Faithful to Science: The Role of Science in Religion.By Andrew Steane

Abstract

I n this engaging book Andrew Steane, Professor of Physics at Oxford University, offers a perspective on science and Christian faith from a position of full commitment to both. He argues persuasively that the pursuit of science is a natural and important aspect of what it means to be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. It is part of what loving God with all your mind entails (p. 37), though of course it proceeds by its own analytical and empirical methods (p. 227). It also ties in very naturally with what we learn by other means, such as through religion and ethical reflection. To see religion as a competitor in finding out about nature is a ‘category error’. Science is precisely what followers of Jesus do when they want to find out about nature (p. 233). The idea that faith and science are in conflict seems odd when one considers the massive contributions of great scientist believers such as Newton, Boyle, Faraday, and Maxwell, even if the first of these was heterodox. Indeed, the Royal Society, when founded in 1660, dedicated its work ‘to the glory of God the Creator, and the benefit of the human race’ (p. 29). In two appendices Steane neatly dispels the myths surrounding the Galileo affair and the British Association debate in Oxford between Bishop Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley in 1860. In both cases the arguments were mainly to do with science, and evidence for the postulated theories.