This volume introduces readers to emergence theory, outlines the major arguments in its defence, and summarizes the most powerful objections against it. It provides the clearest explication yet of this exciting new theory of science, which challenges the reductionist approach by proposing the continuous emergence of novel phenomena.

Twelve scientists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines demonstrate that it is indeed possible for profound intellectuals to integrate the life of science with the life of faith. In honest and inspiring interviews, they describe the difficult though rewarding process of reconciling their faith with their science and reveal the ways in which the two spheres can not only coexist but also mutually enhance each other.

Jane Goodall begins the conversation by emphasizing the importance of recognizing the "spark of spirit" that runs through all creatures, human and animal. Robert Pollack...

In this book Philip Clayton defends the rationality of religious explanations by exploring the parallels between explanatory effects in the sciences and the explanations offered by religious believers, students of religion, and theologians.
Clayton begins by surveying the types of religious explanation, offering a synopsis of the most significant competing positions. He then critically examines recent important developments in the philosophy of science regarding the nature of scientific explanations--including the work of Popper, Hempel, Kuhn, and Lakatos in the natural sciences and...

* Last work from a pioneer in the field with responses from ten orther leading thinkers * A bold proposal for rethinking the nature and role of God in the universe

Foreword by Mary Ann Meyers

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the doctrine of panentheism -- the belief that the world is contained within the Divine, although God is also more than the world. Here for the first time leading scientists and theologians meet to debate the merits of this compelling new understanding of the God-world relation.

Atheist and theist, Eastern and Western, conservative and liberal, modern and postmodern, physicist and biologist, Orthodox and Protestant -- the authors explore the tensions between traditional views of God and contemporary science and...

It is widely believed that contemporary science has ruled out divine action in the world. Arguing that theology can and must respond to this challenge, Philip Clayton surveys the available biblical and philosophical resources. Recent work in cosmology, quantum physics, and the brain sciences offers exciting new openings for a theology of divine action. If Christian theism is to make use of these opportunities, says Clayton, it must place a greater stress on divine immanence. In response to this challenge, Clayton defends the doctrine of panentheism, the view that the world is in some sense...

Classical notions of truth and objectivity have steadily eroded in the face of postmodernism. Meeting this challenge head-on, Joseph Bracken here reconstructs the metaphysical tradition of the West on solid new foundations. Drawing on the thought of Alfred North Whitehead, Ervin Laszlo, and Jurgen Habermas, Bracken presents a new philosophical perspective that roots the relationship between God and the world in community. Bracken first answers objections to the possibility of developing a new metaphysics in our postmodern age. He then lays out the "vertical" and "horizontal" dimensions of his...

Many theologians have been reconceiving the God-world relation, challenging the separation that underlay too much of Patristic and Scholastic theology. These panentheists affirm a radical indwelling of God within the world and the world within God. During the same period scientists have begun to abandon the reductionist ideology that characterized much of the modern period. Reductionism is being replaced by a new emphasis on emergence: the study of how new structures and entities arise throughout the evolutionary process and how each requires its own form of explanation. Surprisingly few...

It is widely believed that modern philosophers have dismissed the idea of God and opted instead for a secular humanism. Challenging these stereotypes through a careful study of major philosophical texts written since the Enlightenment, Philip Clayton shows how the main thinkers of the modern period have continued to wrestle with the problem of God and to make proposals for understanding the divine.Following up on his award-winning book God and Contemporary Science, Clayton here explores the constructive resources that modern thought offers to those struggling with the notion of God as...

This compact volume offers a way for Christians to reflect deeply on how best to conceive Christian identity, commitment, and discipleship in today's challenged, globalized, pluralistic scene.