Issues in Science and Theology: Nature – and Beyond

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Philosophical Considerations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Nature: And Beyond? Immanence and Transcendence in Science and Religion

      • Philip Clayton

      Pages 3-17

   3. Immanence and Transcendence: On/Off Difference or Gradation? Implications for Science-and-Theology

      • Lluis Oviedo

      Pages 19-29

   4. Why I Am a Science-Inspired Naturalist But Not a Philosophical Naturalist Nor a Religious Naturalist

      • Willem B. Drees

      Pages 31-37

3. Theological Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 39-39

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   2. The Twin Truths of Divine Immanence and Transcendence: Creation, Laws of Nature and Human Freedom

      • Lydia Jaeger

      Pages 41-56

   3. Beyond the Disguised Friend: Immanence, Transcendence and Glory in a Darwinian World

      • Christopher Southgate

      Pages 57-68

   4. Divine Determination or Dynamic Indeterminacy? Transcendence, Immanence, and the Problem of Personal Identity

      • Janna Gonwa

      Pages 69-78

   5. Preserving the Heavens and the Earth: Planetary Sustainability from a Biblical and Educational Perspective

      • Andreas Losch

      Pages 79-86

   6. The Ecological Significance of God’s Transcendence?

      • Ernst M. Conradie

      Pages 87-99

   7. A Critical Approach to the Concept of Panentheism in the Dialogue Between Science and Theology: Distinguishing Between Divine Transcendence and Immanence in Creation

      • Fabien Revol

      Pages 101-115

   8. Revisioning the Anthropocene in a Trinitarian Frame: A Theological Response to Clive Hamilton’s Defiant Earth

      • Ian Barns

      Pages 117-130

   9. Beyond the ‘Book of Nature’ to Science as Second Person Narrative: From Methodological Naturalism to Teleological Transcendence

      • Tom C. B. McLeish

      Pages 131-142

   10. Radical Transcendence and Radical Immanence: Convergence Between Eastern Orthodox Perspectives and Strong Theistic Naturalism?

       • Christopher C. Knight

       Pages 143-151

4. Scientific Insights

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 153-153

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   2. Awe and Wonder in Scientific Practice: Implications for the Relationship Between Science and Religion

      • Helen De Cruz

      Pages 155-168

   3. A Contingency Interpretation of Information Theory as a Bridge Between God’s Immanence and Transcendence

      • Philippe Gagnon

      Pages 169-185

   4. The Transcendent Within: How Our Own Biology Leads to Spirituality

      • Sara Lumbreras

      Pages 187-197

   5. Beyond the Everyday Self

      • Fraser Watts

      Pages 199-205

This book addresses a variety of important questions on nature, science, and spirituality: Is the natural world all that there is? Or is it possible to move ‘beyond nature’? What might it mean to transcend nature? What reflections of anything ‘beyond nature’ might be found in nature itself?

Gathering papers originally delivered at the 2018 annual conference of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT), the book includes contributions of an international group of scientists, philosophers, theologians and historians, all discussing nature and what may lie beyond it.

More than 20 chapters explore questions of science, nature, spirituality and more, including

• Nature – and Beyond? Immanence and Transcendence in Science and Religion
  
• Awe and wonder in scientific practice: Implications for the relationship between science and religion
  
• The Cosmos Considered as a Moral Institution
  
• The transcendent within: how our own biology leads to spirituality
  
• Preserving the heavens and the earth: Planetary sustainability from a Biblical and educational perspective
  

Issues in Science and Theology: Nature – and Beyond will benefit a broad audience of students, scholars and faculty in such disciplines as philosophy, history of science, theology, and ethics.

• Aesthetics and Psychology
• Anthropology, Science and Religion
• Biology and Spirituality
• Ecology and Transcendence
• Immanence and Transcendence
• Naturalism, Religion and Science
• Pantheism, Science and Theology
• Revelation and Transcendence
• Science and Religion
• The Sublime and Selfhood
• Early Modern Natural Philosophy
• religion and society

• University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

  Michael Fuller

• Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenber, Halle (Saale), Germany

  Dirk Evers

• Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University, Trelleborg, Sweden

  Anne Runehov

• Volda University College, Volda, Norway

  Knut-Willy Sæther

• Chaire Science et Religion, Lyon Catholic University, Lyon, France

  Bernard Michollet

Michael Fuller has taught science and theology at the University of Edinburgh since 1998. He is the author of a monograph and numerous articles dealing with the interface of science and religion, and he has edited numerous symposia relating to this subject. He is a former Chair of the UK Science and Religion Forum, and Vice-President for Publications of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology. He is an Anglican Priest, a Canon of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, and for 15 years he was Pantonian Professor at the Theological Institute of the Scottish Episcopal Church. His research interests include ethical issues raised by new and emerging sciences.

Dirk Evers is Professor of Dogmatics and Philosophy of Religion at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Before joining Halle University in 2010 as a faculty member, he worked as assistant professor at Tübingen University under Eberhard Jüngel. Since his doctoral thesis on cosmology and doctrine of creation in 2000 he has been doing interdisciplinary work at the intersection of science and theology. Since 2014 he has been president of ESSSAT (European Society for the Study of Science and Theology), and he is managing editor of the journal Philosophy, Theology, and the Sciences. 

Policies and ethics