RT Article
T1 Beyond Barbour or Back to Basics? The Future of Science-and-Religion and the Quest for Unity
JF Zygon
VO 43
IS 1
SP 235
OP 258
A1 Smedes, Taede Anne 1973-
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2008
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1827959940
AB Abstract. Reflecting on the future of the field of science-and-religion, I focus on three aspects. First, I describe the history of the religion-and-science dialogue and argue that the emergence of the field was largely contingent on social-cultural factors in Western theology, especially in the United States. Next, I focus on the enormous influence of science on Western society and on what I call cultural scientism, which influences discussions in science-and-religion, especially how theological notions are taken up. I illustrate by sketching the way divine action has been studied in science-and-religion. The divine-action debates may seem irrelevant to theologians because the way divine action is dealt with in science-and-religion is theologically problematic. Finally, I analyze the quest for integration and unity of science and religion that underlies much of the contemporary field of science-and-religion and was stimulated particularly by the efforts of Ian Barbour. I argue that his quest echoes the logical positivist vision of unification and has a strong bias toward science as the sole source of rationality, which does not take theology fully seriously.
K1 Scientism
K1 Science and religion
K1 Logical Positivism
K1 Divine Action
K1 Ian Barbour
DO 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2008.00910.x