The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity

by J. B. Stump (Editor), Alan G. Padgett (Editor)

Overview

The period from the last few decades of the twentieth century has witnessed the development of a widespread scholarly interest in issues related to science and religion. The relationship between these approaches to understanding the world has long been restless, and often occasions divisive but invigorating discussions that can serve to further our understanding of both.

The volume addresses major historical developments, methodological approaches, and significant figures in the discipline. It also engages with both mutually supportive and contrasting ideas about evolution, Christian bioethics, cosmology and physics, the human sciences, metaphysics, and perspectives on mind.

Bringing together some of the world's leading scholars, and incorporating diverse philosophical and historical perspectives, The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity offers a cutting-edge survey of contemporary thought at the intersection of science and Christianity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118256527
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	03/12/2012
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	664
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

J.B. Stump is Professor of Philosophy and directs the philosophy program at Bethel College (Indiana, USA). He is the philosophy editor of Christian Scholar’s Review, and has published articles there as well as in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science and Philosophia Christi. He has co-authored (with Chad Meister) Christian Thought: A Historical Introduction (2010).

Alan G. Padgett is Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Long involved in the dialogue between theology and science, he is a member of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) and has lectured in Europe, Canada, the US and China on religion and theology. He has authored or edited 10 other books, including Science and the Study of God (2003).

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Notes on Contributors x

Introduction xviii
J. B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett

Part I Historical Episodes 1

1 Early Christian Belief in Creation and the Beliefs Sustaining the Modern Scientific Endeavor 3
Christopher B. Kaiser

2 The Copernican Revolution and the Galileo Affair 14
Maurice A. Finocchiaro

3 Women, Mechanical Science, and God in the Early Modern Period 26
Jacqueline Broad

4 Christian Responses to Darwinism in the Late Nineteenth Century 37
Peter J. Bowler

5 Science Falsely So Called: Fundamentalism and Science 48
Edward B. Davis

Part II Methodology 61

6 How to Relate Christian Faith and Science 63
Mikael Stenmark

7 Authority 74
Nicholas Rescher

8 Feminist Philosophies of Science: Towards a Prophetic Epistemology 82
Lisa L. Stenmark

9 Practical Objectivity: Keeping Natural Science Natural 93
Alan G. Padgett

10 The Evolutionary Argument against Naturalism 103
Alvin Plantinga

Part III Natural Theology 117

11 Arguments to God from the Observable Universe 119
Richard Swinburne

12 “God of the Gaps” Arguments 130
Gregory E. Ganssle

13 Natural Theology after Modernism 140
J. B. Stump

14 Religious Epistemology Personified: God without Natural Theology 151
Paul K. Moser

15 Problems for Christian Natural Theology 162
Alexander R. Pruss and Richard M. Gale

Part IV Cosmology and Physics 173

16 Modern Cosmology and Christian Theology 175
Stephen M. Barr

17 Does the Universe Need God? 185
Sean Carroll

18 Does God Love the Multiverse? 198
Don N. Page

19 The Fine-Tuning of the Cosmos: A Fresh Look at its Implications 207
Robin Collins

20 Quantum Theory and Theology 220
Rodney D. Holder

Part V Evolution 231

21 Creation and Evolution 233
Denis R. Alexander

22 Darwinism and Atheism: A Marriage Made in Heaven? 246
Michael Ruse

23 Creation and Evolutionary Convergence 258
Simon Conway Morris

24 Signature in the Cell: Intelligent Design and the DNA Enigma 270
Stephen C. Meyer

25 Darwin and Intelligent Design 283
Francisco J. Ayala

26 Christianity and Human Evolution 295
John F. Haught

27 Christian Theism and Life on Earth 306
Paul Draper

Part VI The Human Sciences 317

28 Toward a Cognitive Science of Christianity 319
Justin L. Barrett

29 The Third Wound: Has Psychology Banished the Ghost from the Machine? 335
Dylan Evans

30 Sociology and Christianity 344
John H. Evans and Michael S. Evans

31 Economics and Christian Faith 356
Robin J. Klay

Part VII Christian Bioethics 369

32 Shaping Human Life at the Molecular Level 371
James C. Peterson

33 An Inclusive Framework for Stem Cell Research 381
John F. Kilner

34 The Problem of Transhumanism in the Light of Philosophy and Theology 393
Philippe Gagnon

35 Ecology and the Environment 406
Lisa H. Sideris

Part VIII Metaphysical Implications 419

36 Free Will and Rational Choice 421
E. J. Lowe

37 Science, Religion, and Infinity 430
Graham Oppy

38 God and Abstract Objects 441
William Lane Craig

39 Laws of Nature 453
Lydia Jaeger

Part IX The Mind 465

40 Christianity, Neuroscience, and Dualism 467
J. P. Moreland

41 The Emergence of Persons 480
William Hasker

42 Christianity and the Extended-Mind Thesis 491
Lynne Rudder Baker

43 In Whose Image? Artificial Intelligence and the Imago Dei 500
Noreen Herzfeld

44 How Science Lost its Soul, and Religion Handed it Back 510
Julian Baggini

Part X Theology 521

45 The Trinity and Scientific Reality 523
John Polkinghorne

46 God and Miracle in an Age of Science 533
Alan G. Padgett

47 Eschatology in Science and Theology 543
Robert John Russell

48 The Quest for Transcendence in Theology and Cosmology 554
Alexei V. Nesteruk

Part XI Significant Figures of the Twentieth Century in Science and Christianity 565

49 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 567
James F. Salmon

50 Thomas F. Torrance 578
Tapio Luoma

51 Arthur Peacocke 589
Taede A. Smedes

52 Ian G. Barbour 600
Nathan J. Hallanger

53 Wolfhart Pannenberg 611
Hans Schwarz

54 John Polkinghorne 622
Christopher C. Knight

Index 632

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity is a marvelous volume, with a wide-ranging roster of contributions from respected science-and-religion scholars. I commend Stump and Padgett for covering all the important bases, but also including a few surprises thrown in for good measure.

-Karl Giberson, author The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age (with Randall Stephens)

Editorial Reviews

The Blackwell Companions are a well-known and prestigious series that always form an up-to-date and high-quality entry to a certain academic domain ... My appreciation prevails and I believe this book really offers a most worthy introduction to the issue of science-Christianity relations. Congratulations to Stump and Padgett for putting together this valu­able collection of well-written essays.”  (Philosophia Reformata, 1 November 2015)

“As I said at the outset, this Blackwell Companion has proved itself to be an indispensable companion to me as I try to set out the current shape of the field for the third generation, but I cannot help but wonder how different such a volume will look in their time.”  (Modern Believing, 1 January 2014)

“The result is a fascinating, rich collection of fifty-four essays grouped into eleven major sections . . . To sum up, this volume nicely complements other recent works in the ongoing interaction between science and religion. Students and teachers in the field will find this volume an accessible, reliable, and up-to-date resource for the contemporary discourse between science and Christianity.”  (Themelios, 1 April 2013)

“For those who have such a background, this book will be a valuable asset for orienting themselves in the broader conversation.”  (Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, 1 March 2013)

“Summing Up: Recommended.  Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.”  (Choice, 1 December 2012)

From the Publisher