A Bibliography of Science & Religion

This is drawn from John Polkinghorne's excellent book Science & Theology (1998). I have made a few additions, in green. John has also made (so far) one addition, in red. Where there are links, you can click on the book to get the amazon.com listing. Click on the UK and you get the amazon.co.uk listing. I'm afraid it takes ages to make these links, so they will be updated gradually. If you need a link urgently, EMail me.

Last Updated 11 Jan 2001- adding excellent books by Rose and Kagan and Alexander.

General

Dennis Alexander, a practicing Immunologist, has written a brilliant book called Rebuilding the Matrix (US) which is a masterly overview of Science and Religion. It's coming out in Paperback in 2002.

Scientist-Theologians

Three major authors are scientists who have turned their attention to theological issues, the scientist-theologians: Ian Barbour, Arthur Peacocke and John Polkinghorne. Their principal writings are:

IG Barbour

Issues in Science & Religion (SCM, 1966) [UK - out of print]
Myths, Morals and Paradigms (SCM, 1974)
Religion in an Age of Science (SCM 1990) UK
Ethics in an Age of Technology (HarperCollins 1992)
Religion & Science, Historical and Contemporary Issues (HarperCollins, 1997) UK

AR Peacocke

Creation and the World of Science (OUP 1979) UK
Intimations of Reality (Notre Dame Press, 1984) [UK - out of stock]
God and the New Biology (Dent 1986)
God, Science: A Quest for Christian Credibility (SCM 1996) UK
Theology for a Scientific Age (SCM 1993) UK

John Polkinghorne

One World (SPCK/Princeton 1986)
Science & Creation (SPCK/Shambhala 1988)
Science & Providence (SPCK/ Shambhala 1989)
Reason & Reality (SCPK/Trinity Press International 1991)
Science & Christian Belief/The Faith of a Physicist (SPCK/Princeton 1994)
Scientists as Theologians (SPCK, 1996)
Beyond Science (CUP 1996) UK
Belief in God in a Scientific Age (Yale 1998) UK

Seven other books, each with a distinctive approach, are:

WB Drees Religion, Science & Naturalism UK (CUP 1996). A closely argued presentation combining an exclusively naturalistic account of phenomena with theistic answers to certain 'limit questions'.
JF Haught, Science and Religion UK (Paulist Press, 1995). A number of questions are raised, to each of which four contarsting responses are offered, corresponding to stances characterised as embodying conflict, contrast, contact and confirmation, respectively.
P Hefner The Human Factor UK (Fortress, 1993) A discussion set in a broad, humane, cultural context and making substantial appeal to evolutionary insights. A key concept is of human beings seen as 'created co-creators' with God.
N Murphy and GFR Ellis, On the Moral Nature of the Universe UK (Fortress, 1996). Particular attention is paid to the social sciences, seen as undergirded by ethical considerations, and to the role of virtue in framing a general cosmology.
WM Richardson and WJ Wildman, eds. Religion and Science (Routeledge, 1996) A well-edited volume in which the discussion of historical and methodological questions is followed by six case studies in each of which two authors (a scientist and a theologian) explore an issue of contemporary significance.
H Rolston, Science and Religion (Temple University Press, 1987). Particular attention is paid to ecological issues and the discussion includes the social sciences as well as the natural sciences.
MW Worthing, God, Creation and Contemporary Physics UK(Fortress, 1996). A book that concentrates on a detailed discussion of issues arising from contemporary physics, especially quantum theory and cosmology.

Further one may note books by theologians who display sympathy to the need to take science seriously:

W Panneberg, Towards a Theology of Nature, ed. T Peters (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993)
TF Torrance, Theological Science UK (OUP 1969) Difficult but important.

The Area of Interaction

JH Brooke, Science and Religion (CUP 1991)

