Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf3-23hutchings
D. Hutchings, James C. Ungureanu
OF POPES & UNICORNS: Science, Christianity, and How the Conflict Thesis Fooled the World by David Hutchings and James C. Ungureanu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 263 pages. Hardcover; $39.95. ISBN: 9780190053093. *Readers of PSCF are familiar with the "warfare thesis" for the history of science and religion. This interpretation, framed as a historical analysis that stretches from the ancient Greeks to the modern period, explains the way in which science and religion have always been in conflict with each other. At the center of this interpretation are John William Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874), and Andrew Dickson White's A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). Since the publication of these books, numerous professional historians as well as the general public have accepted and perpetuated many of the claims made within them. The problem with this line of interpretation, however, is that Draper and White were often wrong. For instance, Christopher Columbus (and people in the medieval period) did not think the earth was flat. Christians did not oppose anesthesia. There was no Dark Ages. Christians did not believe in unicorns. Premodern medical diagnosis did not merely appeal to supernatural causation. And the list could continue. *Instead, as Hutchings and Ungureanu explain over the course of their nine chapters, Christianity--and especially medieval Christianity--was hyper-rational and actively engaged in scientific thought. So, despite the continued influence of Draper and White since the nineteenth century, Hutchings and Ungureanu successfully demonstrate many errors with the historiographical tradition of the warfare thesis. In fact, as the authors argue, there were ways in which science borrowed from theology. This is most noticeable in the utilization of theology to explain science in the period known as the Scientific Revolution, which the authors address in chapter eight, "Old Dogma, New Tricks." Another helpful chapter pertains to the way the ideas of Draper and White resonated with others in the nineteenth century, thereby demonstrating how these two well-known intellectuals were not mere "lone voices." This latter point is a particularly helpful contribution to the topic's historiography, as this type of contextualization is oftentimes forgotten when considering Draper, White, and the warfare thesis. *It is for these reasons and others that many will find this book a helpful aid. The tone is conversational, and the citations are relegated to endnotes at the back of the book. The book also draws upon some of the best scholarship in the history of science from the past fifty years, such as the works of Edward Grant, Bernard Lightman, and the more recent contribution of Seb Faulk. One of the fortunate outcomes, then, is that the reader who reads between the lines will discover a masterful account of the ways in which the field of the history of science has ef
{"title":"Of Popes & Unicorns: Science, Christianity, and How the Conflict Thesis Fooled the World","authors":"D. Hutchings, James C. Ungureanu","doi":"10.56315/pscf3-23hutchings","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf3-23hutchings","url":null,"abstract":"OF POPES & UNICORNS: Science, Christianity, and How the Conflict Thesis Fooled the World by David Hutchings and James C. Ungureanu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 263 pages. Hardcover; $39.95. ISBN: 9780190053093. *Readers of PSCF are familiar with the \"warfare thesis\" for the history of science and religion. This interpretation, framed as a historical analysis that stretches from the ancient Greeks to the modern period, explains the way in which science and religion have always been in conflict with each other. At the center of this interpretation are John William Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874), and Andrew Dickson White's A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). Since the publication of these books, numerous professional historians as well as the general public have accepted and perpetuated many of the claims made within them. The problem with this line of interpretation, however, is that Draper and White were often wrong. For instance, Christopher Columbus (and people in the medieval period) did not think the earth was flat. Christians did not oppose anesthesia. There was no Dark Ages. Christians did not believe in unicorns. Premodern medical diagnosis did not merely appeal to supernatural causation. And the list could continue. *Instead, as Hutchings and Ungureanu explain over the course of their nine chapters, Christianity--and especially medieval Christianity--was hyper-rational and actively engaged in scientific thought. So, despite the continued influence of Draper and White since the nineteenth century, Hutchings and Ungureanu successfully demonstrate many errors with the historiographical tradition of the warfare thesis. In fact, as the authors argue, there were ways in which science borrowed from theology. This is most noticeable in the utilization of theology to explain science in the period known as the Scientific Revolution, which the authors address in chapter eight, \"Old Dogma, New Tricks.\" Another helpful chapter pertains to the way the ideas of Draper and White resonated with others in the nineteenth century, thereby demonstrating how these two well-known intellectuals were not mere \"lone voices.\" This latter point is a particularly helpful contribution to the topic's historiography, as this type of contextualization is oftentimes forgotten when considering Draper, White, and the warfare thesis. *It is for these reasons and others that many will find this book a helpful aid. The tone is conversational, and the citations are relegated to endnotes at the back of the book. The book also draws upon some of the best scholarship in the history of science from the past fifty years, such as the works of Edward Grant, Bernard Lightman, and the more recent contribution of Seb Faulk. One of the fortunate outcomes, then, is that the reader who reads between the lines will discover a masterful account of the ways in which the field of the history of science has ef","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82567420","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}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf3-23hathaway
