Van Huyssteen J.W. (editor) Encyclopedia of Science and Religion

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Religion and the Order of Nature. New York and London: Oxford University Press,

1996.

Although the focus of this work is mainly on Western religious interpretations of nature and the interplay

between religion, science, and philosophy, Nasr explicitly invokes other religious traditions as well, espe-

cially the Islamic tradition. In a blend of historical, philosophical, and religious writing, Nasr tries to indi-

cate how the different religious traditions embody wisdom that can help overcome the contemporary eco-

logical crises, while establishing a new religious worldview based on the re-sacralization of nature.

Peacocke, Arthur. Theology for a Scientific Age: Being and Becoming - Natural, Divine and Human. Lon-

don: SCM Press, 1993.

In this book, based on his Gifford Lectures, Peacocke explores the implications of the sciences for theo-

logical doctrine. Focusing on the concept of God, God’s interaction with the world, and God’s communi-

cation with humanity through Jesus Christ, he constructs a panentheist framework in which the world is

seen as a many-leveled emergent whole governed by the dynamic interplay of chance and necessity.

Peters, Ted. God as Trinity: Relationality and Temporality in Divine Life. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John

Knox Press, 1993.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is explored in relation to some contemporary issues in theology and

science. Peters gives an introduction to ‘Trinity Talk,’ and addresses some contemporary moral and theo-

logical issues. He also gives an overview of the trinitarian views of several twentieth-century theologians.

Finally, relations to philosophy and science, especially regarding temporality, are explored.

Polkinghorne, John, ed. The Work of Love: Creation as Kenosis. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans

and London: SPCK, 2001.

‘Kenosis’ or the self-limitation of God has increasingly gained attention. It refers to the idea that God vol-

untarily limited his power so as to allow for freedom for finite creatures. In the essays collected in this vol-

ume, eleven well-known theologians explore this notion, especially in connection with the doctrine of cre-

ation, the relation between humans and nature, divine action, and our scientific worldview.

Polkinghorne, John, and Welker, Michael, eds. The End of the World and the Ends of God: Science and The-

ology on Eschatology. Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2000.

The contributions in this interdisciplinary volume center around the question how our contemporary cul-

ture influences and is influenced by theological ideas about the end of the world. The essays are clustered

in four sections as reflections on eschatological themes from the natural sciences, the cultural sciences and

ethics, biblical studies, and from systematic theology. Some central themes are the relation between scien-

tific cosmology and eschatology, the role of culture and the church as cultural space, the concept of time

and the future, eschatological themes in the Bible, and the issue of life after death.

Polkinghorne, John. The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker. Minneapolis, Minn.:

Fortress Press, 1996.

Structured according to the Nicene Creed, Polkinghorne’s Gifford Lectures explores “to what extent we can

use the search for motivated understanding, so congenial to the scientific mind, as a route to being able to

make the substance of Christian orthodoxy our own.” Polkinghorne discusses how science bears upon spe-

cific theological doctrines like creation, christology, pneumatology, and eschatology.

Qadir, C.A. Philosophy and Science in the Islamic World. New York: Croom Helm, 1988.

Historically speaking, the Western civilization owes much to Islamic influences, due to the translations of

Greek and Arabic texts on science and philosophy. In this work, Qadir narrates the emergence, rise, de-

cline, and the rediscovery of Islamic philosophy and science. He argues that the Islamic perspective em-

phasizes the wholeness and oneness of the cosmos and of our knowledge. In the final three chapters, the

contemporary rediscovery of the Islamic potentials concerning philosophy, science, and technology in Mus-

lim countries is described.

Samuelson, Norbert. Judaism and the Doctrine of Creation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Expounding historical, religious, and philosophical aspects of some Jewish perspectives on the doctrine of

creation, Samuelson discusses the interrelations between the Hebrew scriptures, Greek and Jewish philos-

ophy, and contemporary physics. Some reflections can be found on Rosenzweig’s philosophy, the limits of

human reason and religious faith, the character of religious belief, the relevance of scientific models to re-

ligious doctrine, and the nature of the relationship between God and the universe.

