Science and Religion in Dialogue, 2 vols. Edited by Melville Y. Stewart, xi + 1120 pps., West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, $410.00.
Every fall term from 2005 through 2009 at five of China’s top universities, the Science and Religion Series, partly funded by the John Templeton Foundation, took place, and the papers shared therein comprise this two-volume set edited by Melville Stewart, who is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota. Covered within the confines of this set is virtually every conceivable topic regarding the ongoing dialogue between science and religion, including topics related to physics-, chemistry-, and biology-proper, along with discussions of religion and theism in general (although most contributions deal with Christianity explicitly, note). Herein, 12 philosophers and 14 scientists contribute three chapters each (with only three exceptions). Each contribution is followed by endnotes, and the second volume also contains a thorough glossary. Whereas it is impossible to fully review this massive – and thought-provoking – set, I shall make some general comments as to what to expect from its entailments, as well as highlight some particularly strong contributions.
Every contribution, it seems, supports the notion that the science and religion dialogue is just that: a dialogue, and not a monologue – meaning that the flow of information transfer and subsequent modification goes both ways, resulting in both disciplines being changed by their encounter with the other. There is an abiding and pervading consensus on the part of the contributors that God has produced two books, two modes of revelation: the book of nature and the bible; both of the methods of revelation are accessible to those who are willing to receive them and who have properly-functioning belief-forming mechanisms.
The first three chapters are written by Delvin Ratzsch, and cover the nature of science (which programmatically sets the tone for the entire volume), the religious roots of science, and the purported demise of religion, respectively. Notably, Ratzsch contends that elements beyond mere observational data influence the conduction of science in the postmodern era; moreover, he illustrates how the rise of science took place against the backdrop of religion. Loren Haarsma contends, within his three chapters (10-12), that viewing the universe as (a) divine creation gives an account not only of ‘beginnings’ per se, but also a reason for the continuance of natural laws within the natural environ. Stephen Matheson (chapters 19-21), a practicing biologist, argues and defends the idea that common descent is not in confliction with Christian belief, and that biological explanation can be meaningful within the context of the Christian faith. Michael Murray (34-36) catalogues the adaptionist and evolutionary accounts of religion, contending in sum that they are epistemically unjustified in their extrapolation.
Volume two begins with two chapters (40-41) by Owen Gingerich, whoc similarl to Ratzsch as noted above), sets the tone and parameters of the discussions that follow; in so doing, he recounts the scientific revolution, dialogues with Lawrence J. Henderson’s The Fitness of the Environment on what could be called ‘fine-tuning’. Nancey Murphy (48-50) discusses modern and postmodern views of knowledge, reviews the consequences of reductionistic accounts of causation, , and reviews theories of human nature according to philosophies of the West; notably, she asserts that a nonreductive materialism may be the best way to account for human nature from a theological and scientific point of view. Peter van Inwagen (54-56) focuses upon the relation between science and belief in God (generally), and the relationship between science and scripture specifically, contending in the process that Darwinism and theism are entirely consistent with one another.
In sum, whereas there are a few papers that are ‘technical’, the vast majority of them will be interesting to the general reader, though profitable also to the scholar, as they are both thought-provoking and enlightening, Science and Religion in Dialogue offers an (almost) complete guide to most of the current thinking on the complementary disciplines of science and faith.
Bradford McCall, Regent University