W. Hathaway, M. Yarhouse
THE INTEGRATION OF PSYCHOLOGY & CHRISTIANITY: A Domain-Based Approach by William L. Hathaway and Mark A. Yarhouse. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2021. 199 pages. ISBN: 9780830841837. *Reading The Integration of Psychology and Christianity brought to mind the lively discussions about integration that I had with my fellow undergraduates at Gordon College some twenty years ago. We were hampered in reaching any agreement by the fact that our assigned text, Psychology and Christianity: Four Views,1 presented four authors who each defined integration in their own idiosyncratic way, which then resulted in us students talking past each other. *If only we'd had this book! Hathaway and Yarhouse resolve these confusions by offering a "domain-based approach." Rather than advocating for a particular integration approach, as has been common in integration scholarship, Hathaway and Yarhouse outline the multiplicity of ways in which the Christian psychologist might choose to integrate faith and psychology. This approach is one I found immediately useful, given my position as chair of psychology at a small Christian liberal arts college where I frequently mentor junior colleagues with less experience in Christian higher education as they learn to integrate faith into their teaching. Hathaway and Yarhouse's categories include the following: worldview integration, theoretical integration, applied integration, role integration, and personal integration. These categories not only offer a shared vocabulary for integration conversations, but they can serve as an inventory of one's comfort level in different types of integration (one may be quite comfortable doing personal integration while finding theoretical integration challenging, for example). Overall, the book is excellent as a catalyst for personal reflection and growth for the Christian psychologist, whether they be researcher, professor, or clinician. *A particular strength of the book is its emphasis on clinical and applied psychological work. The most original contributions are the chapters on applied integration and role integration. The former adapts a secular model for a Christian population or develops Christian interventions from Christian thought and practice while the later describes living out the role expectations of a particular vocation (e.g., counselor) in a way that is consistent with Christian identity. These chapters have many examples from Yarhouse and Hathaway's own experience in navigating these areas. Their clear articulation of the professional duties of the Christian who joins the counseling guild, for example, was extremely useful. I found myself grateful to have their take on role integration to offer to my aspiring therapist students, who often find themselves torn between personal conviction and professional obligations. Yarhouse and Hathaway offer a well-argued Christian perspective that emphasizes the priority of those professional obligations. *A few criticisms. I
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GOD, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE by Tony Reinke. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022. 320 pages. Paperback; $21.99. ISBN: 9781433578274. *The ASA has long opposed the myth that science and Christian faith are incompatible. Nevertheless, ASA members differ on all sorts of issues. With little consensus on biblical eschatology, the greatest differences may be on issues related to the future. If so, then Tony Reinke's God, Technology, and the Christian Life is sure to be thought provoking, for its focus is the ongoing explosion in scientific knowledge and its applications. *Reinke, a journalist and author of several books, is associated with John Piper and his Desiring God ministry. He adheres to Piper's Reformed theology and trademark "Christian hedonism," which holds that our chief end is to "glorify God by enjoying him forever." So Reinke is not only a Christian hedonist, but also a tech hedonist. Today's gadgets delight him, and he looks forward to more wonders in the future. Even so, Reinke's hopes are well placed; he is "optimistic--not optimistic in man, but in the God who governs every square inch of Silicon Valley" (p. 30), a statement that summarizes the entire book. *A concluding section explains the book's origins (pp. 303-4). To write an introduction for 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, published in 2017, Reinke found it necessary to "catalog" his "meta convictions about human innovation." He went on to develop his convictions, revise and extend his catalog, do more research, and present his findings to several audiences, both in person and online. Finally, he assembled his lectures to produce this text. Unfortunately, it seems that this process left serious style problems. Individual chapters have a stand-alone quality, to the point they seem disconnected from the rest. Chapter-end summaries belabor the book's main points. Overall, the book's repetitive style obscures its connecting logic. *So what does the book argue? *In the Reformed tradition, Reinke seeks to develop a "biblical theology of technology" (p. 30). He begins with God's sovereignty in creation, and continues with God raising up image-bearers to explore nature and invent tools. Finally, Reinke argues that God stands over those that "wield" technology, for both good or evil; even their worst acts (e.g., the crucifixion of Christ) are "hacked" by God to achieve our redemption, which was planned "before the foundation of the world." Technology is a feature of history, but it does not drive it. Instead, history always unfolds in accordance with the divine will. *The book is organized around nine people, nine primary Bible passages, and twelve common myths about technology (pp. 25-29). Some subjects are predictable (e.g., Babel), but others are not, giving some depth to Reinke's analysis. Six chapters broadly address key questions: "What Is Technology?," "What Is God's Relationship to Technology?," "Where Do Our Technologies Come From?," "What Can Technology Never Accomplish?
