Rethinking History, Science, and Religion - by Bernard Lightman (Hardcover)

About the Book

Evaluating the Complexity Principle for Scholarship in the History of Science and Religion Evaluating the Complexity Principle for Scholarship in the History of Science and Religion

Book Synopsis

The historical interface between science and religion was depicted as an unbridgeable conflict in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Starting in the 1970s, such a conception was too simplistic and not at all accurate when considering the totality of that relationship. This volume evaluates the utility of the "complexity principle" in past, present, and future scholarship. First put forward by historian John Brooke over twenty-five years ago, the complexity principle rejects the idea of a single thesis of conflict or harmony, or integration or separation, between science and religion. Rethinking History, Science, and Religion brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars at the forefront of their fields to consider whether new approaches to the study of science and culture--such as recent developments in research on science and the history of publishing, the global history of science, the geographical examination of space and place, and science and media--have cast doubt on the complexity thesis, or if it remains a serviceable historiographical model.

Review Quotes

A fine, readable and well-edited volume, with many strong essays . . . It underlines how complex and interesting the historical relationship between science and religion is, and it will deepen and strengthen this growing academic discipline.-- "Science & Christian Belief"

For anyone interested in exploring the latest historiography of science and religion, read this stimulating and informative book. You will be challenged.-- "Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith"

Historians of science have long taken for granted that behind the myth of eternal war between science and religion lies a much more complex reality. But is this 'complexity principle' the last word? In this timely and important volume, an international team of scholars puts the principle to the test.-- "Gregory Radick, University of Leeds"

Since its genesis over two decades ago, the 'Complexity Thesis' has functioned for most historians of science and religion as a corrective to the still popular notion that the relationship between the two has been characterized by inevitable conflict. Bernard Lightman's excellent volume collects some of the most mature reflections upon the status of the complexity principle. The first-rate essays contained herein show that the complexity principle continues to stimulate and challenge scholars of the science / religion relationship.-- "Monte Harrell Hampton, author of Storm of Words: Science, Religion, and Evolution in the Civil War Era"

About the Author

Bernard Lightman is distinguished research professor in the Humanities Department at York University and past president of the History of Science Society. He is the editor of Rethinking History and Science and Religion and coeditor of Science Periodicals in Nineteenth-Century Britain and Identity in a Secular Age. He also serves as a general editor for The Correspondence of John Tyndall and the Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century series at the University of Pittsburgh Press.