Ward, Keith. Religion & Creation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

This book contains a thorough analysis and comparison by a Christian theologian of the doctrine of cre-

ation and the notion of God in four scriptural traditions, and its interpretation by eminent twentieth-cen-

tury theologians within those traditions. Ward concludes that there are many fruitful comparisons to be

made regarding the properties which are ascribed to God in the different traditions. In the final part of the

book, Ward makes explicit “a specifically Christian doctrine of God as Trinity, in the light of the new per-

spective on the universe which modern cosmology provides.”

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11. SCIENCE & DIVINE ACTION

Polkinghorne, John. Science and Providence: God’s Interaction with the World. Boston: Shambala, 1989.

In this book, Polkinghorne addresses issues surrounding the question how we can reconcile the scientific

worldview with the Christian’s belief in a personal and caring God. Through exploring the relation between

embodiment and action, Polkinghorne arrives at a model of divine action wherein God is seen to interact

with the world by top-down action. The reference to chaos theory, which he explored further in many sub-

sequent writings, has become the hallmark of Polkinghorne’s theology of divine action.

Morris, Thomas V., ed. Divine and Human Action: Essays in the Metaphysics of Theism. Ithaca, NY and Lon-

don: Cornell University Press, 1988.

The twelve diverse essays collected in this volume all revolve around the theological, philosophical, and

metaphysical issues surrounding the relation and interaction of God with the created world and its inhab-

itants. These issues include divine causality and the natural world, providence, creaturely freedom and the

role of chance, and the nature and properties of God. As the title indicates, the essays particularly address

the traditional theist idea of God.

Tracy, Thomas F., ed. The God Who Acts: Philosophical and Theological Explorations. University Park, Pa:

The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.

This collection of essays of renowned philosophers and theologians deals explicitly with the moral impli-

cations and difficulties surrounding divine action. The essays focus on two themes. First particular divine

action is considered, especially related to the problem of evil. Secondly, the attention turns to universal di-

vine action in connection with creation and human freedom.

Ward, Keith. Divine Action. London: Collins, 1990.

Ward tackles in clear arguments many difficult issues connected with the concept of divine action, such as

the order of the universe, miracles, the problem of evil, and prayer. He argues that science has declared

the death of the closed universe. Our universe turns out to be emergent and open, and God is personally

and continually active in it, though his influence is undetectable for creatures. The life, death, and resur-

rection of Jesus of Nazareth constitutes “a definite embodiment of God’s own activity for human redemp-

tion, which is the matrix for interpreting the Divine activity everywhere.”

Wiles, Maurice. God’s Action in the World: The Bampton Lectures for 1986. London: SCM Press, 1986.

In this work the famous though controversial ‘single act’ theory of divine action is expounded. Wiles shows

how evil and suffering pose insurmountable problems for any interventionist view of divine action. This

leads him to propose the idea that “the whole process of bringing into being of the world, which is still

going on, needs to be seen as one action of God.” Arguing from this model he deals with problems of evil,

providence and Christology.

12. SCIENCE, RELIGION, & ETHICS

Barbour, Ian G. Ethics in an Age of Technology: The Gifford Lectures, 1989-91, Vol. 2. San Francisco:

HarperCollins, 1992.

In this second volume of Gifford Lectures, Barbour addresses the ethical issues related to our use of ap-

plied science and technology. The book is structured in three parts. The first part deals with the different

views on technology, human, and environmental values. In the second part, three ‘critical’ technologies,

agriculture, energy, and computers are explored. In the third part, reflecting on the future use and devel-

opment of technology, Barbour makes clear how the values discussed in the former two parts are relevant

for technological policy decisions.

Murphy, Nancey, and Ellis, George F.R. On the Moral Nature of the Universe: Theology, Cosmology, and

Ethics. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1996.

How do science, theology, and ethics relate to each other? And does our understanding of the universe

have any ethical implications? These are the questions that are explored in this study by a theologian and

a cosmologist. Taking the integrity of the natural order as a starting point, the authors argue that God’s ac-

tion entails refusal to violate that order. This ‘kenotic’ view of God’s action then is taken as having moral

implications for a self-renunciatory ethic, “according to which one must renounce self-interest for the sake

of the other, no matter what the cost to oneself.”

Rolston, Holmes, III. Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in the Natural World. Philadelphia: Tem-

ple University Press, 1988.

