Theo Todman's Book Collection (Book-Paper Abstracts)

Back Cover Blurb

• The Gifford Lectures 1989-1991, Vol. 1
• What view of God is consistent with the scientific understanding of the world? In what ways should our ideas about human nature be affected by the findings of contemporary science? How can the search for meaning and purpose in life best be fulfilled in the kind of world disclosed by science?
• In this, the first of two volumes, Ian Barbour looks at these questions against the features of our time which set a new agenda: the success of scientific method, a new view of nature, a new context for theology, religious pluralism and the ambiguity of technological power. As he surveys each of these features in turn, he explores the place of religion in an age of science, seeking to present an interpretation of Christianity which is responsive to both the historical tradition and contemporary science.
• This will form a prelude to the second volume, to be entitled "Barbour (Ian) - Ethics in an Age of Technology", which will examine the way in which values like justice, freedom and environmental stewardship relate to the control and direction of technology. Together, the two books will offer a unified treatment of science and technology, religion and ethics.
• 'For many years Ian Barbour's magisterial earlier work on Issues in Science and Religion has been required reading for any serious student of the interaction of science and religion. This new volume by the same author displays his same comprehensive and critical intellect but now exerted over the wide-ranging debates of the intervening decades. Everyone concerned with this field will have to take account, with gratitude, of its immense learning and shrewd judgment’
  → Arthur Peacocke
• Ian Barbour is Bean Professor of Science, Technology and Scoiety at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota.