Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action: Twenty Years of Challenge and Progress

Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action: Twenty Years of Challenge and Progress is a collection of thirteen essays assessing the scholarly contributions to the Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action series, which is comprised of five volumes resulting from international research conferences co-sponsored by the Vatican Observatory and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences between 1991 and 2000. The overarching goal of the series is to advance the engagement of constructive theology with the natural sciences with special attention to the theme of divine action and to investigate the philosophical and theological elements within science.

This volume is divided into three sections: In Section One, contributors review the history of the series and the development of new research methodology and discuss philosophical issues raised by the laws of nature and the limits of science; in Section Two, authors provide philosophical analysis of specific issues in the series; and in Section Three, contributors offer theological analyses of specific issues.

The five volumes in the series include: Quantum Cosmology and the Laws of Nature (vol. 1, 1993); Chaos and Complexity (vol. 2, 1995); Molecular and Evolutionary Biology (vol. 3, 1998); Neuroscience and the Person (vol. 4, 1999); and Quantum Mechanics (vol. 5, 2001), and are distributed by University of Notre Dame Press.

Robert John Russell is founder and director of the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, Berkeley, California.

Nancey Murphy is professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.

William R. Stoeger, S. J., is a staff astrophysicist with the Vatican Observatory Research Group at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and adjunct associate professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona.

Contributors: Robert John Russell, George Ellis, Philip Clayton, Nancey Murphy, Wesley Wildman, Niels Henrik Gregersen, Arthur Peacocke, William R. Stoeger, S.J., Thomas F. Tracy, Keith Ward, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, Mark Worthing