As we try to understand ourselves and the world we live in, all too often we look first to science--and then, if gaps remain in our understanding, we try to fill the gaps with reference to God and our faith. Such a "god-of-the-gaps" approach has a long history and is sadly alive and well today. This book was written to provide an alternative approach, posing this basic question: How can educated Christians maintain their intellectual honesty and, at the same time, be faithful both to Scripture and to science? This book provides examples of some of the liveliest "science vs. faith" issues today and suggests ways to think constructively about each of them.
Malcolm A. Jeeves is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at University of St Andrews, Scotland, Past President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the British Psychological Society. A pioneer in cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and evolutionary psychology, he is the author of numerous books on science and faith.
“Malcolm Jeeves brings to this highly readable book both a lifetime of eminent scientific research in neuroscience and psychology and all the wisdom of his accumulated theological reflections as a Christian. Anyone struggling to see how contemporary science, in all its complexity, can be consonant with committed theological belief should peruse this volume with care: it touches on all the major metaphysical and theological points of contention, and does so with clarity, insight, and compassion.”
—Sarah Coakley, editor of Spiritual Healing: Science, Meaning, and Discernment
“Drawing on a lifetime’s experience in psychology and neuroscience, and with the perspective of his Christian faith, Prof. Malcolm Jeeves shows that many, perhaps most people today believe in shrunken gods that do not do justice to either the depth of scientific knowledge about the created world, or the biblical view of a sovereign creator God. In a magisterial overview of current understanding, he encourages us to expand our vision to embrace both the fruits of modern science and the insights of biblical scholarship to give a richer and fuller view of this amazing world in which we live, and of the place of humans within it.”
—Bob White, Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, Cambridge University, and Emeritus Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion
“Too often today we hear reductionist claims: I have faith so don’t need science! or I have science so don’t need faith! With an astonishing breadth of perspective, Malcolm Jeeves dispels both myths—and he does so with such easy-to-read and humble prose that we do well to stop and reflect on this book’s practical wisdom. Here is an invitation to take up fresh, robust, and faithful ways of making sense of God’s good creation.”
—Joel B. Green, author of Body, Soul, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible
“How do you answer a cry for help from someone battling doubts about their Christian faith? Here is the lifetime experience of a distinguished professor of psychology and neuroscience faced with today’s questions about origins, human nature, miracles, faith, and fakes. Malcolm Jeeves explores remarkable advances not only in the sciences but in biblical scholarship. Together, they help us to avoid the danger of shrinking our ideas about the living God.”
—Brian Heap, past President of the European Academies Science Advisory Council
“Malcolm Jeeves, a pioneering cognitive neuroscientist and founder of one of the world’s great psychology departments, is also one the world’s wisest thinkers on matters of science and faith. After a lifetime’s experience among great scientists and visionary people of faith, he invites us to sit beside him as he offers his final reflections. And how refreshing and inspiring it is—in an era when religion so often seems anti-science—to think with him as he unifies scientific and biblical wisdom about human origins and human nature, about miracles, and even about faith itself.”
—David Myers, Professor of Psychology, Hope College
Related Titles
