Practicing science, living faith

As if to affirm yesterday's decisions to re-think and revitalize this blog along the lines of a science: religion dialog, I today received a book to review for Choice: Clayton, P. & Schaal, J. eds. 2007. Practicing science, living faith. New York: Columbia University Press. It looks quite interesting as it documents "thick and rich" interviews with twelve scientists, primarily from biology and the cognitive sciences. What is especially intriguing is that it moves beyond the the typically narrow Western Judeo-Christian focus -- most often science and (or versus) some rather narrowly construed Christianity -- and includes researchers from Islamic, Baha'i, Hindu, Buddhist, animistic, and naturalistic traditions. I am familiar with the work of some of the biologists -- Jane Goodall, Ursala Goodenough, and Robert Pollack -- but not with that of Pauline Rudd, Thomas Odhiambo, Farahneh Varda-Khadem, or Satato. The contributions from the remaining authors, coming from a variety of backgrounds, also look rich and varied at first glance.

The book it a product of the second phase of an enterprise called Science and the Spiritual Quest which I don't really know much about at this point. In perusing the front matter of the book I am a bit mystified by exactly what 'spiritual' means in the present context. The preface advocates "interpreting spirituality in the broadest possible sense" (p. xiii) which, to me, seems to border on interpreting it out of existence for many potential readers. With an emphasis on 'lived practice' rather than theoretical relationships among science and religion, the book promises to be a refreshing departure from much recent work in this domain. More later. Time to go read for a while... /dps.