, Australian Jesuit and theoretical physicist, writes for our newsletter in our new Science and Spirituality series. We begin with a reflection on his two great loves and callings.

Now that I’ve finished the formal, theological portion of my Jesuit formation, I’m embarking on a career as a Jesuit scientist. I’m far from alone on this journey: I’m walking a path trodden by many other Jesuits, priests, religious, and faithful Catholics and other Christians.

Yet I’m surprised at how frequently people are surprised that I combine callings as a Christian and as a scientist or assume I must find contradictions between these great loves of mine.

I think the underlying reason for their surprise is that they are working with an image of God that falls far short of the image offered by the Church’s theological tradition. It’s the image of a god sitting in the sky throwing lightning bolts, or sending diseases to punish those who displease him, or making every creature by an independent, isolated act of the will. And of course, once we discover that lightning comes from the build-up of electrical charge in the clouds, that diseases arise from viruses and other natural causes, and that evolution can explain the diversity of life on Earth, there’s no room for a god like this.

So as believers, we need to do a better job putting forward our belief in a God who is not just one more powerful cause within the universe, but who makes possible existence itself. The importance of this is not just apologetic, but also spiritual. When we see God this way, we realise that all the individual blessings within life are intended to point to our primordial blessing: our creation as beings capable of responding to our creator; of choosing to love the One who first loved us. Remembering this truth can provide a steady point through a life that does not always seem blessed as the world would see it.

Matthew Pinson SJ is an Australian Jesuit deacon and physicist. Originally from Cowra, NSW, he completed a PhD in physics at MIT, where he experienced his call to religious life. During his Jesuit formation, he experienced how frequently questions about the relationship between faith and science come up as concerns of spiritual seekers.

This cemented his sense of vocation to serious engagement with both of these dimensions of human searching. Matthew now undertakes research in astrophysics with the Vatican Observatory and Monash University, and writes and speaks about science and faith as complementary paths that invite us into wonder and a deeper appreciation of God’s presence in creation.