The War That Never Was最新文献

{"title":"The War That Never Was","authors":"K. Kemp","doi":"10.54739/76y7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54739/76y7","url":null,"abstract":"THE WAR THAT NEVER WAS: Evolution and Christian Theology by Kenneth W. Kemp. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020. 234 pages. Paperback; $28.00. ISBN: 9781532694981. *In The War That Never Was, Kenneth W. Kemp roundly rejects commonplace belief among contemporary writers that a state of \"warfare\" exists between modern science and religion. On the scientific side, Kemp focuses narrowly on prevailing theory in the modern \"paleoetiological sciences\" of origins in geology and biology--especially Darwinian evolutionary science. On the religious side, his argument is confined mainly to Christian theology as it engages this kind of science. Contrary to very strong contemporary currents of opinion on both sides, Kemp contends that there never really has been a \"war\" between these sciences and Christian theology, and that there is no such conflict between them now. *In the introductory chapter, Kemp explains that his thesis does not stand on acceptance of Stephen Jay Gould's well-known evasive proposal that science and religion are \"non-overlapping magisteria,\" so that they simply cannot be in conflict. For (so Kemp) it is untrue that religion trades only in values (so Gould). The Christian religion, at least, stands on purported facts, too, such as the alleged occurrence of miracles. In Kemp's view, Christian theology can and does overlap at some points with the concerns and inquiries of scientists. This means that deep conflict, or \"war,\" between this religion and secure science is possible in theory. He specifies precisely that the potential conflict is not between ontological naturalism and supernaturalism, as often believed, but is rather a potential \"epistemic conflict\" on matters of both methodology and substance. He seeks to show, however, that apparently deep conflicts that have erupted and become definitive evidence for the thesis of \"warfare\" are, despite the prominence of certain bellicose figures on both sides, a byproduct of an urgent need to revise old ideas in the face of disruptive new ones. Kemp portrays the history of such public clashes as, more deeply, an ongoing effort of thinkers to adapt traditional religious articulations to new religious-relevant discoveries in science, and thereby to preserve \"peace\" between the two great sources of truth. *Aside from the opening chapter, Kemp's defense of this thesis is historical rather than merely theoretical in the abstract. The main body of the book is a succinct yet impressively detailed and well-documented tour of historical episodes that supposedly exemplify the alleged \"warfare.\" Whether Kemp achieves his aim or not (readers' opinions are bound to be mixed), it is safe to say that the discussion brings a fresh and forcefully defended perspective to these old and (so we may think) worn instances of apparent \"war\" between science and theology. I believe that this book is worth reading just for the historical accounts themselves, apart from the controversial conclusions that Kemp draws from the","PeriodicalId":186008,"journal":{"name":"The War That Never Was","volume":"156 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114435537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}