Understanding Religion and Science: Introducing the Debate
By (Author) Professor Michael Horace Barnes
Continuum Publishing Corporation
Continuum Publishing Corporation
25th March 2010
United States
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
215
Paperback
320
556g
Most texts on religion and science rightly focus on the effect of modern cosmology and biology on views about God and on the place of humankind in the universe. Many analyze current disputes about Intelligent Design. Some add useful material about notions the soul and inner freedom. A few offer thoughts about miracles. Others devote time to differences in methods in religion and science. Understanding Religion and Science covers all those topics well and clearly.
This textbook also reviews relevant historical and philosophical background, showing, for example, that some ancient Christians speculated on how God might give order to history without having to intervene, or that the very earliest Christians did not believe in a naturally immortal soul.
Finally, the text asks why people differ in their basic commitments, some giving priority to a religiously meaningful life, others willing to face even the most uncomfortable conclusions. The author suggests this may be a divide not easily bridged..
This book will appeal to students of Religion and of Science and Religion Studies.
"This is a most impressive work by a recognized expert in science and religion. It is filled with genuine learning in natural science, Western theology, and world religions. Barnes work is informed by a vast amount of reading and research, but it is eminently readable and should appeal to a wide spectrum of potential readers, including not only students, scholars, and teachers, but also educated general readers. This innovative study is very well-written, comprehensive, and beautifully organized. From beginning to end it remains consistently interesting, provocative, and fair. I wish it had been available to me when I was teaching courses on science and religion." - John F. Haught, Woodstock Theological Center, USA
"Understanding Religion and Science makes a significant contribution to the growing field of Science and a Religion by examining major questions about the relations of the two with attention to their respective goals and methods, and with exploration about where they might meet. Although Michael A. Barnes self-identifies as a theologian, the book would be a good choice not only for a Theology course but also for Religious Studies courses." - Anne M. Clifford, Msgr. James Supple Chair of Catholic Studies, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, USA
'[It] introduces the debate clearly and in detail (without forcing a view of either belief or atheism)' Church Times, 23rd July 2010
Michael Barnes's introduction to the debate carefully and systematically lays out the self-understanding of many in the scientific and religious communities in ways that make them comprehensible to the layman but in a sophisticated manner that will satisfy many who have been thinking about these issues throughout their lives.' -- Tikkun
Barnes offers a very helpful analysis of contemporary interactions... The book is well-written, historically informed and presents multiple points of view fairly. -- Journal of Church and State Volume 53 Issue 2, Spring 2011
One rarely gets an overview that is fair to all sides. The best feature of Barness' book is that... it manages to bring together these different perspectives in a single book in a readable way. -- Temenos: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion 47(1)
Michael Horace Barnes is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton, USA. He is author of Stages of Thought: The Co-Evolution of Religious Thought and Science (Oxford, 2000), which won the College Theology Society's award for best book of the year.