It was at the start of this year that Ruth Perry, the headteacher of a primary school in Reading, took her own life after being informed that the school she led (and attended as a child) would be downgraded by Ofsted from “outstanding” to “inadequate”. This story, tragic on many Read more…
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…
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…
‘Science’ means ‘knowledge’ according to its Latin root, and that is what the pursuit of science is popularly supposed to deliver. But a little reflection shows that scientific knowledge is of a certain kind – which is powerful but with some peculiar limitations. The diagram above attempts to illustrate from a Christian perspective what scientists are doing. It could be the Read more…
Richard Vytniorgu completes his survey of the transactional approach to science. In my previous post I explored the dynamics of the transactional view of reality and how this relates to scientific inquiry. In this post, I want to draw out some implications of the transactional view – to see transactional inquiry as Read more…
Richard Vytniorgu continues his series on the transactional view of scientific development. In my first post exploring the transactional approach to science, I explained how twentieth-century transactional philosophy developed out of dissatisfaction with a Newtonian understanding of human existence and inquiry. Human beings don’t stand apart from their environment or their inquiry; humans Read more…
Richard Vytniorgu introduces a way of thinking about scientific work by rooting it in its social context. This is the first in a series of three posts in which I introduce the transactional approach to doing science – an approach which encourages us to position scientific work within a broader matrix of beliefs Read more…
Bruno Medeiros recently completed his PhD in psychology at the University of Cambridge. Originally from Paraíba in Brazil, he is interested in the social psychology of health and community. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! …” Mark 4:2 Give ear and hear my voice; Read more…
“Help make better places” is the strap line of my department. It’s fairly good as far as strap lines go, and is reflected in the goals of many of our students. It recognises that the cities and habitats we live in at the moment are far from perfect, but does Read more…