No God, No Science - (Illuminations: Theory & Religion) by Michael Hanby (Paperback)

About the Book

"No God, No Science: Theology, Cosmology, Biology presents a work of philosophical theology that retrieves the Christian doctrine of creation from the distortions imposed upon it by positivist science and the Darwinian tradition of evolutionary biology. This book argues that the doctrine of creation is integral to the intelligibility of the world; brings the metaphysics of the Christian doctrine of creation to bear on the nature of science; offers a provocative analysis of the theoretical and historical relationship between theology, metaphysics, and science; and, presents an original critique and interpretation of the philosophical meaning of Darwinian biology."-- Publisher's description.

Book Synopsis

No God, No Science: Theology, Cosmology, Biology presents a work of philosophical theology that retrieves the Christian doctrine of creation from the distortions imposed upon it by positivist science and the Darwinian tradition of evolutionary biology.

• Argues that the doctrine of creation is integral to the intelligibility of the world
• Brings the metaphysics of the Christian doctrine of creation to bear on the nature of science
• Offers a provocative analysis of the theoretical and historical relationship between theology, metaphysics, and science
• Presents an original critique and interpretation of the philosophical meaning of Darwinian biology

From the Back Cover

"There is something heroic about the scale on which Hanby has chosen to work, and the result is satisfyingly grand. At a time when tedious polemic has done so much to obscure the relation between the history of modern Western science and the history of theology, and done so much to confuse the questions that the science and theology do and (more importantly perhaps) do not share in common, this book is a very welcome burst of clarifying light."
David Bentley Hart, author of The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth; The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss; and Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies

"I strongly recommend this book to scientists who wish to see how robust science and Christian theology can relate in sound and appropriate ways not centered on conflict. Anyone seeking wisdom on how to secure the future of humanity in our technological age should consider the thesis of this book carefully."
Paul S. Julienne, retired Fellow, Joint Quantum Institute of the University of Maryland and NIST

"Michael Hanby charts the long decline since the High-Middle Ages in the meaning of God, contingency, and creation. This conceptual weakening resulted in the philosophically and theologically simplistic opposition between Paley's natural theology and Darwinism. Helping us retrace our steps, Hanby leads us from a natural theology based on a misplaced analogy between artifacts and organisms to a theology of nature based on respect for life's wonders, including the creativity of natural selection."
David J. Depew, University of Iowa and Bruce H. Weber, California State University Fullerton, and Bennington College

Are creation and evolution mutually exclusive terms? Or is there instead a deep relationship between science, metaphysics, and theology that can help shed light into mankind's quest for the ultimate truth? No God, No Science: Theology, Cosmology, Biology presents a comprehensive work of philosophical theology whose overarching aim is to retrieve the Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo from the distortions imposed upon it by positivist science and the Darwinian tradition of evolutionary biology.

Noted scholar Michael Hanby cogently argues that the Christian doctrine of creation is actually essential to the intelligibility of the world and that the universe itself is a fundamentally metaphysical and theological concept. Metaphysics and theology, he reasons, are not options in the realm of science, and the intractable problems of Darwinian biology are actually the result of its faulty metaphysical and theological foundations. Putting forth a new understanding of the relationship between theology and science and an original and thought-provoking critical reassessment of Darwinian biology, No God, No Science changes the terms of the debate between Darwinism and theology and offers startling new insights into the potential for science and religion to coexist and flourish in the modern world.

About the Author

Michael Hanby is Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy of Science at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies at the Catholic University of America. His previous published works include Augustine and Modernity and numerous journal articles. He has taught previously at Baylor University and Villanova University.