《上帝、科技与基督徒生活》作者:托尼·赖因克。惠顿，伊利诺伊州:十字路口，2022年。320页。平装书;21.99美元。ISBN: 9781433578274。*美国科学协会长期以来一直反对科学和基督教信仰不相容的神话。然而，ASA成员在各种问题上都存在分歧。在圣经末世论上几乎没有共识，最大的分歧可能是在与未来有关的问题上。如果是这样的话，那么托尼·赖因克的《上帝、技术和基督徒生活》肯定会发人深省，因为它的重点是科学知识及其应用的持续爆炸。*赖因克是一名记者和几本书的作者，与约翰·派珀和他的渴望上帝的事工有关。他坚持派博的改革宗神学和标志性的“基督教享乐主义”，认为我们的主要目的是“通过永远享受上帝来荣耀他”。所以赖因克不仅是一个基督徒享乐主义者，也是一个科技享乐主义者。今天的小玩意让他很开心，他期待着未来会有更多的奇迹。即便如此，赖因克还是满怀希望;他是“乐观的——不是对人乐观，而是对掌管硅谷每一寸土地的上帝乐观”(第30页)，这句话概括了整本书。*结束语部分解释了本书的起源(第303-4页)。在为2017年出版的《手机改变你的12种方式》撰写引言时，赖因克发现有必要对他“关于人类创新的元信念”进行“编录”。他继续发展自己的信念，修改和扩展他的目录，做更多的研究，并向几个观众展示他的发现，包括面对面的和在线的。最后，他整理了他的讲稿，形成了这本书。不幸的是，这个过程似乎留下了严重的风格问题。单个章节具有独立的品质，以至于它们似乎与其他章节脱节。章末总结详述了本书的主要观点。总的来说，这本书的重复风格掩盖了它的联系逻辑。*这本书是怎么说的?*在改革宗传统中，赖因克寻求发展一种“符合圣经的技术神学”(第30页)。他从神在创造中的主权开始，接着讲到神兴起有形像的人去探索自然和发明工具。最后，Reinke认为上帝凌驾于那些“运用”技术的人之上，无论他们是善是恶;甚至他们最坏的行为(例如，基督被钉在十字架上)都被神“砍了”，以实现我们的救赎，这是“创世以前”计划好的。技术是历史的一个特征，但它并不驱动历史。相反，历史总是按照神圣的意志展开。*这本书围绕9个人，9个主要的圣经段落和12个关于技术的常见神话(第25-29页)进行组织。有些主题是可预测的(例如，巴别塔)，但其他的不是，这给了Reinke的分析一些深度。六个章节广泛地讨论了关键问题:“什么是技术?”，“上帝与技术的关系是什么?”，“我们的技术从何而来?”、“什么是科技永远无法完成的?”、《我们的科技何时终结?》，以及“我们今天应该如何使用技术?”在Reinke的重复风格中，章节以编号的“要点”列表结束，这些要点总结了主要观点，有时也延伸了要点。那么，Reinke成功了吗?他的“圣经技术神学”听起来合理吗?根据他们的神学预设，读者会有不同的判断。*像我这样的改革宗读者会欣赏赖因克对上帝主权的强调。在这种观点中，自然证明了上帝的存在和奇妙的特性，技术也是如此，它的奇迹植根于神圣的属性，并由反映这些属性的图像承载者产生。科技展示了上帝对自然和人类创新者的创造，它在救赎计划中扮演着重要的角色，一切都是为了上帝的荣耀。*来自其他传统的读者在一定程度上依赖人类的力量来塑造历史和未来。当然，成熟的基督徒明白救恩是基于神的恩典，但那又怎样呢?基督徒应该活出他们的信仰，但他们的选择在多大程度上重要呢?最终，上帝的应许是由他自己实现的，还是通过人类的行动，包括科学和技术的工作来实现的?在阿尔弗雷德·诺斯·怀特黑德的过程神学或菲利普·赫夫纳的创造共同创造者思想中，人类在某种程度上实现了上帝在末世的承诺。事实上，这种想法在自认为是基督徒的超人类主义者中很常见。*在赖因克的改革宗观点中，这样的希望偏离了人生的目的，我们的主要目的:荣耀上帝。相反，人类自给自足的梦想倾向于盲目崇拜。神嫉妒他自己的荣耀，把这个目标放在我们无法企及的地方，在我们对神的悖逆中，无情的追求只会显示我们的败坏。是的，但即使是这种观点也需要界限。 我们对自给自足的误入歧途的追求在哪里结束?值得信赖的善行从哪里开始?难道圣经不授权发展和使用技术来减少痛苦和爱我们的邻居吗?我们能在多大程度上享受发明而不把它们变成偶像?不幸的是，Reinke并没有回答这些问题;恰恰相反。他批评纠结于这些问题的基督徒使用描述性的标签(例如，科学主义)，因为在他看来，这些标签限制了“关于技术的深思熟虑的对话”(第29页)，然而他毫不含糊地反对宣布“技术福音”(第163-73页)。但是，基督徒应该如何在神的统治下找到我们的界限呢?对赖因克来说，这个问题似乎不那么重要，重要的是相信上帝会充分利用所发生的一切。*是的，最后一章强调了使用技术时智慧的必要性，这种智慧只能从上帝那里获得。神不是叫众人都有聪明吗?我们是否可以合理地将科学和技术视为共同恩典的证据，但否认共同恩典可以影响社会的组织和运作方式?Reinke赞扬了阿米什人在技术方面深思熟虑的决定，暗示所有基督徒都应该做得很好，但我们应该选择什么标准呢?*最终，赖因克把所有的大问题都留给了上帝。基督徒对神充满信心，应该尽自己所能，然后对结果感到满足。毕竟，他们是上帝命定的。当然，这在某种程度上是正确的，但这让赖因克的“圣经技术神学”暴露在对改革宗思想的经典批评之下:在它的旗帜下，基督徒并不完全为他们行为的结果负责。*在这一点上，Reinke和其他基督教技术发展观察家之间出现了深刻的分歧。例如，在《工程师和设计师的基督教技术现场指南》中，Ethan J. Brue, Derek C. Schuurman和Steven H. VanderLeest认为，与其他人相比，基督教创新者承担着比其他人更大的责任。根据圣经的伦理和智慧，他们必须超越最小的成功措施。工程领导意味着忠实地遵守规则，等等;重叠是必要条件。但最终，传达的信息是一样的:遵循政策或经文中表达的规则，结果肯定会很好。历史揭示了这种想法的局限性。再一次，判断是必要的。我们不仅要认识到道德选择塑造了技术及其使用，还要避免空洞和无知的技术道德主义。*我们可能想要在技术上明确区分善与恶，但无论是赖因克还是其他基督教作家都无法提供这样的界限。但公平地说，人们在多大程度上注意到并遵守了神在十诫、登山宝训和许多其他经文中给我们的清晰线条?很明显，在我们离开这个混乱的世界之前，我们必须凭信心行事，而不是凭眼见。因此，当我们走过这个充斥着技术科学的世界时，赖因克和其他持圣经观点的基督徒很好地服务于教会。当然，许多来自不同神学传统的ASA成员会发现上帝、技术和基督徒生活很有趣——要么令人兴奋，要么令人沮丧——同时也有助于在圣经的光照下进一步探索技术。*由David C. Winyard Sr.审核，Grace College & Seminary, Winona Lake, IN 46590工程系。
{"title":"God, Technology, and the Christian Life","authors":"Tony Reinke","doi":"10.56315/pscf3-23reinke","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf3-23reinke","url":null,"abstract":"GOD, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE by Tony Reinke. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022. 320 pages. Paperback; $21.99. ISBN: 9781433578274. *The ASA has long opposed the myth that science and Christian faith are incompatible. Nevertheless, ASA members differ on all sorts of issues. With little consensus on biblical eschatology, the greatest differences may be on issues related to the future. If so, then Tony Reinke's God, Technology, and the Christian Life is sure to be thought provoking, for its focus is the ongoing explosion in scientific knowledge and its applications. *Reinke, a journalist and author of several books, is associated with John Piper and his Desiring God ministry. He adheres to Piper's Reformed theology and trademark \"Christian hedonism,\" which holds that our chief end is to \"glorify God by enjoying him forever.\" So Reinke is not only a Christian hedonist, but also a tech hedonist. Today's gadgets delight him, and he looks forward to more wonders in the future. Even so, Reinke's hopes are well placed; he is \"optimistic--not optimistic in man, but in the God who governs every square inch of Silicon Valley\" (p. 30), a statement that summarizes the entire book. *A concluding section explains the book's origins (pp. 303-4). To write an introduction for 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, published in 2017, Reinke found it necessary to \"catalog\" his \"meta convictions about human innovation.