Religion & Science

Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion

Name: Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion
Author: Barbara Brown Taylor
ISBN: 9781561011698

by Barbara Brown Taylor

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Overview

In these essays on the dialogue between science and Christian faith, Barbara Brown Taylor describes her journey as a preacher learning what the insights of quantum physics, the new biology, and chaos theory can teach a person of faith. She seeks to discover why scientists sound like poets and why physicists use the language of imagination, ambiguity, and mystery also found in scripture. In explaining why the church should care about the new insights of science, Taylor suggests ways we might close the gap between spirit and matter, between the sacred and the secular. We live in the midst of a “web of creation” where nothing is without consequence and where all things coexist, even in such a way that each of us changes the world, whether we know it or not. In this luminous web faith and science join on a single path, seeking to learn the same truths about life in the universe. “For a moment,” Taylor writes, “we see through a glass darkly. We live in the illusion that we are all separate ‘I ams.’ When the fog finally clears, we shall know there is only One.”

Synopsis

An introduction to the contemporary debate between science and religion. The author describes her journey as a preacher who is trying to learn what the insights of quantum physics, the new biology, and chaos theory can teach the believer.

About the Author, Barbara Brown Taylor

Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest. She holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College in northeastern Georgia and serves as adjunct professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. Recognized as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English language by Baylor University in 1995, Taylor has published numerous collections of her sermons and theological reflections, including Mixed Blessings, The Preaching Life, Speaking of Sin, Bread of Angels, Home By Another Way, and Gospel Medicine. Information about Barbara Brown Taylor’s speaking engagements can be found on her website: http://www.barbarabrowntaylor.com/events.htm

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Editorials

The Jamestown Cross

The book is profound in its implications and a must-read for anyone seeking to reconcile the faith they cling to with the science they encounter.

The Midwest Book Review

In explaining why the church should care about new discoveries and insights into the physical world that modern science has to offer, Taylor suggests ways that Christians might close the gap between spirit and matter, between the secular and the sacred. The Luminous Web is profoundly rewarding reading.

Beliefnet.Com

Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest whom Newsweek named as one of the country’s leading preachers, says that . . . science and religion aren’t irreconciliable. Scientists, she says, speak about mystery and enigma; they often draw on the awe-filled language of the Psalms. And religious folk care—or ought to, anyway—about new scientific findings. . . . Taylor’s fans won’t be disappointed. She offers her usual down-to-earth honesty and eloquent wordsmithing even when her subject is quarks.

Christian Library Journal

In these four short, readable essays, Taylor seeks to relate some of the insights she has gained as a Christian from the discoveries of modern science. She rejects the view that science and religion are unconnected; instead, both scientists and believers are engaged with the mystery and the wonder of the universe we inhabit.