Humanity

J Bowker Is God a Virus (SPCK 1995) A critique of genetic reductionism.
JB Cobb and DR Griffin, Process Theology (Westminster Press, 1976) Introduction to both process philosophy and process theology.
JB Cobb and CR Mesle, Process Theology; A Basic Introduction (Chalice Press, 1993)
F Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis (Simon & Schuster) Physicalist approach to the question of the mind.
R Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (OUP 1976). Genetic reductionism is expounded in this and subsequent writings.
DC Dennett, Consciousness Explained (Little Brown, 1991) Physicalist approach to the question of the mind. Dennett considers human mental processes to be the result of an anarchic struggle in which many parallel neural computers produce 'multiple drafts' in which one of them wins out. Despite his over-ambitious title he does not come anywhere near giving a convincing account of the fundamental human experience of awareness.
J Eccles, The Human Mystery (RKP, 1984) A defence of dualism by a Nobel-prize-winning physiologist.
D Hodgson, The Mind Matters (OUP 1991) An attempt to tackle the mind/body problem using quantum theory.
MA Jeeves, Human Nature and The Millennium (Appolos, 1997) A discussion of how modern neuropsychology and biblical anthropology relate to each other.
M Lockwood, Mind, Brain and the Quantum (Blackwell 1989) An attempt to tackle the mind/body problem using quantum theory.
T Nagel, The View from Nowhere (OUP 1986) Philosophy sympathehtic to dual-aspect monism.
D Parfitt, Reasons and Persons (OUP 1944) Chs 10-15. Difficulties felt by a philosopher about the concept of personal identity.
R Penrose, The Emporor's New Mind (OUP 1989) Forcefully argues for the impossibility of a computer being truly conscious, using variants the Godel arguments expounded earlier by JR Lucas. Also includes an attempt to tackle the mind/body problem using quantum theory.
R Penrose, The Shadows of the Mind (OUP, 1994) Penrose replies to his critics.
JR Lucas, The Freedom of the Will (OUP 196x) The book that first used the Godel argument to show that human beings cannot be automata: see Lucas' Theorem..
JR Searle, The Rediscovery of the Mind (MIT Press, 1992) Includes a defence of folk-psychology and an emergentist approach.
AN Whitehead, Process and Reality (The Free Press, corrected edition 1978). The classic source for process thinking.
K Ward, In Defense of the Soul (Oneworld, 1992) A spirited defense of the idea of the soul.
Robert Kane, The Significance of Free Will Kane does a superb job of untangling the confusions about free will, and explaining why and how it is of fundamental importance. We all start by knowing we have freewill but 'clever' philosophers have always tried to bamboozle us into believing that we havent. Kane gives a scrupulously fair summary of the arguments but presents the case for 'incompatablist' free will in an overwhelming and successful manner. Required reading for anyone seriously interested in these matters, which are fundamental to morality, personal identity, love, and almost everything else that matters.
MJ Denton Nature's Destiny (The Free Press, 1998)UK A kind of biological version of the Anthropic Principle. This book should inaugurate a new phase in the discussion of the presence of inherent potentiality in nature. It does for biological science what the previous physics-based discussions concerning the anthropic principle and questions of design had done for cosmology. Fascinating and important.

Theism

J Begbie, Voicing Creation's Praise (T&T Clark, 1991) The relation between art and theology.
P Berger, Rumours of Angels (Penguin, 1970) 'Signals of Transcendence' are discussed.
B Davies, The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (OUP 1992) A useful introduction to the thought of Thomas Aquinas.
PCW Davies, God and the New Physics (Dent, 1983) Natural Theology developed outside a religious tradition.
PCW Davies, The Mind of God (Simon and Schuster, 1992) Further thoughts on Natural Theology developed outside a religious tradition.
R Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker. (Longman 1986) A biologist asserts the meaninglessness of evolutionary history.
C de Duve Vital Dust (Basic Books, 1995) An optimistic assessment of the ease with which life might originate.
DC Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea (Simon & Schuster, 1995) A claim that Darwinian ideas explain practically everything.
J Monod, Chance and Necessity (Collins, 1972) A biologist asserts the meaninglessness of evolutionary history.
G Steiner, Real Presences (Faber & Faber, 1989) The relation between art and theology.
R Swinburne, The Existence of God (OUP 1979) An early work developing particular aspects of his philosophical approach to theistic belief.
R Swinburne, Is there a God? (OUP 1996) An accessible summary of Swinburne's philosophical approach to theistic belief.
R Swinburne, The Christian God (OUP 1994). Swinburne builds a rigorous metaphysical system for describing the world, which he applies to assessing the validity of the Christian tenets of the Trinity and the Incarnation

Divine Action

J Bowker, Licensed Insanities (DLT 1987) Appendix. A general account of God as acting through information input.
J Hick, Evil and the God of Love UK(Macmillan 1966) A useful survey of various approaches to the problem of evil.
GM Jantzen God's World, God's Body. (DLT 1984) A defence of the idea of divine embodiment.
GD Kaufman, God the Problem (Harvard, 1972) A single action account of divine action.
J Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom of God UK (SCM 1981) Among Moltmann's work, this particularly emphasises the divine 'making way' to allow ontological space for creation.
J Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God (Fortress 1993) UK This may be the same book, revised? The other seems to be unavailable.
J Moltmann, God in Creation (SCM 1985) This too emphasises the divine 'making way' to allow ontological space for creation.
RJ Russell, N Murphy and A Peacoke (eds.) Chaos and Complexity (Vatican Observatory, 1995) A variety of contrasting approaches to divine action.
WH Vanstone, Love's Endeavour, Love's Expense (DLT, 1977) A sensitive account of the inherent precariousness of creativity by Love.
K Ward, Divine Action (Collins, 1990) A theological discussion of many aspects of divine action.
K Ward, Rational Theology and the Creativity of God (Blackwell, 1982) A dipolar account of deity very different from that of process theology.
V White, The Fall of the Sparrow (Paternoster Press, 1985) A discussion of God's agency, framed in terms of tight divine control.
MF Wiles, God's Action in the World (SCM Press, 1986) A single action account of divine action.
JR Lucas, Space, Time and Causality (OUP 1985) One of the few books in print by the great philosopher who formulated Lucas' Theorem (The Godel freewill argument) in book form. UK

