We posted on the secularization of science last summer, in connection with Herman Dooyeweerd’s essay of that title. Like me, you may have been surprised to learn that for Dooyweerd, the ‘secularization of science’ reached its culmination around the Renaissance, just as theology began to be marginalised in Western culture. This might seem to belittle the Christian faith and piety Read more
Liza Lansang Espinoza shares her reading of The Secularization of Science by Herman Dooyeweerd, which will be the focus of the first All of Life Redeemed webinars on 4 and 11 June. (See this post for the flyer, including the email address for signing up.) Dooyeweerd begins by stating his belief that religion (true or apostate) Read more
On 4 and 11 June, Richard will be delivering a 2-part webinar series as part of the All of Life Redeemed initiative. Bruce Wearne gives a personal reflection on the article addressed by this webinar. “The Secularization of Science” is a lecture given by Herman Dooyeweerd in 1953. It offers a remarkably insightful Read more
To find a series of books that join up the dots in whole swathes of one’s previous education is a wonderful experience. That’s my experience of the writings of philosopher Marinus Dirk Stafleu, which I first discovered a year ago. His multi-volume project Philosophy of Dynamic Development flows from his career as a Christian studying physics and Read more
For anyone seeking an overview of Western philosophy from a Christian perspective, Bartholomew and Goheen’s latest book will be a welcome starting point. Written in an accessible and entertaining style, it takes us from the Pre-Socratic philosophers to the present day with illuminating commentary that reveals the authors’ wide-ranging expertise as philosopher-theologians in the tradition Read more
Richard Russell looks at the way scientific knowledge grows out of its philosophical and religious roots. What is the relation between religion (in the sense of ultimate commitments) and the academic disciplines? Frequently any positive relationship is denied. The sciences claim to have become autonomous (a law to themselves) with respect to philosophy, Read more
Where does science come from? Historically, the predecessor of what we now call the sciences was natural philosophy, which was, evidently enough, a branch of philosophy. But when we study science at school and university, it’s rare to hear much mention of any continuing dependence on philosophy. We seem to Read more
The FiSWES project began in 2015 by taking a critical look at the ecosystem services framework for nature conservation, and the ideas developed by that small Christian working group are now bearing fruit in a new context. I began a fellowship last year with a group called the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus Read more
Picking up my series on Christian philosophy in diagrams, I want to share an idea that really excites me at the moment – inspired by Andree Troost’s “What is Reformational Philosophy?”, which I’ve just finished reading. Perhaps not everyone finds diagrams as wonderful as I do, but they have a great ability to present complex ideas all Read more
Rudi Hayward completes his review of “Tracing the Lines: Spiritual Exercise and the Gesture of Christian Scholarship” by Robert Sweetman (Wipf & Stock 2016). The first part of this review ended with the paradox that either Christian scholarship is understood as so integrally Christian as to endanger the sense in which the Christian and non-Christian are engaged Read more