Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Moving the Science-Theology dialogue South

I have been asked to write a Guest Editorial for a forthcoming issue of the journal Science and Christian Belief. This is an honour.
I have chosen to explore the issue of Science and Theology in non-Western contexts. I do not consider myself particularly qualified (or entitled?) to write on the issue but I hope it is reasonable and constructive for me to raise the issue and stimulate discussion.
I welcome comments on a draft.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Ross,

    Yes! This is something which desperately needs to be said.

    I was married a year ago to a beautiful Christian woman from Malaysia. As a Christian, she is an absolute inspiration. After discussing how science (evolution in particular) could be compatible with Christianity her questions had changed from questioning whether I was even a Christian to "Why has nobody told me this before?"

    Some comments on the article:

    You seem to focus on negative aspects of Southern societies. Perhaps move "family" and "community" further up because these are positive aspects of loving one another which the South gets right, and are being lost in the West.

    The paragraphs, "First..." "Second..." and "Third..." should probably have a line between them.

    Mentioning of China might be good. They are becoming a massive body of believers, both in China and for overseas Chinese.

    I don't understand the part beginning with "The standard creation vs. evolution..." to "apologetic in local contexts". Is it that this is a fight we don't need have in the South, because it comes out of largely Western construct of a necessary conflict between science and religion? It comes across as a little bit unclear though.

    Anyhow, I hope these random comments were useful to you. I sincerely agree with the point you are making. They need to be made.

    Charles.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Charles,

    Thanks for the encouragement.
    Your comments are very helpful and I have tried to incorporate them in the final version.

    Ross

    ReplyDelete