Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith最新文献

{"title":"On George L. Murphy, \"Chiasmic Cosmology as the Context for Bioethics\" (PSCF 42, no. 2 [1990]: 94–99)","authors":"Keith B. Miller","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23miller","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23miller","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686715","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}

{"title":"Divine and Human Providence: Philosophical, Psychological and Theological Approaches","authors":"Ignacio Alberto Silva, Simon Kopf","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23silva","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23silva","url":null,"abstract":"DIVINE AND HUMAN PROVIDENCE: Philosophical, Psychological and Theological Approaches by Ignacio Silva and Simon Maria Kopf, eds. New York: Routledge, 2022. 156 pages. Paperback; $52.95. ISBN: 9780367632267. *This volume of nine essays seeks to clarify the meaning of divine providence by employing the analogy of human providence, understood here as the prudent execution of deliberation and planning. Although the contributors cover fields as diverse as philosophy, natural and social sciences, and theology, this review covers only the chapters that engage with contemporary scientific research. *In the fourth chapter, Ignacio Silva is concerned with the ways in which contingent events provide a challenge to our conceptions of divine providence. He develops the thought of Aquinas in contrast to those who locate God's providential acts in the causal gaps in our current scientific understanding of creation (e.g., in quantum mechanics and evolutionary theory). The latter view is taken by those who subscribe to an approach called NIODA (non-interventionist objective divine action). An example of the NIODA approach to divine providence is Thomas Tracy's view that God acts through the structures of nature \"non-miraculously,\" a view which Silva thinks effectively renders God as one cause among countless other causes. Another example of the NIODA approach is Robert Russell's view that at the quantum level God may be seen to act as a cause of both general features and specific events alongside purely natural causes. Silva's primary critique here is that it compromises God's transcendence by making God's causal activity ontologically indistinguishable from natural causation. *To draw out what he thinks are the implications of Aquinas's view of contingent events for our understanding of divine providence, Silva first clarifies Aquinas's understanding of contingency. Indeterminism exists because of the hylomorphic composition of being--that is, matter establishes the range of possibilities for how it will be integrated by the organizing principle called \"form,\" even though the intelligibility of form is irreducible to the material it integrates. Silva provides a brief but helpful analogy from human providence, showing how contemporary military strategy accommodates contingencies by building the occurrence of both foreseen and unforeseen events (the \"material\") into the overall battle plan (the \"form\"). He also finds that Aquinas's understanding of indeterminism is congenial to our new understanding of physical reality. Noting how Heisenberg himself used Aristotle's concepts of potency and act, Silva explains that differently actuated potency explains the existence of indeterminism without the need for complementary (i.e., divine) causation. The indeterminism that permeates the created order is part and parcel of the secondary causes through which God, the primary cause, achieves his intended effect. *In the fifth chapter, Connie Svob examines current findings in ","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135894815","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}

