Last July, Carol Kankelborg, a first-year M.A. student at YTI, delivered a talk entitled “Toward Transcending the Conflict Model” at the American Scientific Affiliation’s (ASA) 2025 annual meeting, held at Colorado Christian University (CCU). While there, she introduced many of the nearly 300 attendees to YTI.
At four previous ASA annual meetings, Carol had watched her husband Charles, a solar physicist at Montana State University, and others present talks. She began to imagine herself presenting at a future meeting but lacked a compelling topic.
She discovered such a topic last fall in Theological Foundations, taught by Dr. Joshua Schendel. Her final paper explored the late-nineteenth century origins of the conflict model, the idea that science and Christian theology are inherently and necessarily opposed to one another, through the lens of Richard H. Bube’s typology of seven ways science and Christian theology relate, as a way to move beyond conflict to complementarity. Carol crafted an abstract based on that paper with input from her husband and Dr. Schendel and set about turning it into a coherent, 20-minute talk once classes ended in May.
Sunday afternoon of the conference, Carol stood at the lectern in CCU’s Performance Hall with her notes in front of her and her slides projected behind her. In the talk, she laid out the problem we face—the conflict model leaves no possibility of reconciliation while alternate models minimize conflict and are ill-equipped to pursue reconciliation. By contrast, Bube’s complementarity pattern leans into conflict by taking the different insights from authentic science and authentic theology and doing the hard work of integrating them into a fuller understanding of reality.
Afterwards, she received many encouraging comments, including an invitation to present it at a science and Christian faith seminar hosted by ASA’s Red River Valley chapter next February in western Minnesota. Carol’s abstract, video, and slides can be found at https://tinyurl.com/KankelborgASA25.
Carol, who has lived in Bozeman almost 30 years, came to YTI with an engineering background and decades of Bible study leading experience, looking to deepen and expand her skills to be a better student and teacher of the Bible.
“The whole experience was challenging but satisfying,” Carol explains. “I enjoyed learning about the origins of and problems caused by the ‘conflict model.’ It is prevalent in popular culture and is an impediment to better understanding the world God has placed us in and the Word he has revealed to us.
“The process stretched me; I had to depend on God and trust him in the face of my insecurity, knowing many attendees were more experienced and knowledgeable than I. God reminded me that I was there to learn and grow, not impress others. I was encouraged by the whole experience.”
The ASA (https://asa3.org) is an international scholarly and professional society of Christians engaged at the interface of vital faith-science questions.
Note: Carol’s full presentation is available at https://a916407.fmphost.com/fmi/webd/ASAdb49?script=SearchForRecordID&$SearchString=7490