Kuruvilla Pandikattu

[1] He was also Director of JDV Centre for Science-Religion Studies (JCSR) and Association of Science, Society and Religion (ASSR), Pune.

The starting points of Pandikattu's academic research are physics, philosophy (metaphysics) and religion (theology).

He became interested in the quest for the unification of the fourfold forces of nature in physics and the hermeneutics of dialogue by Paul Ricoeur.

[9] Human being is the tensional appropriation between the past and the future, the memory and hope, the actual and the potential.

It is in this tensional existence that human beings realise their own ever-evolving nature, including that of bound freedom[10] and limited relationship.

They are capable of genuine love,[13] also to a very limited extent, and establishing relationships, in spite of the contrary claims and experiences.

As part of the dynamically tensional existence, human beings are “being-unto-death,” where the possibility of their own impossibility is always on the horizon.

Further, following Michel de Montaigne we may hold that “To philosophize is to learn to die.” So, as human beings, we are called to live gratefully and accept death gracefully!

[16] Further, as human beings, we need to take seriously the possibility of our own collective annihilation (Sixth Mass Extinction, Ecological Crises, etc.)

It is a challenging and painstaking process, demanding acceptance (of the past mistakes), forgiveness[19] and readiness to reconcile.

He also took up issues in science-religion dialogue, which, according to him, is "not an option but an obligation" for the very survival of the human species, believing it called for radical commitment.

He bases this insight on scientific details like the lowest temperature reachable (t →0) and knowing that the beginning of Big Bang (T →0) is like the "horizon"[24] which is never fully attainable.

Prof Kuruvilla Pandikattu SJ, XLRI, Xavier School of Business, Jamshedpur