EUO

The Pennsylvania debut performance of the “Emergent Universe Oratorio.” Composed by Sam Guarnaccia, the oratorio presents the story of the universe from its beginning to the future of humanity, in a series of alternating intensively scored recitatives with major lyrical choral sections. It was performed by the Main Line Symphony Orchestra, directed by Don Liuzzi, in the St. Thomas of Villanova church on Villanova's campus.

The oratorio is a marriage of science and art. It contributes significantly to spreading an evidence based and artistically compelling understanding of our origins, place, and role in an evolving Universe. The Emergent Universe Oratorio brings a new experience and understanding of the steps that have brought us here now. The scientific accuracy of the libretto coupled with a superb musical score offers a unique insight into why Carl Sagan said that we are all made of star dust — and much more.

The theme of the oratorio also is in support of the objectives of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ vision of a unified humanity empowered by a new consciousness and responsibility to our ‘Earth home’. In "God's Grandeur," the oratorio proclaims "The world is charged with the grandeur of God." Our response to that is one of caritas, or caring for the Earth home that is given to us.

We thank our sponsors of the Oratorio and the 2018 IBHA conference for their generosity:

the Thomas Berry Foundation,
Big History Project,
President of Villanova University,
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
Graduate Liberal Arts and Sciences,
Associate Vice Provost for Research,
University Honors Program,
Departments of Astronomy, Biology, English, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Theater and Studio Art,
Campus Minister for Liturgical Music,
Augustine and Culture Seminar Program,
Ethics Program,
Graduate Liberal Studies Program,
and the PMR Communications Group.

Big History at Villanova

Villanova University is proud to host the 2018 International Big History Association conference. The integration of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities has been central to the university’s mission from its beginning.  This is one reason why sixteen administrative and academic offices, departments, and programs at Villanova have offered their support of the conference.

Our science building in the College of Arts and Sciences, which houses our departments of physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, and computing sciences, is named for Gregor Mendel. Mendel was the nineteenth century Augustinian friar who is generally recognized as the founder of the modern science of genetics. He conducted his famous pea plant experiments between 1856 and 1863 in which he established many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance. Each year, the university gives the Mendel Medal to an outstanding scientist.

Villanova’s Mendel Medal was given to the Belgian Catholic priest Abbé Georges Lemaître, Ph.D., D.Sc. in 1934 for his ground-breaking article on the primeval atom – what later became better known as the big bang.  He was the first to derive what is now known as Hubble’s law and made the first estimation of what is now called the Hubble constant, which he published in 1927, two years before Hubble’s article. His work was controversial at the time. Albert Einstein, who was committed to the steady state or eternal universe, told Lemaître, “Your calculations are correct, but your physics is atrocious.” Once Edwin Hubble’s observations confirmed Lemaître’s theory, Einstein accepted the new view of the beginning of our universe. As astrophysicists have honed Hubble’s Law, a beginning for our universe was dated at about 13.82 billion years ago. Big History begins with the “primeval atom” (even as we examine theories of the multiverse, cyclical universes, and other hypotheses).

The 1937 Mendel Medal was awarded to Dr. (Rev.) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. for his work on key developments from the origin of the universe to the present and into the future. He argued that the universe had not been created originally as it is now, but that it evolved through stages. Big History investigates the periods of time from which there are transitions from one to the next.

The Mendal Medal was given to Dr. George V. Coyne, S.J. in 2008, when he was the Director of the Vatican Observatory.  His lecture at the award ceremony was an account that is familiar to big historians. In 2009, the award went to the evolutionary biologist, Kenneth Miller. Villanova’s astronomers and physicists teach and research the origins and evolution of the universe over the past 13.82 billion years.  Our earth scientists investigate the history of the earth since its accretion 4.6 billion years ago.  Our bio-chemists and evolutionary biologists in Mendel Hall work on the origins and evolution of life over the past 3.8 billion years.  Our departments in the humanities and social sciences pick up the story over the past thousands of years. The contributions to big history of all of these scholars have been of great importance – and make Villanova University a great place to hold the 2018 IBHA conference.