Religion and Science
Ecology And Ethics
The science-religion conversation as it has been conducted over the last forty years—very much under the influence of Ian Barbour in the United States and the priest-theologians John Polkinghorne and Arthur Peacocke in Britain—has tended to focus on physics in particular, not only as the source of vital data about the beginning and end of all things but also as the paradigm of rationality. Theologians have tended to be in awe of physics, and physicists in turn have sometimes developed an almost religious awe of their subject.
However, environmental science has had a very different conversation with theology. Ecological thinkers have often blamed religious formulas (such as the verse of Genesis cited above) as licensing human abuse of nature; they have also been critical of science as determined to dissect nature and as providing the technology used to accelerate ecological abuse. This criticism ignores the vital point that it is science that provides the diagnosis of our environmental state. However, the de-divinizing of nature by Christian theology that we noted above was a catalyst for Western scientific development, and science in turn has reinforced a sense that we are free to use nature as we want. It has been hard for humans to keep a sense both of God's distinctness from the world and of God's immanent presence in every aspect of that world. Here theology may need new imagery for the God-world relation; for example, Jay McDaniel offers the image of God as "heart" but also draws on Buddhist principles such as nonharming in order to derive a more sustainable environmental ethic.
Importantly, then, the science-religion conversation is not just about fine metaphysical distinctions between types of explanation of the origin of the universe; ultimately it is about the wisdom to relate appropriately to our world, and (if such is our belief) to our creator—to know how best to address our ever-growing power to influence that world, through the sheer extent of our technological life, and specifically through such advances as the new genetics. Science must inform our wisdom but cannot be its sole source.
See also Creationism; Evolution; Monism; Natural Theology; Naturphilosophie; Newtonianism; Philosophy and Religion in Western Thought; Physics; Science, History of; Scientific Revolution.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barbour, Ian G. Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. Useful general introduction and classification of science-religion relationships.
Brooke, John Hedley. Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Very important account of the diverse relationships between sciences and theology.
Haught, John F. God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 2000. Good exploration of the issues evolution raises for theology.
Murphy, Nancey, and George F. R. Ellis. On the Moral Nature of the Universe: Theology, Cosmology, and Ethics. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1996. Important coupling of this sort of theology with ethics.
Peacocke, Arthur. Paths from Science Towards God: The End of All Our Exploring. Oxford: Oneworld, 2001. Summary of Peacocke's long investigation of this field and its implications for Christian theology.
Peters, Ted, and Gaymon Bennett, eds. Bridging Science and Religion. London: SCM Press, 2002. Considers several key areas mentioned above and also Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
Polkinghorne, John. The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994. Perhaps the clearest communicator on the relation of physical science to classical Christian faith.
Richardson, W. Mark, and Gordy Slack, eds. Faith in Science: Scientists Search for Truth. New York and London: Routledge, 2001. Fascinating account by scientists from a variety of faith positions.
Rolston, Holmes, III. Genes, Genesis, and God. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Important critique of sociobiological understandings of human being.
Russell, Robert J., William R. Stoeger, and George V. George, eds. Physics, Philosophy and Theology: A Common Quest for Understanding. Vatican City State: Vatican Observatory, 1988.
Russell, Robert J., et al., eds. Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action. Vatican City State: Vatican Observatory and Berkeley, Ca.: Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, 1995. See also other titles in the Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action series, edited by Robert J. Russell et al. An outstanding set of resources at advanced level for understanding divine action debate.
Southgate, Christopher, ed. God, Humanity, and the Cosmos: A Textbook in Science and Religion. 2nd ed. Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2003. See especially the foreword by van Huyssteen, chapter 7 on divine action, and chapter 9 on Islamic science.
Van Huyssteen, J. Wentzel, ed. Encyclopedia of Science and Religion. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 2003. Key resource across the field.
Christopher Southgate
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