The Clergyman-Scientist

In the expanding dialogue about science and faith, historians have sounded a note of caution. From their vantage point, any claim that either “conflict” or “harmony” can satisfactorily characterize a complex relationship flies in the face of history. Instead, historians have begun to describe diverse levels of interaction between two realms of culture or ways of understanding. The aim is not simply to confound meta-narratives of warfare or concord, nor simply to move away from broad abstractions like “science” and “religion,” but to uncover the richness of history. This richness is made particularly clear and interesting in the lives of individual scientists. ¹