\" He went on to develop his convictions, revise and extend his catalog, do more research, and present his findings to several audiences, both in person and online. Finally, he assembled his lectures to produce this text. Unfortunately, it seems that this process left serious style problems. Individual chapters have a stand-alone quality, to the point they seem disconnected from the rest. Chapter-end summaries belabor the book's main points. Overall, the book's repetitive style obscures its connecting logic. *So what does the book argue? *In the Reformed tradition, Reinke seeks to develop a \"biblical theology of technology\" (p. 30). He begins with God's sovereignty in creation, and continues with God raising up image-bearers to explore nature and invent tools. Finally, Reinke argues that God stands over those that \"wield\" technology, for both good or evil; even their worst acts (e.g., the crucifixion of Christ) are \"hacked\" by God to achieve our redemption, which was planned \"before the foundation of the world.\" Technology is a feature of history, but it does not drive it. Instead, history always unfolds in accordance with the divine will. *The book is organized around nine people, nine primary Bible passages, and twelve common myths about technology (pp. 25-29). Some subjects are predictable (e.g., Babel), but others are not, giving some depth to Reinke's analysis. Six chapters broadly address key questions: \"What Is Technology?,\" \"What Is God's Relationship to Technology?,\" \"Where Do Our Technologies Come From?,\" \"What Can Technology Never Accomplish?","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81349834","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}
THE LIFE WE'RE LOOKING FOR: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World by Andy Crouch. New York: Convergent Books, 2022. 226 pages, including notes. Hardcover; $25.00. ISBN: 9780593237342. *In The Life We're Looking For, subtitled Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World, author Andy Crouch examines modern Western life given the ubiquity of and our dependence on technology. This is not a book about technology--you will not learn anything new about the Internet, your cellphone, or AI. Instead, you will be asked to examine life in this modern age rife with loneliness, how we got here, and what we can do about it. *The book is divided into three sections: six chapters identifying the problems of the modern age, a one-chapter "intermission," and five chapters identifying solutions to the problems. The problems of this world can be summarized by the subtitles of the first six chapters: "The Loneliness of a Personalized World," "What We've Forgotten about Being a Person," "How We Trade Personhood for Effortless Power," "The Ancient Roots of Our Tech Obsession," "How Impersonal Power Rules Our World," and "Why the Next Tech Revolution Will Succeed--and Also Fail." *One of Crouch's major themes is that our modern conveniences promise us superpowers. This sounds like a good thing, but in reality it is not. Cars, trains, and planes allow us to move great distances quickly with little effort. Our cell phones give us the ability to translate languages, access vast amounts of information, and communicate almost instantaneously with people around the world. Even our household devices allow us to clean our house without any effort. How these devices work is, for most of us, indistinguishable from magic. Yet, having these abilities leaves us without the need for relationships, and without the need for long-term investment in a project or craft--such as learning a foreign language or learning to play an instrument. We lack the need (and ability?) to love with our full heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are allowed to skim across the surface of life instead of diving deep into it. *Another major theme of the book is Crouch's definition of Mammon. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus says, "You cannot serve both God and Mammon." Crouch expands Mammon from a concept to a being. Mammon is the demonic creature that rules the world. "… What [Mammon] wants, above all, is to separate power from relationship, abundance from dependence, and being from personhood" (p. 76). Mammon and money are closely related, for money makes possible "the ability to get things done, often by means of other persons, without the entanglements of friendship" (p. 72). Crouch then ties in technology: "What technology wants is really what Mammon wants: a world of context-free, responsibility-free, dependence-free power measured out in fungible, storable units of value" (p. 78). *In the "intermission" chapter, Crouch takes us to the table of Gaius, in Corinth, in the second century AD. Around th
{"title":"The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World","authors":"A. Crouch","doi":"10.56315/pscf3-23crouch","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf3-23crouch","url":null,"abstract":"THE LIFE WE'RE LOOKING FOR: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World by Andy Crouch. New York: Convergent Books, 2022. 