Issues in Science and Theology: Constructions of Narrative in Science and Religion

Louise Hickman is Reader in the Philosophy of Religion and Head of Humanities at Birmingham Newman University, UK. She has published on various aspects of the history of philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and science and religion, including two edited collections and her book Eighteenth Century Dissent and Cambridge Platonism (Routledge, 2017). Michael Fuller is a lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and an Honorary Canon of St Mary's Cathedral. He has also written about theology and music, and theology and literature.  His most recent publication is the edited volume Science and Religion in Western Literature (Routledge 2023). Mark Harris is Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, and Professorial Fellow at Harris Manchester College. In physics, he is known as the co-discoverer of 'spin ice', and while he continues with some of this work, most of his research now focuses on the complex interactions between the physical sciences and religious belief. Joanna Leidenhag is an Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy at the University of Leeds. Her first book, Minding Creation, was published with Bloomsbury/T&T Clark in 2021. Other aspects of her research include theological understandings of autism, and how the natural and psychological sciences can be used as a constructive resource for theological reflection.

• Chapter 1: Science Fiction and Communities of Agreement: Using Literary Criticism to explore Science and Theology.- Chapter 2: Priest-Scientists in Space: Astrotheology confronts Science Fiction.- Chapter 3: The Role of (Non-)Fiction in Wissenschaft: Introducing Charles Taylor’s Social Imaginaries to the Realm of Science.- Chapter 4: Mysterious Matter: Imaginary Constructs in Soviet Popular Science Magazines.- Chapter 5: Myth-understanding Scientific Agency: The Tragedy of Scientism in a Secular.- Chapter 6: Liberating Science: Philosophy of Science and Religion in Andrew Steane’s “Brightland” Parable.- Chapter 7: Imagination and Narrative in Early Modern Science: The Case of Athanasius Kircher.- Chapter 8:  The Engagement of Science and Religion in Twenty-First Century Opera.- Chapter 9: Decoding the Twenty Two Miracles of St. James: Navigating Empirical and Mystical Perspectives, Historical Contexts, and Narrative Influence in Codex Calixtinus.- Chapter 10: Possible Ethnographies of “Science and Religion:” An Exercise in Anthropology of the Moderns.- Chapter 11: Sorrow such as only animals know: Animals, Science and Theology in the Imaginative worlds of C. S. Lewis.- Chapter  12: Likely Stories: How the ancient drama of philosophy can help us think about the nonhuman world.- Chapter 13: Big History and Deep Incarnation: The Unifying Stories of a Fragmented World.- Chapter 14: Making Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels with Teilhardian Visions and Multiverse Theories: The Bright Empires series by Stephen Lawhead.- Chapter 15: Poems of Time and Redemption and their contribution to Science-Theology Dialogue.- Chapter 16: AI and Neuroscientific Narratives: Shaping the Future of Science and Religion.- Chapter 17: Narrating Artificial Intelligence in the Way of Theological Ethics: Moving towards Ethical Narratives through Historical Narratives.- Chapter 18: Paradise at What Cost? An ecotheological reading of Mary Doria Russell’s space duology.- Chapter 19: R.U.Ready for the Workless Future? A Theology of Work for Post-employment.- Chapter 20: Narrative Misalignment, Religion, and Resilience: Could Interaction Ritual Chains be the Key to Resilient Recovery from Leadership Hypocrisy for Individuals and Communities?.- Chapter  21: From Neurons to Narratives: Predictive Processing and the Healing Power of Sacred and Secular Literature.