Assessing the field of science and religion: Advice from the next generation

Journal article

The field of science and religion is undergoing a transition today requiring assessment of its past movements and identifying its future trajectories by the next generation of science and religion scholars. This essay provides such assessment and advice. To focus efforts on the past, I turn to Ian Barbour's own stock taking of the field some forty years ago in an essay entitled “Science and Religion Today” before giving some personal comments where I argue that much of the field has traditionally focused on the conversation between Christianity and the natural sciences. At present, however, we are beginning to see that the future of the conversation lies beyond the dialogue between the natural sciences and Christianity. I suggest that the future dialogue will and ought to expand in several directions: (1) into non-Christian religions and theology, (2) into the human sciences, (3) into science and technology Studies, and (4) into the humanities more broadly.

Authors: Burdett, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Zygon
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 747-763
• Publication date: 2017-08-18
• DOI: 10.1111/zygo.12352
• EISSN: 1467-9744
• ISSN: 0591-2385