Narrative, Religion and Science
An increasing number of contemporary scientists, philosophers and theologians downplay their professional authority and describe their work as simply "telling stories about the world". If this is so, literary criticism can and should be applied to all these fields. Yet story telling is neither innocent nor empty-handed. Register, rhetoric, and imagery all manipulate in their own ways. Above all, irony emerges as the natural mode of our modern fragmented culture. Since the eighteenth century there have been only two possible ways of understanding the world--the fundamentalist and the ironic.
- Exposes and explores the 'narrative' in ways of thinking about the world over 300 years
- Unites philosophy, theology and science
- Broad historical overview
Reviews & endorsements
"...an ambitious, engaging and widely ranging contribution to the interdisciplinary study of literature, philosophy, religion, and science of the last three hundred years. ...this book deserves to be read and studied carefully by a wide audience..." Religion & Literature
"Prickett wants to carve out a space for religion against postmodern relativism... [T]his book can probably be read with most pleasure by the neophyte student of postmodernism." Choice
"...a tour de force...it contributes provocatively and valuably to the case for regarding the narrative relation between science and religion as being much closer than some might be prone to acknowledge." The Journal of Religion
"brisk, jargon-free and spendidly readable..." The Times Literary Supplement
Product details
January 2005Adobe eBook Reader
9780511029837
0 pages
0kg
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: Arthur Dent, Screwtape, and the mysteries of story telling
- 1. Post-modernism, grand narratives, and Just-So stories
- 2. Newton and Kissinger: science as irony?
- 3. Learning to say 'I': literature and subjectivity
- 4. Reconstructing religion: fragmentation, typology and symbolism
- 5. The ache in the missing limb: language, truth, and presence
- 6. Twentieth-century fundamentalisms: theology, truth, and irony
- 7. Science and religion: language, metaphor, and consilience
- Concluding observational postscript: the tomb of Napoleon
- Bibliography.