226 pages, including notes. Hardcover; $25.00. ISBN: 9780593237342. *In The Life We're Looking For, subtitled Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World, author Andy Crouch examines modern Western life given the ubiquity of and our dependence on technology. This is not a book about technology--you will not learn anything new about the Internet, your cellphone, or AI. Instead, you will be asked to examine life in this modern age rife with loneliness, how we got here, and what we can do about it. *The book is divided into three sections: six chapters identifying the problems of the modern age, a one-chapter \"intermission,\" and five chapters identifying solutions to the problems. The problems of this world can be summarized by the subtitles of the first six chapters: \"The Loneliness of a Personalized World,\" \"What We've Forgotten about Being a Person,\" \"How We Trade Personhood for Effortless Power,\" \"The Ancient Roots of Our Tech Obsession,\" \"How Impersonal Power Rules Our World,\" and \"Why the Next Tech Revolution Will Succeed--and Also Fail.\" *One of Crouch's major themes is that our modern conveniences promise us superpowers. This sounds like a good thing, but in reality it is not. Cars, trains, and planes allow us to move great distances quickly with little effort. Our cell phones give us the ability to translate languages, access vast amounts of information, and communicate almost instantaneously with people around the world. Even our household devices allow us to clean our house without any effort. How these devices work is, for most of us, indistinguishable from magic. Yet, having these abilities leaves us without the need for relationships, and without the need for long-term investment in a project or craft--such as learning a foreign language or learning to play an instrument. We lack the need (and ability?) to love with our full heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are allowed to skim across the surface of life instead of diving deep into it. *Another major theme of the book is Crouch's definition of Mammon. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus says, \"You cannot serve both God and Mammon.\" Crouch expands Mammon from a concept to a being. Mammon is the demonic creature that rules the world. \"… What [Mammon] wants, above all, is to separate power from relationship, abundance from dependence, and being from personhood\" (p. 76). Mammon and money are closely related, for money makes possible \"the ability to get things done, often by means of other persons, without the entanglements of friendship\" (p. 72). Crouch then ties in technology: \"What technology wants is really what Mammon wants: a world of context-free, responsibility-free, dependence-free power measured out in fungible, storable units of value\" (p. 78). *In the \"intermission\" chapter, Crouch takes us to the table of Gaius, in Corinth, in the second century AD. Around th","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75350367","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}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf3-23thompson
C. Thompson
THE SOUL OF DESIRE: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community by Curt Thompson. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021. 238 pages. Hardcover; $27.00. ISBN: 1514002108. *The Soul of Desire sparks the reader's curiosity with the title. Often we relate desire to things we want but view as shameful or dysfunctional in life, such as sex, money and power. Although briefly addressing those things, this book takes the reader to a deeper level of understanding and applying God's definition of desire. Thompson uses art and personal narratives with the integration of theology, psychology, psychiatry and interpersonal neurobiology to help the reader see God's intent for beauty out of brokenness. *The first section of the book outlines the concept of desire. Thompson defines desires as what we want and long for. It is primal for humans to desire although we often don't understand why. It is innate but also must be cultivated and pruned. It is shaped by the practices and habits we develop: the expressions of our intention. Often our desires have less to do with what God longs for us to desire, himself, and more to do with being able to compete in the world--to be adequate and acceptable in the eyes of others (p. 13). He goes on to emphasize Jesus's interest in our desires. Jesus asks us to name our desires in John 1:38, "What do you want?" He argues that, often, we do not name our desires because we fear they may fall outside of the boundary of what God or others see as acceptable. But in not naming our desires, we become bored and depressed (p. 191). We are not living to our full potential. *God's intent is for beauty out of brokenness which we are able to see only when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. How the brain processes interactions is based on past experiences, which often include trauma and shame. In Thompson's first book, The Soul of Shame, he unpacks this concept of shame and how it affects every aspect of our personal and vocational endeavors. It seeks to destroy our identity in Christ. Within this second book, he goes on to elaborate how beauty begins and ends with God, our relationship with God, and with each other. Our primal desire is not only to be known, but also to be curators and creators of beauty (p. 33). He emphasizes that in order to do this, we must learn to think of our story in a different way. God does not point out our sin merely in order to forgive us so we will go to heaven, nor does he identify our trauma and shame in order to heal them simply that we might feel better about ourselves. Instead, "he is transforming us--creating us anew--to recommission us to do the work of new creation along with him. In this sense, God sees us not as problems to be solved or broken objects to be repaired but as beauty on the way to being formed. Sin, then, is what keeps us in a posture of resisting God's desire for creating beauty in, with, and through us" (p. 45). *Throughout a large portion of the book, Thompson i
