From Galileo to Richard Dawkins, from Einstein to Stephen Hawking, THE FAITH OF SCIENTISTS illuminates the spiritual beliefs of scientists—in their own words.
Edited by Nancy K. Frankenberry
THE FAITH OF SCIENTISTS : In Their Own Words, edited by Nancy Frankenberry, is an anthology of writings by twenty-one legendary scientists, from the dawn of the Scientific Revolution to the frontiers of science today, about their faith, their views about God, and the place religion holds—or doesn’t—in their lives in light of their commitment to science. This is the first book to bring together so many world-renowned figures of Western science and present them in their own words, offering an intimate window into their private and public reflections on science and faith.
Leading religion scholar Frankenberry draws from diaries, personal letters, speeches, essays, and interviews, and reveals that the faith of scientists can take many different forms, whether religious or secular, supernatural or naturalistic, conventional or unorthodox. These eloquent writings reflect a spectrum of views from diverse areas of scientific inquiry. Represented here are some of the most influential and colossal personalities in the history of science, from the founders of science such as Galileo, Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein, to modern-day scientists like Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Jane Goodall, Freeman Dyson, Stephen Hawking, Edward O. Wilson, and Ursula Goodenough. Frankenberry provides a general introduction as well as concise introductions to each chapter that place these writings in context and suggest further reading from the latest scholarship.
As surprising as it is illuminating and inspiring, THE FAITH OF SCIENTISTS is indispensable for students, scholars, and anyone seeking to immerse themselves in important questions about God, the universe, and science.
“Nancy Frankenberry writes lucidly on the long interplay between scientific and religious ideas. With the eye of a professional philosopher of religion she has selected a fascinating parade of scientists and has illuminated their views on religion with particularly perceptive analyses.”
— Owen Gingerich, author of God’s Universe
Nancy K. Frankenberry is the John Phillips Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College. Her books include Radical Interpretation in Religion and Religion and Radical Empiricism.
Observatoire Des Religions
