Why the Science and Religion Dialogue Matters

Each world faith tradition has its own distinctive relationship with science, and the science-religion dialogue benefits from a greater awareness of what this relationship is. In this book, members of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) offer international and multi-faith perspectives on how new discoveries in science are met with insights regarding spiritual realities.The essays reflect the conviction that “religion and science each proceed best when they’re pursued in dialogue with each other, and also that our fragmented and divided world would benefit more from a stronger dialogue between science and religion.”In Part One, George F. R. Ellis, John C. Polkinghorne, and Holmes Rolston III, each a Templeton Prize winner, discuss their views on why the science and religion dialogue matters. They are joined in Part Two by distinguished theologians Fraser Watts and Philip Clayton, who place the dialogue in an international context; John Polkinghorne’s inaugural address to the ISSR in 2002 is also included. In Part Three, five members of the ISSR look at the distinctive relationships of their faiths to science: •Carl Feit on Judaism
•Munawar Anees on Islam
•B.V. Subbarayappa on Hinduism
•Trinh Xuan Thuan on Buddhism
•Heup Young Kim on Asian Christianity
George Ellis, the recently elected second president of ISSR, summarizes the contributions of his colleagues. Ronald Cole-Turner then concludes the book with a discussion of the future of the science and religion dialogue.

Fraser Watts was ordained in the Church of England in 1990 and is now Vicar-Chaplain of St. Edward, King and Martyr, in Cambridge, England. In 1994 he became the Starbridge Lecturer in Theology and the Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He has been director of the Psychology and Christianity Project in the Center for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies since its foundation in 1996. Rev. Dr.Watts was founding editor of the journal Cognition and Emotion, and has served as the President of the British Psychological Society.
Kevin Dutton was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the International Society for Science and Religion in August 2004. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He has a Ph.D in psychology.