NEW BOOK ‘SCIENCE, RELIGION AND THE HUMAN FUTURE’

Researchers from ECLAS have published a new book out today, Friday 16 January.

Science, Religion and the Human Future: Conflict, Collusion and Consequences looks at the relationship between science and religion over time, covering the political origins of the conflict myth and its negative impact on science communication. It also describes how ECLAS is approaching the question of science-engaged theology in different contexts around the world.

The authors are Amanda Rees, Franziska Kohlt, Tom McLeish, Charlotte Sleigh, and David Wilkinson.

Amanda leads a research strand at ECLAS which investigates public narratives about science and faith, to which Charlotte, a professor in Science and Technology Studies at UCL, also contributes. Franziska Kohlt was a post-doctoral research associate with ECLAS from 2020-23, during which time she carried out research on narratives surrounding Covid-19. David Wilkinson and the late Tom McLeish co-founded ECLAS; their studies of, respectively, astronomy, theology and popular culture, and the ordered universe, are represented in this book.

Amanda said: “If we want to understand the possibilities for life on this planet, then we must be attentive to how futures can be collectively built between different groups of people, and between people and the more-than-human world. Doing this work is at the heart of the ECLAS project.

“Our approach is based on the knowledge that liveable futures will be created through shared practices of imagination and compassion based on the knowledge that ‘fact’ (science) and ‘value’ (faith) are not separate domains but occupy the same terrain: boundless human curiosity about the world. This book shows what happens to science communication when they are held in isolation from each other.”

The book is published by OUP and is available here.