Linda Eastwood
Contact information
Field of Study: Intersections of Science and Theology
Email: leastwood@mccormick.edu
Department: Theology
Extension: 6325
Office: 315
Rev. Dr. Linda Eastwood, a Presbyterian minister, is by background a physicist (PhD, and a 25-year career designing medical MRI systems.) Linda serves as Affiliate Faculty in Theology and Science at McCormick Theological Seminary. She has also served as Auxiliary Faculty at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She also teaches and preaches in Chicago-area churches. She was originally ordained to work for the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, coordinating (for three and a half years) a human-rights accompaniment program in Colombia, South America. She continues links with the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, lecturing and teaching Science and Religion and other topics (in Spanish) at the school of theology in the Reformed University in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Educationally, Rev. Dr. Linda Eastwood earned a Bachelor of Science degree (University of Birmingham, England, 1st class honors), a Master of Science degree and a Ph.D. in Medical Physics (University of Aberdeen, Scotland), a Master of Business Administration degree (John Carroll University, Cleveland, OH), and Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees (McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL). She was also blessed to be part of a three-year series of colloquia on Religion and Science at the Institute of Reformed Theology in Richmond, VA.
As a professional scientist, she started working with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) almost at its birth, gradually moving from university (Aberdeen) to start-up company (M&D Technology,) and from there to a more established medical equipment company (Picker International, later bought by Philips) in Cleveland, OH, where she lived and worked for twenty years. She took on roles in project management, marketing, and business management. She spoke at scientific conferences and in customer presentations all over Europe and the United States.
Linda’s professional background reminds her that scientists and people of faith are often the same people; faith matters in the workplace, and scientists sit in the pews on Sunday. She sees the need for theologians and pastors to understand something of how scientists think, to appreciate some of the wonders of God’s creation as uncovered by modern science, and to develop theologies and models of pastoral interaction which respect – without being overly tied to – our current level of scientific knowledge of that creation. As a matter of urgency, both faith and science can, and should, be an influence for good on our attitudes and behavior towards each other and towards all creation.
Linda maintains her interest in issues of human rights and social justice. In seminary teaching, one result was a 2016 joint course on “Being Church in Contexts of Violence,” taught primarily at the Reformed University in Barranquilla, for students of both McCormick and the Reformed University. She formerly served on the Advisory Committee for Social Witness Policy of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and currently serves on the denomination's Central America Study Team. She serves on the Activist Council of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, and as chair of the board of the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN).