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Science and Religion

Science and Religion

Science and Religion

New Historical Perspectives
Thomas Dixon , Queen Mary University of London
Geoffrey Cantor , University of Leeds
Stephen Pumfrey , University of Lancaster
December 2011
Available
Paperback
9781107404113

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    The idea of an inevitable conflict between science and religion was decisively challenged by John Hedley Brooke in his classic Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge, 1991). Almost two decades on, Science and Religion: New Historical Perspectives revisits this argument and asks how historians can now impose order on the complex and contingent histories of religious engagements with science. Bringing together leading scholars, this volume explores the history and changing meanings of the categories 'science' and 'religion'; the role of publishing and education in forging and spreading ideas; the connection between knowledge, power and intellectual imperialism; and the reasons for the confrontation between evolution and creationism among American Christians and in the Islamic world. A major contribution to the historiography of science and religion, this book makes the most recent scholarship on this much misunderstood debate widely accessible.

    • Offers authoritative accounts of the latest research on the history of science and religion
    • Analyses and compares Christian and Islamic engagements with modern science
    • Features contributions from world-leading historians in the field

    Reviews & endorsements

    'Every student of science and religion will find this book informative, useful, and stimulating.' Theological Book Review

    '… there is a great deal here to interest and stimulate the general reader as well as the academic specialist.' The Expository Times

    'These days, whenever the words 'science' and 'religion' are brought together, they are likely to conjure up other words like 'debate', 'conflict', and 'inevitable'. That set of associations, real or imagined, is the underlying subject of this remarkable book. It distills an enormous amount of scholarship relating to a fascinating set of subjects of contemporary importance in the form of well-researched and nicely written set of essays brought together in honor of the British historian John Hedley Brooke. It celebrates his work in redefining, one might almost say, defining away, the notion of conflict between science and religion.' Science and Education

    See more reviews

    Product details

    April 2010
    Adobe eBook Reader
    9780511686245
    0 pages
    0kg
    This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.

    Table of Contents

    • List of contributors
    • Preface
    • 1. Introduction Thomas Dixon
    • Part I. Categories:
    • 2. 'Science' and 'religion': constructing the boundaries Peter Harrison
    • 3. Science and religion in postmodern perspective: the case of Bruno Latour Jan Golinski
    • Part II. Narratives:
    • 4. Religion and the changing historiography of the Scientific Revolution Margaret J. Osler
    • 5. The late-Victorian conflict of science and religion as an event in nineteenth-century intellectual and cultural history Frank M. Turner
    • 6. Islam, Christianity and the conflict thesis B. Harun Küçük
    • Part III. Evolution and Creationism:
    • 7. Evolution and creationism in the Islamic world Salman Hameed
    • 8. Understanding creationism and evolution in America and Europe Bronislaw Szerszynski
    • Part IV. The Politics of Publishing:
    • 9. A global history of science and religion Sujit Sivasundaram
    • 10. The Scopes trial beyond science and religion Adam R. Shapiro
    • 11. Science, religion, and the history of the book Jonathan R. Topham
    • Part V. Ways Forward:
    • 12. Sciences and religions: what it means to take historical perspectives seriously Noah Efron
    • 13. Simplifying complexity: patterns in the history of science and religion Ronald L. Numbers
    • 14. What shall we do with the 'Conflict Thesis'? Geoffrey Cantor
    • Select bibliography
    • Index.
      Contributors
    • Thomas Dixon, Peter Harrison, Jan Golinski, Margaret J. Osler, Frank M. Turner, B. Harun Küçük, Salman Hameed, Bronislaw Szerszynski, Sujit Sivasundaram, Adam R. Shapiro, Jonathan R. Topham, Noah Efron, Ronald L. Numbers, Geoffrey Cantor

    • Editors
    • Thomas Dixon , Queen Mary University of London
    • Geoffrey Cantor , University of Leeds
    • Stephen Pumfrey , University of Lancaster