DESCRIPTION
Religion and science today are often seen as enemies battling for human hearts and minds. In this new book Alan Padgett takes a postmodern turn, arguing that they can and should work together collegially, developing a worldview that is at once spiritually meaningful and scientifically sound.
Pursuing a perspective that he calls the "mutuality model," Padgett highlights the contributions that both religion and science make to a full understanding of the world and our place in it. He argues convincingly that the natural sciences and theology, even though they have their own domain as disciplines, can rationally influence each other without giving up their distinctive methods.
The book explores the nature of informal reason and worldviews, the character of theology as a spiritual and academic discipline, and the question of what counts as natural science. Along the way, Padgett discusses such topics as thermodynamics, time, resurrection, and the historical Jesus to illustrate his powerful mutuality model.
REVIEWS
J. Wenzel van Huyssteen
"Alan Padgett's new book is a significant contribution to the growing literature in the field of theology and science. Its greatest value lies its moving away from generalized abstractions and showing concretely how the identities of specific sciences and specific theologies shape the interdisciplinary dialogue between these two important domains of thought. Padgett develops a clarifying 'mutuality model' that explains the interdisciplinary nature of this multidimensional interaction while also protecting the distinct identities of disciplines as different as theology and science. Two important case studies show that this model works and reveal the compatibility between theology and the natural and social sciences."
John Polkinghorne
"There is much that will be found helpful in Alan Padgett's philosophically careful study of the mutual influences that operate between scientific and religious perspectives on reality."