{"title":"The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community","authors":"C. Thompson","doi":"10.56315/pscf3-23thompson","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf3-23thompson","url":null,"abstract":"THE SOUL OF DESIRE: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community by Curt Thompson. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021. 238 pages. Hardcover; $27.00. ISBN: 1514002108. *The Soul of Desire sparks the reader's curiosity with the title. Often we relate desire to things we want but view as shameful or dysfunctional in life, such as sex, money and power. Although briefly addressing those things, this book takes the reader to a deeper level of understanding and applying God's definition of desire. Thompson uses art and personal narratives with the integration of theology, psychology, psychiatry and interpersonal neurobiology to help the reader see God's intent for beauty out of brokenness. *The first section of the book outlines the concept of desire. Thompson defines desires as what we want and long for. It is primal for humans to desire although we often don't understand why. It is innate but also must be cultivated and pruned. It is shaped by the practices and habits we develop: the expressions of our intention. Often our desires have less to do with what God longs for us to desire, himself, and more to do with being able to compete in the world--to be adequate and acceptable in the eyes of others (p. 13). He goes on to emphasize Jesus's interest in our desires. Jesus asks us to name our desires in John 1:38, \"What do you want?\" He argues that, often, we do not name our desires because we fear they may fall outside of the boundary of what God or others see as acceptable. But in not naming our desires, we become bored and depressed (p. 191). We are not living to our full potential. *God's intent is for beauty out of brokenness which we are able to see only when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. How the brain processes interactions is based on past experiences, which often include trauma and shame. In Thompson's first book, The Soul of Shame, he unpacks this concept of shame and how it affects every aspect of our personal and vocational endeavors. It seeks to destroy our identity in Christ. Within this second book, he goes on to elaborate how beauty begins and ends with God, our relationship with God, and with each other. Our primal desire is not only to be known, but also to be curators and creators of beauty (p. 33). He emphasizes that in order to do this, we must learn to think of our story in a different way. God does not point out our sin merely in order to forgive us so we will go to heaven, nor does he identify our trauma and shame in order to heal them simply that we might feel better about ourselves. Instead, \"he is transforming us--creating us anew--to recommission us to do the work of new creation along with him. In this sense, God sees us not as problems to be solved or broken objects to be repaired but as beauty on the way to being formed. Sin, then, is what keeps us in a posture of resisting God's desire for creating beauty in, with, and through us\" (p. 45). *Throughout a large portion of the book, Thompson i","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72992764","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}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf3-23barrigar
C. Barrigar
Theologian Paul Tyson has published a new theology of science. His concern is to address "the great reversal," whereby the early figures in natural philosophy held Christian faith as "first truth" and their scientific findings as "second truth," but over the course of two-and-a-half centuries these became reversed—the findings of science became society's "first truth" and Christian faith became privatized "second truth." Some Christians, particularly those in science-and-religion discussions today, have succumbed to this reversal, making reductionist-materialist science their operational first truth. Tyson critiques the latter, keying on proposals to reinterpret the Fall as nonhistorical. This review summarizes Tyson's argument, identifies valuable aspects to his proposal, and then offers a number of constructive critiques.
