Bloomsbury The Edge of Reason?: Science and Religion in Modern Society

Confrontation between science and religion has defined much public debate about religion in recent years, most lately in bestsellers portraying a clash between scientists and religious believers, such as Richard Dawkins The God Delusion and Sam Harriss The End of Faith or Letter to a Christian Nation. But what does this clash mean for society? This collection of essays gives voice to social scientists, natural scientists and theologians whose experience holds direct relevance on these major issues, and encourages a new, more forgiving dialogue between these two huge forces in modern society. Review "Systems of logic and belief never split into neat oppositions between science and religion, but are mediated by cultural, philosophical, and contextual forces that shape these systems - all of them - as reasonable and natural. It is the making and mobilisation of the givens of human knowledge, rather than its perfection to grasp a preordained cosmology, that must be understood if we are to break free of the impasse that has come to prevail between Creationists and Evolutionists, as revealed in this fascinating dialogue between leading anthropologists, archaeologists, philosophers, theologians, biologists and physicists. Inter-disciplinarity at its best!"Professor Ash Amin, Director of the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, UKMention Book News, February 2009Mention --Book News, February 2009"A bundle of interesting insights by scholars who contribute not only academic but personal experience to the discussion." - ESSAT-News (European Society for the Study of Science and Theology)"It will challenge not only ideological atheists but also religious theists ... the contributors have minimized jargon and each essay has been written with the interested layperson in mind." - ReformMention -Book News, February 2009Title mention in Church Times.Title reviewed inPublishing News, 2008. About the Author Alex Bentley is Reader in the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, UK.