{"title":"The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation","authors":"Andrew Loke","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23loke","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23loke","url":null,"abstract":"THE ORIGIN OF HUMANITY AND EVOLUTION: Science and Scripture in Conversation by Andrew Loke. New York: Bloomsbury, 2022. viii + 200 pages. Paperback; $39.95. ISBN: 9780567706409. *On the cover of its June 2011 issue, readers of Christianity Today were greeted by the portrait of a distinctly ancient yet still remarkably human figure. Hovering nearby stands the intriguing title, \"The Search for the Historical Adam.\" What had been a mostly academic debate had burst onto the popular scene. This article, arguably more than anything else, revealed the state of the scholarly debate, which, in a word, was not looking promising for traditionalists. A litany of high-profile figures, such as Peter Enns, Dennis Venema, and Scot McKnight, had struck successive blows to the long-cherished view of an original couple. *Just over a decade later, it seems a crisis may have been averted. Biologists and theologians have since offered not just one but multiple competing models that preserve both the genetic data and a doctrine of inerrancy. The debate has now shifted from \"if Adam and Eve can be squared with contemporary science\" to \"how we ought to pair the two.\" The two most prominent attempts have been the recent pair of books by Joshua Swamidass and William Lane Craig, yet with the publication of The Origin of Humanity and Evolution by the accomplished philosopher Andrew Loke, a third major model has entered the discussion. *However, it would be a mistake to assume that Loke's work focuses solely or even chiefly on the question of the historical Adam. Rather, his more ambitious project is to provide a comprehensive interpretation of Genesis 1-9 in conversation with contemporary science. In chapter 1, Loke distinguishes between three different projects that are often conflated: (A) interpreting the Bible, (B) showing the Bible to be true, and (C) showing there is no incompatibility between science and the Bible. Loke's project primarily undertakes Task C; as such, he is not suggesting the model he proposes is conveyed by scripture or would have even been known by the authors of the Genesis text. Rather, his more modest proposal is that the truths communicated by the early chapters of the Bible can be shown to accord with current biological data. Consequently, the much-exaggerated claims of conflict between science and scripture have yet to be justified. *Yet before Loke ventures to substantiate this claim, chapter 2 outlines his hermeneutical strategy. Loke affirms the reality of divine accommodation: God's revelations in the scriptural texts were communicated in a fashion his listeners would understand. However, Loke resists a strong view of accommodation that would deny a doctrine of inerrancy concerning scripture's statements regarding the physical world, defending the place of the latter doctrine in church history. What scripture says about both God and the natural world, he claims, is wholly accurate if interpreted correctly. How, then, does one square the cre","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686673","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}

{"title":"Making Sense of Diseases and Disasters: Reflections of Political Theory from Antiquity to the Age of COVID","authors":"Lee Trepanier","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23trepanier","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23trepanier","url":null,"abstract":"MAKING SENSE OF DISEASES AND DISASTERS: Reflections of Political Theory from Antiquity to the Age of COVID by Lee Trepanier, ed. New York: Routledge, 2022. 248 pages. Hardcover; $170.00. ISBN: 9781032053950. E-book; $47.65. ISBN: 9781003197379. *Political theorist Lee Trepanier has assembled a collection of scholars to address the political--and human--questions that arise from what he describes as \"liminal events\" such as pandemics, natural disasters, and the like. In this book, \"disaster\" includes not only natural but humanly generated disasters, such as the Sack of Rome. Such liminal events can generate considerable political uncertainty, significant social change, and even political collapse. Trepanier states that \"These events offer us lessons about the nature of political order and illuminate what political theory can offer in our understanding about politics itself\" (p. 1). How do societies respond to these events? Do these events create (or reveal) solidarity or the lack of it? Do governments gain or lose legitimacy based on how they handle these events? More deeply, what do these events reveal about human nature and human behavior when political structures are under strain or broken? Trepanier and contributors work with an expansive, more classical conception of politics; in this conception political theory explores the broad questions of how we live together and how the political order both reflects and shapes our human nature. *The book is organized into Trepanier's introduction and four sections. Section I, \"In the Time of COVID,\" engages the recent pandemic. Section II, \"Modern Solutions, Modern Problems,\" moves to the early modern period with studies of key figures such as John Locke and Francis Bacon. Section III, \"God, Plagues, and Empires in Antiquity,\" moves to the ancient world engaging authors such as Augustine, Thucydides, and Sophocles. The final section, \"Reflections on Surviving Disasters,\" brings us forward again to the present day with studies of how contemporary authors grapple with early twenty-first century disasters such as the Fukushima Earthquake of 2011 or Hurricane Katrina. *Aside from the introduction, there are twenty chapters. Some chapters are densely written, while others are quite accessible. The authors come at their topics from a variety of methodological angles, such as historical analysis, literature, and post-modernist theory. All chapters are quite short, rendering them as tasters for exploring the ideas in greater depth. A particular point of interest is the extensive use of works of literature as a lens for exploring these liminal events; several chapters use this lens. *One takeaway of the book is that dealing with diseases and disasters is not just a matter of \"following the science\"--we need to understand the political, social, cultural, and intellectual context of the society in question. Disease and disaster reveal human interconnectedness in its physical, social, and spiritual aspects. *A recu","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686679","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}

