Science and Religion in Western Literature: Critical and Theological Studies

Description

This book explores ways in which Western literature has engaged with themes found within the field of science and religion, both historically and in the present day. It focuses on works of the imagination as important locations at which human arguments, hopes and fears may be played out. The chapters examine a variety of instances where scientific and religious ideas are engaged by novelists, poets and dramatists, casting new light upon those ideas and suggesting constructive ways in which science and religion may interact. The contributors cover a rich variety of authors, including Mary Shelley, Aldous Huxley, R. S. Thomas, Philip Pullman and Margaret Atwood. Together they form a fascinating set of reflections on some of the significant issues encountered within the discourse of science and religion, indicating ways in which the insights of creative artists can make a valuable and important contribution to that discourse. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Contributors Introduction 1. Science and Religion Themes in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust: Sin and Evolution, Panpsychism, and the Dangers of ‘Single Vision’ 2. Weird Tales: The Shifting Role of Science and Religion in Literature’s Search for Truth 3. ‘Heretical … Dangerous and Potentially Subversive’: The Problem of Science and Religion in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World 4. Radical Plurality: Science and Religion in the Writings of Karel Čapek 5. The Spirit of Nature in Natural Philosophy and Literature from the Cambridge Platonists to Coleridge 6. The Wound of Knowledge: R. S. Thomas’ Cruciform Poetics of Science and Religion 7. Cosmic Consciousness: Henry James, William James, and the Society for Psychical Research 8. Marie Corelli’s Electric Creed: Science, Religion, and Popular Fiction at the end of the Nineteenth Century 9. Left Behind? Religion as a Vestige in ‘The Rapture of the Nerds’ and Other AI Singularity Literature 10. Can Religion Save the Planet? Looking for Hope within the Eco-Religions of Climate Fiction Afterword Index