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Belief in God in an Age of Science

John Polkinghorne author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Yale University Press

Published:8th Feb '03

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Belief in God in an Age of Science cover

John Polkinghorne is the winner of the 2002 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities.

John Polkinghorne, theoretical physicist and theologian, explores the possibilities of believing in God in an age of science. In this study, Polkinghorne focuses on the collegiality between science and theology, contending that the inquiries of these "intellectual cousins" are parallel.John Polkinghorne is a major figure in today’s debates over the compatibility of science and religion. Internationally known as both a theoretical physicist and a theologian—the only ordained member of the Royal Society—Polkinghorne brings unique qualifications to his inquiry into the possibilities of believing in God in an age of science. In this thought-provoking book, the author focuses on the collegiality between science and theology, contending that these "intellectual cousins" are both concerned with interpreted experience and with the quest for truth about reality. He argues eloquently that scientific and theological inquiries are parallel.

The book begins with a discussion of what belief in God can mean in our times. Polkinghorne explores a new natural theology and emphasizes the importance of moral and aesthetic experience and the human intuition of value and hope. In other chapters, he compares science’s struggle to understand the nature of light with Christian theology’s struggle to understand the nature of Christ. He addresses the question, Does God act in the physical world? And he extends his ideas about the role of chaos theory, surveys the prospects for future dialogue between scientific and theological thinkers, and defends a critical realist understanding of the activities of both disciplines. Polkinghorne concludes with a consideration of the nature of mathematical truths and the links between the complementary realities of physical and mental experience.



Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund

Selected by American Library Association's Booklist as one of the Top Ten Books in Religion in 1998
 

Chosen as one of the Best Books Published in 1998 by Christianity Today Magazine

Winner of the 1999 Prize for Outstanding Books in Theology and the Natural Sciences given by The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences


Chosen as one of the Best Books of 1998 by Publishers Weekly

Shortlisted for a 2000 TORGI (Talking Book of the Year) Award, sponsored by The Canadian National Institute for the Blind

"In this lucid and honest work, John Polkinghorne states clearly where and why he agrees or disagrees with other contemporary writers. He presents a serious defense of a world view that must be considered seriously even by atheists."—Owen Gingerich, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics




ISBN: 9780300099492

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 136g

272 pages