Rolston defends the view that humans have to respond to and are responsible for nature. As such, he de-

velops a theory of naturalist environmental ethics based on duties and values, which also seeks to optimize

human fitness on earth and to do this in a moral manner. This theory is then applied to social, public, and

business policy making. Many examples help to elucidate Rolston’s points.

TAEDE A. SMEDES

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AAR. See American Academy of

Religion

Abacus, 861

Abbasid caliphate, 454, 470–471,

472, 473

Abbot, Edwin A., 372

iAbd al–Muhmin, 48

Abduction (Peirce concept), 839

iAbduhl–Bahá, 53, 54, 55

Abhidharmako7a, 75, 77, 80, 82

Abhinavagupta, 590

Abortion, 1–3

discarded embryo seen as, 422

embryonic germ cells and, 1,

367, 368, 841

ethical issues of, 1–2, 528

genetic discrimination and, 422

genetic testing and, 1–2, 3, 67,

370, 424

religious views on, 2–3, 402, 403,

422, 734

for sex selection, 67, 402

Abraham, 5, 218, 236, 237, 535, 704,

724

God and, 378

special providence and, 825

Abraham, Karl, 495

Abraham bar Hiyya, 489

Abrahamic faiths. See Christianity;

Islam; Judaism

Abrahams, M. H., 847

Abrams, Nancy, 176

Absolute idealism, 446

Absolute space, 372, 621, 893

omnipresence and, 629

Absolute time, 622, 623, 823,

893–894, 897

Absolute Unitary Being, 307–308,

309, 314

Absolute values, 920–921

Abstraction, 506

models and, 578

Abstract of a Book lately Published,

Entitled, A Treatise of Human

Nature (Hume), 440

Abu iAbdallah al–Natili, 50

Abu Yaqub ibn Yusuf, 48, 474

Academy. See Plato’s Academy

Acceleraton, 665, 717. See also

Falling bodies

Access Research Network, 756, 767

Accidental free will theism, 339–340

Accidentalism, causation and, 94

Accidents, nuclear, 624–625

Acetylcholine, 613

Achilles, 518

ACLU. See American Civil Liberties

Union

Acquired characteristics inheritance,

theory of, 37, 281, 288, 299,

503, 609

Action at a distance, 330–331, 332,

389, 533

Action potentials, 610, 612

Actor–network theory, 163

Acts and Facts (newsletter), 767

Acts of Faith (Starke and Finke), 817

Acts of God. See Divine action

Acts of the Apostles, 134

key chapters and verses, 787

Acupuncture, 83, 84

Adam and Eve, 5, 189, 203, 236, 870

creationists and, 303

evil and suffering and, 278, 812

fall and, 321, 322

Luther’s view of nature and, 248

sin and, 805, 806, 812, 846

Adams, James Luther, 428

Adams, William, 441

Adaptation, 4, 26

altruistic, 790

art origins and, 30

behavioral, 226, 243, 505–506

biocultural evolution and, 289,

290

competition and, 150

complexity and, 154, 156

convergent evolution and, 167

cultural transmission and, 194

Darwinian evolution and, 4, 201,

226, 235, 281, 285, 287–288,

295, 299–300, 303, 383, 639,

764, 808, 877

as design argument evidence,

211, 215, 604, 877, 879

as design argument refutation,

764

differential selection and, 790

ecosystems and, 235

evolutionary ethics and, 285

evolutionary psychology and, 287

fitness and, 4, 333–334, 584, 639,

808

functional explanations and, 344

gene expression and, 226

Gould/Lewontin arguments

against, 384–385, 709

gradualism critique and, 760

immunity and, 431, 432–433

kin selection and, 790–791

language and, 504, 505–506

memes theory and, 289, 290

physical beauty preferences and,

431

random mutations and, 294, 584,

633, 877

religious beliefs and, 290, 303

self–transcendence and, 800

sociobiological thesis of, 385

suffering and, 277

value of, 723–724

INDEX

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Page numbers in boldface indicate the main article on a subject.

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Addiction, 806, 835

Adenine, 225, 419, 530, 584

Adeodatus, 43

Adler, Alfred, 495

Adolescence, 21, 22

Adultery, 735

Advaita philosophy, 401, 513, 514,

515

mysticism and, 586

pantheism and, 645

soul and, 820