{"title":"Re-ordering Faith and Science: Tyson's Project to Reverse the Great Reversal","authors":"C. Barrigar","doi":"10.56315/pscf3-23barrigar","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf3-23barrigar","url":null,"abstract":"Theologian Paul Tyson has published a new theology of science. His concern is to address \"the great reversal,\" whereby the early figures in natural philosophy held Christian faith as \"first truth\" and their scientific findings as \"second truth,\" but over the course of two-and-a-half centuries these became reversed—the findings of science became society's \"first truth\" and Christian faith became privatized \"second truth.\" Some Christians, particularly those in science-and-religion discussions today, have succumbed to this reversal, making reductionist-materialist science their operational first truth. Tyson critiques the latter, keying on proposals to reinterpret the Fall as nonhistorical. This review summarizes Tyson's argument, identifies valuable aspects to his proposal, and then offers a number of constructive critiques.","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82721155","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}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf3-23richards
Joan L. Richards
GENERATIONS OF REASON: A Family's Search for Meaning in Post-Newtonian England by Joan L. Richards. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021. 456 pages, with 21 b/w illustrations, 1,218 endnotes, and a 35-page index. Hardcover; $45.00. ISBN: 9780300255492. *The title gives no clue who this book is about. Nor does the publisher's description on its website, the abbreviated blurb inside the book jacket, the four endorsements posted on the jacket's back ("beautifully written," "epic masterpiece," "magnificent study," "compelling and wide-ranging"), or even the chapter titles. The reader first learns whom the book is about and how it came into focus in the author's Acknowledgments. In studying the divergent interests of Augustus De Morgan and his wife, Sophia, the importance of De Morgan's father-in-law William Frend's thinking became apparent. This is turn led Richards to delve into the lives and beliefs of two ancestors from the previous generation, Francis Blackburne and Theophilus Lindsey, who felt compelled by their commitment to "reasoned conclusions about matters of faith" (p. x) to move away from orthodox Anglicanism and establish the first Unitarian church in England. Thus the book eventually evolved into chronicling the lives of three generations over a century and a half during (roughly) the Enlightenment era. *A central motif running through the experiences, beliefs, and work of these families was their steadfast commitment to a form of enlightened rationality that provided coherence and foundational meaning for their lives. Reason informed their ecclesiastical commit-ment to Unitarianism, their views of science and mathematics, and their public activity favoring social and educational reforms. But also, paradoxically, their search for reason led to the beliefs and practices (of some family members) that today would be considered pseu-do-scientific--mesmerism, phrenology, and spiritism, among others. *As Richards notes in the book's opening sentence, for her, Generations of Reason is "the culmination of a life devoted to understanding the place of mathematics in modern European cultural and intellectual history." The mathematics and logic of early- to mid-nineteenth-century Britain has been an ongoing research interest for Richards during her forty-year tenure as a historian of mathematics at Brown Universi-ty. It is this that largely drew me to the book and which I will focus on here: it climaxes in a substantive treatment of the progressive mathematics of De Morgan, whose work contributed to transforming British algebra and logic. This is in stark contrast with the radical ideas of Frend, who refused to admit negative numbers into mathematics. *A central figure behind the developments under investigation is John Locke, whose Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) and The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures (1695) exercised a tremendous influence over and challenge for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
{"title":"Generations of Reason: A Family's Search for Meaning in Post-Newtonian England","authors":"Joan L. Richards","doi":"10.56315/pscf3-23richards","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf3-23richards","url":null,"abstract":"GENERATIONS OF REASON: A Family's Search for Meaning in Post-Newtonian England by Joan L. Richards. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021. 456 pages, with 21 b/w illustrations, 1,218 endnotes, and a 35-page index. Hardcover; $45.00. ISBN: 9780300255492. *The title gives no clue who this book is about. Nor does the publisher's description on its website, the abbreviated blurb inside the book jacket, the four endorsements posted on the jacket's back (\"beautifully written,\" \"epic masterpiece,\" \"magnificent study,\" \"compelling and wide-ranging\"), or even the chapter titles. The reader first learns whom the book is about and how it came into focus in the author's Acknowledgments. In studying the divergent interests of Augustus De Morgan and his wife, Sophia, the importance of De Morgan's father-in-law William Frend's thinking became apparent. This is turn led Richards to delve into the lives and beliefs of two ancestors from the previous generation, Francis Blackburne and Theophilus Lindsey, who felt compelled by their commitment to \"reasoned conclusions about matters of faith\" (p. x) to move away from orthodox Anglicanism and establish the first Unitarian church in England. Thus the book eventually evolved into chronicling the lives of three generations over a century and a half during (roughly) the Enlightenment era. *A central motif running through the experiences, beliefs, and work of these families was their steadfast commitment to a form of enlightened rationality that provided coherence and foundational meaning for their lives. Reason informed their ecclesiastical commit-ment to Unitarianism, their views of science and mathematics, and their public activity favoring social and educational reforms. But also, paradoxically, their search for reason led to the beliefs and practices (of some family members) that today would be considered pseu-do-scientific--mesmerism, phrenology, and spiritism, among others. *As Richards notes in the book's opening sentence, for her, Generations of Reason is \"the culmination of a life devoted to understanding the place of mathematics in modern European cultural and intellectual history.