Christian Theology

MJ Borg, Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship (Trinity Press International, 1994) On Jesus.
RE Brown, An Introduction to New Testament Christology (Geoffrey Chapman, 1994) On Christology.
JG Dunn, Christology in the Making (SCM 1980 Eerdmans 1996 seems to be a new edition). On Christology in the New Testament.
W James The Variety of Religious Experience (Collins, 1990). The classic text on religious experience in general.
J Moltmann, The Theology of Hope (SCM 1967) On eschatology.
G O'Collins, Jesus Risen (DLT 1987) On the resurrection.
R Otto, The Idea of the Holy (OUP 1923) The classic account of the numinous.
W Pannenberg, Jesus: God and Man (SCM, 1968) On Christology.
EP Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (SCM, 1985) On Jesus.
AC Thistleton, The Two Horizons (Eerdmans, 1980) A difficult but important book on hermeneutics.
FJ Tipler, The Physics of Immortality (Macmillan, 1994) On 'physical eschatology' - highly speculative.
NT Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (SPCK, 1996) On Jesus.
JD Zizioulas, Being as Communion (St Vladimir's Seminary press, 1985) On the Trinity.
O Clement, The Roots of Christian Mysticism (New City, 1995) An exploration of Christian Mysticism through the writings of the Fathers, by an outstanding Orthodox theologian. [UK]

The World Faiths

M Barnes, Religions in Conversation (SPCK 1989). A critique of the exclusivist/pluralist/ inclusivist classification.
K Cragg, The Christ of the Faiths (SPSCK 1986) A sympathetic and detailed discussion of world faith traditions, from a Christian viewpoint.
G D'Costa, Theology and Religious Pluralism (Blackwell, 1986) A discussion in terms of the exclusivist/pluralist/ inclusivist classification.
H Küng, Christianity and the World Religions (Doubleday, 1986) A sympathetic and detailed discussion of world faith traditions, from a Christian viewpoint.
A Race, Christians and Religious Pluralism (SCM 1983) A discussion in terms of the exclusivist/pluralist/ inclusivist classification.
K Ward, Images of Eternity (DLT 1987) Makes a claim to discern some common features present in all faith traditions.
K Ward Religion and Revelation (OUP 1994) Further discussion of interfaith issues.
K Ward Religion and Creation (OUP 1996) Further discussion of interfaith issues.

Others

IG Barbour Ethics in an Age of Technology (SCM 1993) A much more detailed discussion of ethical issues related to science and technology.
Prigogine, Ilya The End of Certainty. In a direct extension of his Nobel-prize-winning work on thermodynamics, Prigogine explains that almost all natural systems are non-determinsitic, even if their components are subject to deterministic laws. This is because such systems have enormous numbers of Poincare resonances which lead to fundamentally non-deterministic solutions. This provides a solution to 3 of the most important problems in science:

1:Time's arrow

2:The Measurement Problem in Quantum Mechanics

3:The existence of Freewill. Everyone seriously interested in these questions should read this book.

Jerome Kagan Three Seductive Ideas (Harvard University Press 1998 [UK]). A leading developmental psychologist demolishes three widely-believed myths:

1:That 'abstract' quantities like 'intelligence' and 'anxiety' can be applied to rats/students/children/rich/poor indiscriminately (it's all much more complex).

2:Infant Determinism (the 1st 2 years do not fix the rest of your life)

3:That seeking Pleasure is the most important psychological driver (in humans it's probably actually seeking moral fulfilment)

Steven Rose Lifelines (Penguin 1998 [US Hardback]) An excellent demolition of 'ultra-darwinism' (a la Dawkins) by a real biologist (albeit an atheist materialist). He points out that:

1:The individual gene is not the only level at which selection occurs.

2:Natural Selection is not the only force driving evolutionary change.

3:Organisms are not indefinitely flexible to change; selection is table d'hote and not a la carte.

4:Organisms are not mere passive responders to selective forces, but active players in their own desitiny.