Recommended Books about Science and Faith

Note: not necessarily an endorsement of every particular theological viewpoint within the pages. Favorites in bold.

General

  • Thomas Dixon, "Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction"

  • Michael Poole, "Exploring Science and Faith"

  • John Polkinghorne and Nicholas Beale, "Questions of Truth: Fifty-one Responses to Questions about God, Science, and Belief"

  • John Polkinghorne, "Science and Religion in Quest of Truth"

  • Ian Barbour, "When Science Meets Religion"

  • Ian Barbour, "Religion in an Age of Science"

  • Paul Kurtz, "Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?"

  • Robert Fischer, "God Did It, But How? Creation, Science, and Christian Faith"

  • Arthur Peacocke, "Theology for a Scientific Age: Being and Becoming—Natural, Divine, and Human"

Faith and Evolution

  • Francis Collins, "The Language of God"

  • Richard Dowd, "Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion will Transform Your Life and Our World"

  • Ted Peters and Martinez Hewlett, "Can You Believe in God and Evolution?"

  • Joan Roughgarden, "Evolution and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist"

  • Denis Lamoureux, "Evolution: Scripture and Science Say Yes!"

  • Kenneth Miller, "Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution"

Faith and Physics

  • R. Kirby Godsey, "The God Particle: God-Talk in a Big Bang World"

  • John Polkinghorne, "The Faith of a Physicist"

  • John Polkinghorne, "Quantum Physics and Theology: An Unexpected Kinship"

Scripture

  • John Collins, “A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible”

  • Pete Enns, "The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable To Read It"

  • Steve Jones, "The Serpent's Promise: The Bible Re-told as Science"

  • Tremper Longman, "How to Read Genesis"

  • HarperCollins has published an NRSV “Green Bible” which focuses on environmental issues. The edition highlights environmental passages in green, similar to the red-letter KJV Bible. It features an environmental-themed index, writing by N. T. Wright, Barbara Brown Taylor, Brian McLaren, Pope John Paul II, and Wendell Berry, and is printed on recycled paper and soy-based ink.

  • In the 1990s, an international group of scholars affiliated with the Society of Biblical Literature began a project called the The Earth Bible, which looks at scripture through an ecological lens. The project features a five-volume collection of articles (focusing on Earth's perspective, Genesis, the Wisdom Traditions, Psalms and Prophets, and the New Testament), as well as a more recently published Earth Bible Commentary series. Unfortunately, these are not widely available commercially. I recommend university libraries if you have such access; if not, please contact me and I will try to help you locate a copy.

     

Sustainability and Climate Change

  • Pope Francis, “Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home”

  • Norman Wirzba, "From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World"

  • Sally McFague, "A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming"

  • Delio, Warner, and Wood, "Care for Creation: A Franciscan Spirituality of the Earth"

  • Mark Wallace, "Green Christianity: Five Ways to a Sustainable Future"

  • Also, Yale's Forum on Religion and Ecology published a massive, 55-page bibliography of suggested readings.

History of Science and Faith

  • Galileo Galilei, Letter to the Duchess Christina (~1615)

  • Ronald Numbers, "Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion"

  • Dava Sobel, "Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love"

  •  Maurice Finocchiaro, "The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History"

Devotional Use

  • William Cleary, "Prayers to an Evolutionary God"

For Reference

  • Copan, Longman, Reese, and Strauss, "The Dictionary of Christianity and Science"

Faith and Neuroscience

  • Barbara Hagerty, "Fingerprints of God: What Science is Learning About the Brain and Spirituality"

The New Atheists' Debate

  • Richard Dawkins, "The God Delusion"

  • Alister and Joanna McGrath, "The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine"

 Children’s Books