Western civilization historically has tried to balance secular knowledge with revealed religion. Science is the modern world's version of secular knowledge and resists the kind of integration achieved by Augustine and Aquinas. Managing the conflict between religion and evolution by containing them in separate “frames,” as Stephen J. Gould suggested, does not resolve the issue. Science may have displaced religion from the public square, but the traditional science‐religion conflict has become threadbare in intellectual terms. Scientific theories have become increasingly abstract, (...) and science has been attacked from the left as a source of objective knowledge. However, technology, not science, has displaced religious belief, a phenomenon I call techno‐secularism. Robert Coles's suggestion that secularism is a form of doubt inevitably attached to religious belief, and William James's reduction of religious experiences to psychological states, evaluating them according to their “cash value,” are unhelpful. Technology enables us to remake our environment according to our wishes and has become a kind of magic that replaces not just revealed religion but also theoretical science. Techno‐secularism has an ethical vision that focuses on healthful living, self‐fulfillment, and avoiding the struggles of human life and the inevitability of death. (shrink)

We are walking too quickly down the road to physical and psychological utopia without pausing to assess the potential damage to our humanity from this brave new ...

Since the appearance in 1969 of Wolfhart Pannenberg's discussion of "The Kingdom of God and the Foundation of Ethics" in the book Theology and the Kingdom of God students of Pannenberg have been anticipating a fuller statement of his views on the philosophical and theological foundations of ethics and the application of theology to social and political issues. Now the developing ethical thought of Pannenberg is available in the English language. In the collection of studies, he enters into creative dialogue (...) with great thinkers of the past, including Martin Luther, G.W.F. Hegel', and Ernst Troeltsch and with contemporaries such as Gerhard Ebeling and the "political theologians." A major work by one of the world's most influential theologians, this thought-provoking book identifies the historical roots of the contemporary crisis in ethics and indicates ways of dealing with the ethical issues of our day--from back cover. (shrink)

Introduction It is exciting to live in revolutionary times. I had the privilege of rinding myself on the firing line of one revolution, the dramatic renewal ...

An expanded & revised version of Religion in an Age of Science. Three new chapters on physics & metaphysics in the 18th century and biology & theology in the 19th century. Other new sections included.

Challenged by Lynn White’s sharp criticism of Christianity’s responsibility for earth’s ecological crisis, both Ian Barbour and Philip Hefner have proposed theological anthropologies based upon the imago Dei that supports an ecological ethic. Russell, while supporting the ecological ethic, turns not to anthropology but rather to eschatology and the proleptic vision of a new creation.