Rector’s Reflections
Wednesday 12th March 2025
Science and Religion in the Modern World
In yesterday’s reflections, I offered the observation that in general over the last the 40 years or so, Science and Religion have tended to live separate lives and been happy to do so. Science and Religion tend to keep themselves to themselves. Disputes occasionally happen, but generally most people accept that Science and Religion both have a role to play in modern society. Life is complex and there are many different ways of looking at the issues we face in our own lives and in our world. Scientists can look at things in one way, and religious folk can look at things in another way, and that’s absolutely fine. So for most people, it’s not a matter of either Science or Religion – it’s a matter of “both and”.
Is it good, for the Church and for the world at large, for this separation between Science and Religion to continue? Would it be much better if the world of religion and the world of Science were brought much closer together? And if so, what might this mean? Might it mean that the language and models of traditional theology are revised in order to take on board the insights of Science? Might it also mean that the Scientific understanding of the world needs to take on board the specific insights that come from centuries of theological reflection?
This leads to my second reflection about what has been happening in the world of Science and Religion over the last 40 years or so. Although the dominant model has kept Science and Religion largely separate, there has been an increasing move to bring the two worlds closer together, or at least to establish bridges between them. Progress in this direction has been slow and patchy, but it has been real and there are no signs that it is going to be reversed.
Many societies and organisations have been established to provide a forum for theologians to engage with scientists, and vice versa. New resources have been provided to help Christians who are non-Scientists understand aspects of contemporary Science, and to explore how Science can relate to traditional Christian understandings of the world. Good examples of such organisations are The Faraday Institute, based in Cambridge, and the Ian Ramsey Centre, based in Oxford. There is also the Science and Religion Forum, and ECLAS (Equipping Church Leaders in an Age of Science).
There are also professional societies with associated journals. The most important journals in this field are: Science and Christian Belief (the journal of “Christians in Science”; Theology and Science (Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences); and Zygon (a US journal started back in 1966. It’s curious title comes from a Greek word used to express the idea of “yoking” two entities together, in this context meaning Science and Religion.)
This attempt to build bridges between the world of Science and the world of Religion is increasingly gaining traction, at least in the world of academic theology. It is a popular topic for study at Masters level, and for Doctoral research, and it is perfectly possible nowadays for a professional theologian to spend their career specialising in this field.
But the attempt to build bridges between Science and Religion still has a long way to go. There are three main reasons for this. To start with, it is hard to find serious theologians who are also serious scientists : they certainly do exist, praise be to God, but they do not grow on trees. Secondly, most clergy and most congregations aren’t particularly interested in Science, or in the relationship between Science and Christianity. It is something I happen to be passionate about, but in this respect I am very much a rarity. For example, I think we are probably the only benefice in the Diocese of Oxford who will be celebrating British Science Week, and I suspect that we might well be the only Benefice in the country intentionally celebrating the International Year of the Quantum. Finally, most of the bridge building which has been going on for the last 40 years has been in one direction : the bridges have come from the Religion side of the Science and Religion divide. For some reason, the Scientists have been less interested in building bridges, although they have generally been open to walking across such bridges as do get built. Scientists tend to focus on their Scientific work, which is entirely natural.
And my third reflection? You will have to wait until tomorrow to find out!