Robert John Russell is founder and Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS).

He is also the Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science in Residence at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). He has written and edited a great deal on possible scientific mechanisms for the beliefs of Christianity. Russell is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. He received a PhD in Physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a BS in Physics from Stanford University, an MS in Physics from UCLA, and an MA in Theology and an MDiv from Pacific School of Religion. Russell taught physics at Carleton College and science and religion with Ian Barbour for several years before joining the GTU in 1981. His wife, Charlotte, is an associate minister at First Congregational Church, Berkeley, California.

From 1984 to the present, Robert John Russell has published papers exploring consonance and dissonance between modern physics, evolutionary biology and Christian theology. He is the Principal Investigator of “STARS: Science and Transcendence Advanced Research Series”.

In God’s Action in Nature’s World: Essays in Honour of Robert John Russell, 15 writers on the interaction between theology and science analyzed their views of Russell’s contribution to the subject.