Greenwood Guides to Science and Religion – serie

Many people believe that during the Middle Ages, Christianity was actively hostile toward science (then known as natural philosophy) and impeded its progress. This comprehensive survey of science and religion during the period between the lives of Aristotle and Copernicus demonstrates how this was not the case. Medieval theologians were not hostile to learning natural philosophy, but embraced it. Had they had not done so, the science that developed during the Scientific Revolution would not—and could not—have occurred. Students and lay readers will learn how the roots of much of the scientific culture of today originated with the religious thinkers of the Middle Ages.Science and Religion, 400 B.C. to A.D. 1550 thoroughly covers the relationship between science and religion in the medieval period, and provides many resources for the student or lay reader. The book discusses how the influx of Greek and Arabic science in the 12th and 13th centuries— especially the works of Aristotle in logic and natural philosophy—dramatically changed how science was viewed in Western Europe. The volume demonstrates how medieval universities and their teachers disseminated a positive attitude toward rational inquiry and made it possible for Western Europe to become oriented toward science.

Judaism and Science canvases three millennia of Jewish attitudes towards nature and its study. It answers many questions about the complex relationship of religion and science. How did religious attitudes and dogmas affect Jewish attitudes towards natural knowledge? How was Jewish interest in science reflected, and was facilitated by, links with other cultures - Egypt and Assyria and Babylon in ancient times, Moslem culture in medieval times, and Christian culture during the Renaissance and since? How did science serve as a bridge between religious communities that were otherwise estranged and embattled? How did science serve as a vehicle of assimilation into the wider intellectual culture in which Jews found themselves? The book considers the attitudes and work of particular Jews in different epochs. It takes an eagle's-eye view of its subject, considering broad themes from a high vantage, but also swooping down to consider particular individuals at high focus, and in detail.Judaism and Science encompasses the entire history of the interaction of Jews and natural knowledge.; Part I: The Sages of Israel and Natural Wisdom describes the images of nature and natural philosophy in the two most important sets of books on the Jewish bookshelf: the Biblical corpus and the Talmudic/Early Rabbinic corpus; Part II: Jews and Natural Philosophy shows how Jews explained nature, especially the nature of the heavens, or astronomy and astrology, in medieval times and early modern times.; Part III: Jews and Science — describes the entry of Jews into modern science, beginning in 19th century Europe and 20th century United States, USSR and Israel, emphasizing the social background of the rapid entry of Jews into modern sciences, and of their remarkable successes.; The volume includes annotated primary source documents, a timeline of important events, and an bibliography of essential primary and secondary sources for further research.

Can science and religious belief co-exist? Many people— including many practicing scientists—insist that one can simultaneously follow the principles of the scientific method and believe in a particular spiritual tradition. But throughout history there have been people for whom science challenged the very validity of religious belief. Whether called atheists, agnostics, skeptics, or infidels, these individuals used the naturalism of modern science to deny the existence of any supernatural power. Science and Nonbelief chronicles, in a balanced and accessible way, the long history of the battle between adherents of religious doctrines and the nonbelievers who adhere to the naturalism of modern science.Science and Nonbelief provides a nontechnical introduction to the leading questions that concern science and religion today: What place does evolution hold in the arguments of nonbelievers? What does modern physics tell us about the place of humanity in the natural world? How do modern neurosciences challenge traditional beliefs about mind and matter? What can scientific research about religion tell us about the nature of belief? How do skeptics react to claims at the fringes of science, such as UFOs and psychics?The volume also addresses the political context of debates over science and nonbelief, as well as questions about the nature of morality. It includes a selection of provocative primary source documents that illustrate the complexity and varieties of nonbelief.

Most people, when they think about the purported conflict between science and religion, would most likely think first of evangelical Protestantism. Because of the prominent place evolution versus creationism - and such events as the Scopes Trial - has had in the debates over science and religion, many people think of evangelicals as hostile to science. As with other volumes in the Greenwood Guides to Science and Religion series, this work addresses the more complex interworkings between modern science and evangelical Christianity. Creationism will feature prominently, of course, but there will be other chapters covering other aspects of this relationship - geology, environmental issues, and technology.Evangelicals and Science provides a thorough overview of the history of the relationship between these two dominant forces in public life, including chapters on evangelicals, the Bible and science, evangelicals and geology, the rise of Creationism, and evangelicals and modern science.The volume includes primary source documents to give readers a flavor of the writings of evangelicals on science, a timeline, and an annotated bibliography.

When most people think about Catholicism and science, they will automatically think of one of the famous events in the history of science - the condemnation of Galileo by the Roman Catholic Church. But the interaction of Catholics with science has been - and is - far more complex and positive than that depicted in the legend of the Galileo affair. Understanding the natural world has always been a strength of Catholic thought and research - from the great theologians of the Middle Ages to the present day - and science has been a hallmark of Catholic education for centuries.Catholicism and Science, a volume in the Greenwood Guides to Science and Religion series, covers all aspects of the relationship of science and the Church: How Catholics interacted with the profound changes in the physical sciences (natural philosophy) and biological sciences (natural history) during the Scientific Revolution; how Catholic scientists reacted to the theory of evolution and their attempts to make evolution compatible with Catholic theology; and the implications of Roman Catholic doctrinal and moral teachings for neuroscientific research, and for investigation into genetics and cloning.The volume includes primary source documents, a glossary and timeline of important events, and an annotated bibliography of the most useful works for further research

Many people may think that the modern physical sciences - physics, chemistry, astronomy - and religion have little to do with each other. There are, however, many points that these two areas intersect. This volume in the Greenwood Guides to Science and Religion will cover the impact of religion and spirituality on some of the great scientific debates of the last 100 years - the origin of the universe, the nature of matter and energy, the quest for a TOE (theory of everything), and the current debates over multiple universes, the anthropic principle, and other aspects of theoretical physics that are borderline philosophy. Debates on these topics are common in popular works, and the author places all of these debates in a context that the average reader can understand.

This volume in the Greenwood Guides to Science and Religion series examines how Asian spiritual traditions — primarily the religions of India and China - interacted and influenced the understanding of the natural world over the last two millennia. Unlike the religious and scientific traditions of the Christian West, which developed in tandem, or even the Islamic world, which helped the rise of Western science, the Asian religious traditions did not encounter Western science until relatively recently. This has led to a unique relationship between these two cultural phenomena. The volume will also address the impact of Western science had on these traditions, as well as the impact on western science of the recent study of Asian religions by New Age groups and philosophers.primary source documentsa bibliography of resources for further studya timelinea glossary

Science and Islam provides a detailed account of the relationship between Islam and science from the emergence of the Islamic scientific tradition in the eighth century to the present time. This relationship has gone through three distinct phases. The first phase began with the emergence of science in the Islamic civilization in the eighth century and ended with the rise of modern science in the West; the second period is characterized by the arrival of modern science in the Muslim world, most of which at that time was under colonial occupation; and the third period, which began around 1950, is characterized by a more mature approach to the major questions that modern science has posed for all religious traditions.Based on primary sources, the book presents a panorama of Islamic views on some of the major issues in the current science and religion discourse. Written in accessible language, Science and Islam is an authentic account of the multi-faceted and complex issues that arise at the interface of Islamic intellectual tradition and science. Rich in historical details, the book is a fascinating survey of the interaction of Islamic beliefs with the enterprise of science.