{"title":"Positive Psychology in Christian Perspective: Foundations, Concepts, and Application","authors":"Charles Hackney","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23hackney","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23hackney","url":null,"abstract":"POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY IN CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: Foundations, Concepts, and Applications by Charles Hackney. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021. 344 pages, index. Paperback; $45.00. ISBN: 9780830828708. *There have been quite a few volumes over the last several years that have attempted to make sense of the relationship between the burgeoning field of positive psychology and the theology and practice of Christianity. Charles Hackney begins this volume by drawing upon the popular definition of positive psychology provided by Shelly Gable and Jonathan Haidt, \"The study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing and optimal functioning of people, groups and institutions.\" In so doing, Hackney sets the scene for a comprehensive and lively examination of how this booming field of psychology interacts with Christian faith. *Christians have been quite rightly interested in the field of positive psychology for numerous reasons. There is arguably a sense of common purpose between Christian aspirations and those of positive psychology. Both to some extent claim, or at least aim, to produce a flourishing and abundant experience of living, and thereby share an interest in outlining the kind of life that is likely to produce this sort of fruit. Over the last two decades, positive psychology has made its presence felt in almost every sphere of practice: education, business, health, politics, and spirituality, to name a few. Any field of scholarship that claims such a wide and all-encompassing remit will no doubt be of interest to people of faith, partly as a significant cultural phenomenon worthy of attention, but also perhaps as a potentially controversial competitor and usurper of faith. *Hence, while most treatments in the recent upsurge in Christian writing about positive psychology are largely (dare I say) positive, there is also a critical engagement with the field. There is both enthusiasm and disquiet in the secondary literature. It is a cause for celebration that many of the leading scientific contributors in areas such as humility, forgiveness, gratitude, hope, wisdom, and so on, identify themselves as Christians. Nonetheless, there is some nervousness that this naturalistic and pragmatic approach to well-being and virtue could steer some away from genuine faith in the divine. Christian scholars are interested, but hesitant--as if they give two cheers for positive psychology. *Needless to say, Hackney covers all of the above clearly and accurately in the first section of this book. While there may have been several excellent books covering this area previously, in my view, this volume has some unique selling points. Firstly, it is a comprehensive introduction to the critical dialogue between positive psychology and Christian thought; Hackney does a very good job of covering many of the major concepts in contemporary positive psychology. Secondly, the reference list alone is worth the ticket price. It takes up over sixty pages ","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"92 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686703","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}

{"title":"Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity","authors":"Helen Rhee","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23rhee","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23rhee","url":null,"abstract":"ILLNESS, PAIN, AND HEALTH CARE IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY by Helen Rhee. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2022. 367 pages. Hardcover; $49.99. ISBN: 9780802876843. *\"The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.\" --William Osler (1849-1919) *Helen Rhee, professor of the History of Christianity at Westmont College, has encapsulated this famous saying in her recent book, Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity by demonstrating how partially objective medicine as an early science co-evolved with subjective religious thought throughout early Greek, Roman, and Christian history. Indeed, even today, a patient's pursuit of relief from suffering often involves the clinical science of medicine occurring arm-in-arm with spiritual care. Such examples include use of hospital chaplains, visitation and assistance from members of a congregation, and personal prayer. This book is comprehensive in nature and academic in tone, and Rhee has found some fascinating continuing threads of healthcare occurring in these aspects of Western civilization. *The book begins with general ideas of illness in all three cultures. Greek culture considered the importance of the Hippocratic ideas such as humoralism (defined as various body fluids and their effect on human illness) as well as prioritizing an individual's health to be a societal priority. The emphasis placed on one's individual health inherently makes sense when one considers Greek culture's lack of modern medicine, the absence of understanding public health, the high mortality rate of pregnant women and young infants, and the constant presence of death in their society (pp. 1, 2). A Greek athlete was considered the exemplar of health with the expectation that their health attributes, like all humans, would decline over time. *Roman ideas followed, led by Galen, in which each part of the body was defined simply by its usefulness and its ability to work together in concordance with every body part to make up a healthy human. Thus, Galen believed that all human function descended from a divine design; this was in sharp contrast to the ideas of Epicurus who believed nature's design had random underpinnings. This early philosophical debate involving Roman medicine still continues almost 2,000 years later with regard to a potential purpose versus a lack of purpose in biological evolution. Typically, suggestions for changes in diet and exercise were the main Roman recommendations in the setting of illness, in that medicine and public health would not be viable study areas for many centuries. The author brings up the stark reality of terrible sanitation in ancient Rome which exacerbated many of the infectious pandemics. In fact, pandemics often were considered a part of divine punishment possibly for unknown sins. We can consider the parallels of pandemics of our time, such as those associated with HIV/AIDS or C","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686683","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}

