New Maps for Old: Explorations in Science and Religion

Description

This collection of eleven essays, written jointly by the authors, argues that science and religion should be seen as mutually enriching worldviews with no need of reconciliation. The essays are organised in three parts, which deal with the definition and development of the concept of metaphoric process and its implications for illuminating what it means to understand something, the exploration of the so-called bidisciplinary dialogue, and the differences and similarities between studying science and religion respectively. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Mapping Science and Religion Together I. Metaphoric Process: Reforming Worlds of Meaning in Theology and Natural Science 1. The Role of Metaphoric Process in the Development of Cognitive Complexity 1. Metaphors, Analogies, and Cognition 2. Fields and Worlds of Meaning, Cognition, Knowing vs. Understanding 3. Distortion, Complexity, and Simplicity 4. Grounds for Metaphoric Process 5. Formal Examples of Metaphoric Process from Geometry and Philosophy 6. Examples from Physics and Astronomy 7. Examples of Metaphoric Process from Religion and Theology 8. Summary: Thinking on a Field of Meanings 2. Modeling Metaphoric Process 1. What Is a Metaphor and How Does It Shape the Way We Think? 2. How Do New Meanings Arise from New Ways of Thinking? 3. Experiments in Metaphoric Process—An Empirical Study 4. The Interpretive Dimension 5. Some Cognitive Implications 6. Examples of Metaphoric Process in Science 7. Example of Metaphoric Process in Religion 3. Metaphoric Process as the Tectonic Reformation of Worlds of Meaning in Theology and Natural Science A. STATICS: THE TOPOGRAPHY OF WORLDS OF MEANINGS 1. Concepts and Relations: Fields/Worlds of Meanings 2. Thinking as Tracks on a Field of Meanings 3. Language Is Not the Equivalent of Thought B. DYNAMICS: COGNITIVE DISRUPTION C. EXAMPLES OF COGNITIVE DISRUPTION D.NEW UNDERSTANDINGS 4. Sublimation of the Goddess in the Deitic Metaphor of Moses A. THE COGNITIVE STRUCTURE OF METAPHOR B.THE DEITIC METAPHOR OF MOSES C.THE SUBLIMATION OF THE GODDESS 1. The El/Asherah Premetaphoric Field of Meanings 2. The Yahweh (God of the Exodus) Premetaphoric Field of Meanings 3. The Re-Emergence of the Feminine as Sacred in the Garden of the Postmetaphoric Creation Story: The Eve/Serpent/Goddess II. Bidisciplinary Dialogue and Text in Science and Religion 5. The Genre Bidisciplinary Dialogue A. GENRES BETWEEN DISCIPLINES 1. The Genre BD Dialogue as Parole De Deux 2. BD Dialogue and Related Genres B.THE CHARACTER AND FUNCTION OF BD DIALOGUE 1. Dialogue as Purposeful: A Phenomenology of Speaking 2. Alterity in Dialogue: Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Speaking C.TWO CASES OF INTERPRETATION : THE TURING TEST (NATURAL SCIENCES) AND THE HERMENEUTICAL CIRCLE (RELIGIOUS STUDIES) 1. Dialogue as Test of Intelligence (the Turing Test) 2. Challenges to the Turing Test 3. Dialogue as Hermeneutical Circle (Horizon Analysis) D.THE GOALS OF BIDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE: THE HIGHER VIEWPOINT 6. A Scientist and a Theologian See the World: Compromise or Synthesis? THE DIALOGUE EPILOGUE 7. A Generalized Conception of Text Applied to Both Scientific and Religious Objects 1. A Generalized Conception of Text 2. Application of the Criteria 3. Texts in Science and Religion III. Relating Science and Religion 8. Mathematics, Empirical Science, and Theology 1. The Relationship of Natural Science to Mathematics (B IstoC) 2. Relation of Theology to Natural Science (A Is to B) 3. Natural Science and Doctrine in Theology 4. Examples of Interaction Between Science and Theology 5. Conclusion 9. Limits of Quantum Mechanics and Cosmology as Resources for a Contemporary Theological Metaphysics—With Alternatives A. SCIENTIFIC VIEW 1. The Johnson/Bracken Debate 2. On Quantum Mechanical Uncertainty and Chance 3. On the Relative Importance of the Cosmos and the Human Being in Imago Dei B. THEOLOGICAL VIEW 1. Theological Reflections on the Johnson Proposal and Characteristics of an Adequate Metaphysics 2. On the Turn from the Analogy of Goodness for Understanding God to the Analogy of Being or Existence 10. Cog Is to Us As We Are to God 1. Foerst's March 1998 Article 2. Gerhart and Russell's June 1998 Response 3. Foerst's September 1998 Response to Our June 1998 Response 4. Conclusion 11. Myth and Public Science A. THE CONTRADICTORY VIEWS OF MYTH B. MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE C. HOLTON'S DISCOVERY 1. Private Science 2. Public Science D. MYTH 1. Brief History of Myth 2. Narrative in Myth 3. Our Understanding of Time in Myth 4. Time in Science 5. Historical Time vs. Elapsed Time or Duration 6. Narrative in Science E. IDEALIZATION IN PUBLIC SCIENCE Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects