Confronting religious denial of science christian humanism and the moral imagination / Catherine M. Wallace.
| Author/creator | Wallace, Catherine M. |
| Format | Electronic |
| Publication Info | Eugene, Oregon : Cascade Books, [2016] |
| Description | xv, 121 pages ; 22 cm. |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from Ebook Central - Public Library Complete |
| Subjects |
| Series | A confronting fundamentalism book Confronting fundamentalism. ^A1304208 |
| Contents | Confronting fundamentalism: it's antiscience -- 1971: the novena -- Tylor, Frazer, and the rise of dogmatic scientism -- The secularization thesis -- God the engineer almighty -- Christianity as a system of symbols -- Miracles -- 1960: prayer on the playground -- Prayer as a creative process -- Mindfulness meditation and the brain -- Meditation, imagination, and God -- Other ancient prayer practices -- Confronting fundamentalism: where does this leave us? |
| Abstract | Confronting Religious Denial of Science: Christian Humanism and the Moral Imagination traces the cultural backstory of contemporary conflicts between biblical literalists who oppose evolution and 'New Atheists' who insist that religion is so pernicious it should be outlawed, if not exterminated. That's a clash of fundamentalisms. It's a zero-sum game derived from high Victorian misunderstanding of both religion and science. The God whom science supposedly replaces is the Engineer Almighty sitting at his keyboard, controlling every event on earth. But that's not a viable concept of God. Far better, Wallace argues, to understand Christianity in Clifford Geertz's terms as a system of symbols that both constitutes a worldview and, according to David Sloan Wilson, encourages prosocial behavior. That reframing makes it possible to reclaim what biblical scholars have said for decades: the miracles of Jesus were confrontational symbolic actions. They contradicted the political status quo in colonial Palestine, not the laws of biology. Prayer, she explains, is not magical thinking. It's a creative, highly disciplined introspective process, most familiar to many people in forms like mindfulness meditation. Wallace offers an intriguing exploration of issues that believers seldom discuss in ways that make sense to the religiously unaffiliated. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 119-121). |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| LCCN | 2016439493 |
| ISBN | 9781498228749 |
| ISBN | 1498228747 |
| ISBN | 1498288537 |
| ISBN | 9781498288538 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic Resources | Access Content Online | ✔ Available |