{"title":"In the Shadow of the Palms: The Selected Works of David Eugene Smith","authors":"Tristan Abbey","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23abbey","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23abbey","url":null,"abstract":"IN THE SHADOW OF THE PALMS: The Selected Works of David Eugene Smith by Tristan Abbey, ed. Alexandria, VA: Science Venerable Press, 2022. xii + 155 pages, including a Glossary of Biosketches. Paperback; $22.69. ISBN: 9781959976004. *David Eugene Smith (1860-1944) may not be a household name for readers of this journal, but he deserves to be better known. An early-twentieth-century world traveler and antiquarian, his collaboration with publisher and bibliophile George Arthur Plimpton led to establishing the large Plimpton and Smith collections of rare books, manuscripts, letters, and artefacts at Columbia University in 1936. He was one of the founders (1924) and an early president (1927) of the History of Science Society, whose main purpose at the time was supporting George Sarton's ongoing management of the journal ISIS, begun a dozen years earlier. Smith also held several offices in the American Mathematical Society over the span of two decades and was a charter member (1915) and President (1920-1921) of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). *Smith is best known, however, for his pioneering work in mathematics education, both nationally and internationally. In 1905, he proposed setting up an international commission devoted to mathematics education (now the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction) to explore issues of common concern to mathematics teachers on all levels, worldwide. He was actively involved in reviving this organization after its dissolution during the First World War and served as its President from 1928 to 1932. Nationally, Smith was instrumental in inaugurating the field of mathematics education, advancing this discipline professionally both in his role as mathematics professor at the prestigious Teachers College, Columbia University (1901-1926) and as an author of numerous best-selling mathematics textbooks for elementary and secondary schools. These texts were not focused solely on mathematical content; they also dealt substantively with teaching methodology, applications, rationales for studying the material, and significant historical developments. *Throughout his life Smith championed placing mathematics within the wider liberal arts setting of the humanities, highlighting history, art, and literary connections in his many talks, articles, and textbooks. For him there was no two-cultures divide, as it later came to be known. While acknowledging the value of utilitarian arguments for studying mathematics (he himself published a few textbooks with an applied focus), he considered such a rationale neither sufficient nor central. For him, mathematics was to be studied first of all for its own sake, appreciating its beauty, its reservoir of eternal truths, and its training in close logical reasoning. But again, for him this did not mean adopting a narrow mathematical focus. In particular, given his wide-ranging interest in how mathematics developed in other places and at other times, he tended to incorpor","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686694","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}

{"title":"On Davis A. Young, \"Flood Geology Is Uniformitarian!\" (JASA 31, no. 3 [1979]: 146–52)","authors":"Stephen O. Moshier","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23moshier","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23moshier","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686700","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}

{"title":"On Heather Looy, \"Psychology at the Theological Frontiers\" (PSCF 65, no. 3 [2013]: 147–55)","authors":"Erin I. Smith","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23smith","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23smith","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"186 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686704","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}

{"title":"On Walter Bradley, \"The Fine Tuning of the Universe: Evidence for the Existence of God?\" (PSCF 70, no. 3 [2018]: 147–60); and Terry Gray, \"Pronuclear Environmentalists: An Introduction to Ecomodernism\" (PSCF 73, no. 4 [2021]: 195–201)","authors":"William Jordan","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23jordan","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23jordan","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686708","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}