\" The mathematics and logic of early- to mid-nineteenth-century Britain has been an ongoing research interest for Richards during her forty-year tenure as a historian of mathematics at Brown Universi-ty. It is this that largely drew me to the book and which I will focus on here: it climaxes in a substantive treatment of the progressive mathematics of De Morgan, whose work contributed to transforming British algebra and logic. This is in stark contrast with the radical ideas of Frend, who refused to admit negative numbers into mathematics. *A central figure behind the developments under investigation is John Locke, whose Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) and The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures (1695) exercised a tremendous influence over and challenge for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136179923","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}
Pub Date : 2022-12-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf12-22peterson
J. Peterson
{"title":"Transitions","authors":"J. Peterson","doi":"10.56315/pscf12-22peterson","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf12-22peterson","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78665394","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}
In dealing with the body of a deceased individual, the anatomist has to decide whether this individual is to be treated as a person. One approach is to gain insights from those who are definitely persons--healthy children and adults--and work toward those in which there is uncertainty and ambiguity, in this instance, the deceased. The same applies at the other end of life when dealing with embryos and fetuses. In both cases, marginal persons are given the benefit of the doubt, using the concept of "overflow." *An analysis is undertaken of the treatment of the deceased: initially, of the recently deceased; then assessing approaches to human remains from the remote past; and finally, the troubling status of dissected plastinated bodies, "plastinates." Against this background, attention moves to ways of approaching embryos. Following an overview of a range of theological insights into embryonic existence, attention is paid to the heterogeneity of blastocysts, the significance of their immediate environment, and their place within the broader human community. Reference is also made to the advent of synthetic embryos and the challenge they will present for a notion of personhood. An attempt is made to assess where these ambiguous versions of ourselves fit into the priorities of the human community, and whether an approach based on the notion of "overflow" will provide helpful pointers.
{"title":"An Anatomist Considers Overflow at the Boundaries of Being a Person","authors":"D. Jones","doi":"10.56315/pscf12-22jones","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf12-22jones","url":null,"abstract":"In dealing with the body of a deceased individual, the anatomist has to decide whether this individual is to be treated as a person. One approach is to gain insights from those who are definitely persons--healthy children and adults--and work toward those in which there is uncertainty and ambiguity, in this instance, the deceased. The same applies at the other end of life when dealing with embryos and fetuses. In both cases, marginal persons are given the benefit of the doubt, using the concept of \"overflow.\" *An analysis is undertaken of the treatment of the deceased: initially, of the recently deceased; then assessing approaches to human remains from the remote past; and finally, the troubling status of dissected plastinated bodies, \"plastinates.\" Against this background, attention moves to ways of approaching embryos. Following an overview of a range of theological insights into embryonic existence, attention is paid to the heterogeneity of blastocysts, the significance of their immediate environment, and their place within the broader human community. Reference is also made to the advent of synthetic embryos and the challenge they will present for a notion of personhood. An attempt is made to assess where these ambiguous versions of ourselves fit into the priorities of the human community, and whether an approach based on the notion of \"overflow\" will provide helpful pointers.","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89736249","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}
Pub Date : 2022-12-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf12-22koenig
Sara M. Koenig, C. Wall-Scheffler
{"title":"Discussions about Dispersals: Questions Rising from the Search for Historical Adam","authors":"Sara M. Koenig, C. Wall-Scheffler","doi":"10.56315/pscf12-22koenig","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf12-22koenig","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86707166","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}
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