Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction - Softcover

"An essential purchase for any library that does not have the larger volume."

(Library Journal)

"This work is both accessible and authoritative. Editors have taken pains to make sure the writing is consistently approachable and the scholarly depth of the individual contributors in certainly more than adequate to label this volume authoritative."

(Research News and Opportunities in Science and Technology)

"Ferngren is to be commended for conveying the vitality and influence of science and religion through this series of excellent contributions from leading authors in the field. "

(Fraser F. Fleming Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith)

"Ferngren offers us a selection of essays by leading specialists on the most important issues in the history of science and religion. I know of no other book that so gracefully introduces the reader to this burgeoning field."

(Ann Blair, Harvard University)

Written by distinguished historians of science and religion, the thirty essays in this volume survey the relationship of Western religious traditions to science from the beginning of the Christian era to the late twentieth century. This wide-ranging collection also introduces a variety of approaches to understanding their intersection, suggesting a model not of inalterable conflict, but of complex interaction. Tracing the rise of science from its birth in the medieval West through the scientific revolution, the contributors describe major shifts that were marked by discoveries such as those of Copernicus, Galileo, and Isaac Newton and the Catholic and Protestant reactions to them. They assess changes in scientific understanding brought about by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century transformations in geology, cosmology, and biology, together with the responses of both mainstream religious groups and such newer movements as evangelicalism and fundamentalism. The book also treats the theological implications of contemporary science and evaluates recent approaches such as environmentalism, gender studies, social construction, and postmodernism, which are at the center of current debates in the historiography, understanding, and application of science. Contributors: Colin A. Russell, David B. Wilson, Edward Grant, David C. Lindberg, Alnoor Dhanani, Owen Gingerich, Richard J. Blackwell, Edward B. Davis, Michael P. Winship, John Henry, Margaret J. Osler, Richard S. Westfall, John Hedley Brooke, Nicolaas A. Rupke, Peter M. Hess, James Moore, Peter J. Bowler, Ronald L. Numbers, Steven J. Harris, Mark A. Noll, Edward J. Larson, Richard Olson, Craig Sean McConnell, Robin Collins, William A. Dembski, David N. Livingstone, Sara Miles, and Stephen P. Weldon.