Science and Religion in Western Literature: Critical and Theological Studies

188 Pages·2022·9.989 MB·English

by  Michael Fuller

Science and Religion in Western
Literature
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.
Michael Fuller is a Lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of
Edinburgh, UK.
Routledge Science and Religion Series
Series editors:
Michael S. Burdett, University of Nottingham, UK
Mark Harris, University of Edinburgh, UK
Science and religion have often been thought to be at loggerheads but much
contemporary work in this flourishing interdisciplinary field suggests this
is far from the case. The Science and Religion Series presents exciting new
work to advance interdisciplinary study, research and debate across key
themes in science and religion. Contemporary issues in philosophy and
theology are debated, as are prevailing cultural assumptions. The series
enables leading international authors from a range of different disciplinary
perspectives to apply the insights of the various sciences, theology, philos-
ophy, and history in order to look at the relations between the different
disciplines and the connections that can be made between them. These
accessible, stimulating new contributions to key topics across science and
religion will appeal particularly to individual academics and researchers,
graduates, postgraduates and upper-undergraduate students.
Science and Religion in India
Beyond Disenchantment
Renny Thomas
New Directions in Theology and Science
Beyond Dialogue
Edited by Peter Harrison and Paul Tyson
Emerging Voices in Science and Theology
Contributions by Young Women
Edited by Bethany Sollereder and Alister McGrath
Science and Religion in Western Literature
Critical and Theological Studies
Edited by Michael Fuller
For more information and a full list of titles in the series, please visit:
https://www.routledge.com/religion/series/ASCIREL
Science and Religion
in Western Literature
Critical and Theological Studies
Edited by
Michael Fuller
First published 2023
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Michael Fuller; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Michael Fuller to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 9781032077123 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032101644 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003213987 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003213987
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by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
List of Contributors vii
Introduction 1
MICHAEL FULLER
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’ 7
VICTORIA LORRIMAR
2 Weird Tales: The Shifting Role of Science and Religion
in Literature’s Search for Truth 25
ALISON JACK
3 ‘Heretical … Dangerous and Potentially Subversive’: The
Problem of Science and Religion in Aldous Huxley’s Brave
New World 40
MARK HARRIS
4 Radical Plurality: Science and Religion in the Writings of Karel
Čapek 57
MICHAEL FULLER
5 The Spirit of Nature in Natural Philosophy and Literature from
the Cambridge Platonists to Coleridge 76
ALISON MILBANK
6 The Wound of Knowledge: R. S. Thomas’ Cruciform Poetics of
Science and Religion 94
WILSON C. K. POON
vi Contents
7 Cosmic Consciousness: Henry James, William James, and the
Society for Psychical Research 110
MARK EATON
8 Marie Corelli’s Electric Creed: Science, Religion, and Popular
Fiction at the end of the Nineteenth Century 126
DAVID JASPER
9 Left Behind? Religion as a Vestige in ‘The Rapture of the
Nerds’ and Other AI Singularity Literature 136
BETH SINGLER
10 Can Religion Save the Planet? Looking for Hope within the
Eco-Religions of Climate Fiction 151
JAIME WRIGHT
Afterword 169
CHRISTOPHER SOUTHGATE
Index 177
List of Contributors
Mark Eaton is a Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University and a
Research Associate Professor of English at Claremont Graduate
University.
Michael Fuller is Lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of
Edinburgh and an honorary Canon of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh.
Mark Harris is Professor of Natural Science and Theology at the University
of Edinburgh.
Alison Jack is Senior Lecturer in Bible and Literature at the School of
Divinity, University of Edinburgh. She is Assistant Principal of New
College and a minister of the Church of Scotland.
David Jasper is Emeritus Professor at the University of Glasgow where
he was previously Professor of Literature and Theology. He has been
visiting professor in the USA, Australia and China. He is also a priest of
the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Victoria Lorrimar is Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Trinity College
Queensland within the Australian College of Theology.
Alison Milbank is Professor of Theology and Literature at the University
of Nottingham.
Wilson C. K. Poon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He
holds the established Chair of Natural Philosophy in the University
of Edinburgh.
Beth Singler is the Junior Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence at
Homerton College, University of Cambridge.
viii List of Contributors
Christopher Southgate trained originally as a biochemist, and subsequently
re-trained as a theologian. Since 1993 he has taught the science-religion
debate at the where he is now Professor of Christian Theodicy, University
of Exeter.
Jaime Wright is an ordained minister in the Scottish Episcopal Church and
works for Old Saint Paul’s Church in Edinburgh city centre.
Introduction
Michael Fuller
In recent years, the academic study of the interactions of science and reli-
gion has been expanding rapidly. Of primary importance in this expansion
has been the realisation that many writers in this field – often following
the pioneering lead of Ian Barbour (see, for example, Barbour 1998) – have
treated it in a rather restrictive way, seeing ‘science’ in terms of the physical
sciences and ‘religion’ in terms of Christianity (usually Western, Protestant
Christianity, to boot). There has also been an increasing realisation of the
historical contingencies that have led to the words ‘science’ and ‘religion’
carrying the resonances and nuances that they do in the Anglophone world
today, to the extent that it has even been argued that, as modern con-
structs, a conflict between them has been built into their very foundations
(Harrison 2015, 79–81).
One response to all this has been a recognition that, rather than speaking
of ‘science and religion’ as though these were monolithic entities, it is more
appropriate to think in terms of ‘sciences’ and ‘religions’. The broadening
out of the field to encompass other faith traditions in addition to Christianity
has been a welcome characteristic of the last decade or so (see Brooke and
Numbers 2011, Fuller 2021). The recognition that ‘science’ encompasses
different approaches and different methodologies has also led to a question-
ing of the ‘rules of engagement’ of science and religion, which have tended
to privilege scientific understandings of epistemology. This has led to what
has been called a ‘theological turn’ (cf. Ritchie 2017), in which theological
approaches are re-evaluated and re-appropriated in science-and-religion
discussions.
The present volume may be seen in this light as representing a further
extension of the science and theology field in a new direction, by explor-
ing how responses to themes in science and religion have been manifest in
literature. This, in turn, has happened in two ways. Sometimes novelists,
playwrights, and poets have sought to bring themes from contemporary
science into their work, to reflect upon them and the effects they are having
on our understanding of the world around us. At other times, such literary
appropriations might take the form of a ‘thought experiment’, as writers
imaginatively reflect on the consequences of questions we might frame as,
DOI: 10.4324/9781003213987-1