Parent page: Call for Papers - T. F. Torrance and the Natural Sciences
Call for Papers for the Participatio issue: “T. F. Torrance and the Natural Sciences in Historical Context”
Workshop organizers and proceedings editors: Kerry Magruder and Brent Purkaple. Direct inquiries here.
Submit title and abstract here.
Papers for this track might examine any of the following topics, which are suggested as representative rather than an exhaustive list.
- Historical context for Torrance:
- Any aspect of Torrance's biography related to science and religion.
- The 20th-century historical context for Torrance's development of any of the "Torrancean Perspectives" listed on the Call For Papers page.
- How that historical context has changed since Torrance's writings.
- Torrance’s relationship with specific contemporaries in the natural sciences and/or the history or philosophy of science and religion:
- Daniel Lamont
- Norman Kemp Smith
- John Macmurray
- Michael Polanyi
- Walter Elsasser
- George Elder Davie
- Bernard Lovell
- John D. Barrow
- Fritjof Capra
- John A. Wheeler
- Ilya Prigogine
- Torrance’s interpretations of historical figures related to science and religion:
- Church fathers
- John Philoponos
- Duns Scotus
- Isaac Newton
- David Hume
- Immanuel Kant
- William Hamilton
- James Clerk Maxwell
- Albert Einstein
- Kurt Gödel
- Torrance’s interpretations of historical movements and themes related to science and religion:
- The Reformation
- Scottish Common Sense Realism
- 20th-century approaches to scientific methodology
- 20th-century approaches to science and religion
- 20th-century approaches to natural theology
- 20th-century theology of creation
- Biblical interpretation and the natural sciences
- Evangelical engagement with science revisited (or in comparative relation with ecumenical traditions)
- Torrance and the "Conflict thesis"
- Science, Religion, and Secularism (e.g., placing Torrance in dialogue with Charles Taylor, A Secular Age)
- Torrance’s interpretation of 20th-century developments in particular scientific disciplines:
- Astronomy and physics
- Biology and the life sciences
- Medicine and bioethics
- The human and social sciences
- Mathematics
- Etc.
- Torrance’s writings on science and religion in relation to institutions in which he was involved:
- The University of Edinburgh (e.g., colleagues and students in the sciences)
- New College (the University of Edinburgh School of Divinity)
- Académe Internationale des Sciences Religeuses
- Académe Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences
- The Church of Scotland
- Princeton Seminary
- Princeton Center of Theological Inquiry
- Princeton Institute for Advanced Study
- The Templeton Foundation
- The Gifford Lectures
- The Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Specific events with respect to science or science and religion which Torrance witnessed or in which he participated:
- Confirmation of relativity
- Big Bang cosmology
- Chaos theory
- Anthropic Principle
- Torrance's publications:
- Reception history of Torrance's publications on science (in academic, popular, ecclesiastical, or non-English venues).
- Collaborators in publication efforts such as the two book series Theology and Scientific Culture and Theology and Science at the Frontiers of Knowledge.
- The 20th-century historical context for specific publications of Torrance related to science and religion:
- Theological Science
- Divine and Contingent Order
- Ground and Grammar of Theology
- Space, Time and Resurrection
- Etc., as listed on the Call for Papers.
- Essay review on the state of discussion of "T. F. Torrance and the Natural Sciences in Historical Context," strengths and weaknesses of current interpretations, opportunities and challenges for further research.
- See also the list of topics for “T. F. Torrance and the Natural Sciences in Ongoing Dialogue"
Book Reviews
Reviews of significant books for placing Torrance in historical context are invited. We ask reviewers to consider in their reviews specific aspects of Torrance's biography or publications that are considered in a book, if any; or, conversely, how consideration of Torrance might have thrown light on the central arguments of the book. For this reason some books may be reviewed some years after their initial publication. Some examples of books that might be reviewed include:
- John H. Brooke, Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, Canto Classics 2014; original ed. 1991)
- John H. Brooke and Geoffrey Cantor, Reconstructing Nature: The Engagement of Science & Religion (Oxford University Press, 2000)
- Thomas Dixon, Geoffrey Cantor, and Stephen Pumfrey, Science and Religion: New Historical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
- David A. S. Fergusson and Mark W. Elliott, eds., The History of Scottish Theology, Volume III: The Long Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019); #2019-DASF-MWE-3. [Perhaps also David A. S. Fergusson and Mark W. Elliott, eds., The History of Scottish Theology, Volume II: From the Early Enlightenment to the Late Victorian Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), #2019-DASF-MWE-2; and David A. S. Fergusson and Mark W. Elliott, eds., The History of Scottish Theology, Volume I: Celtic Origins to Reformed Orthodoxy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), #2019-DASF-MWE-1.]
- Peter Harrison, The Territories of Science and Religion (University of Chicago Press, 2017)
- Peter Harrison, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
- David Hutchings and James Ungureanu, Of Popes and Unicorns: Science, Christianity, and How the Conflict Thesis Fooled the World (Oxford University Press, 2021)
- Christopher B. Kaiser, Creational Theology and the History of Physical Science: The Creationist Tradition from Basil to Bohr (Brill, 1997)
- Bernard Lightman, ed., Rethinking History, Science, and Religion: An Exploration of Conflict and the Complexity Principle (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019)
- David N. Livingstone, D. G. Hart, and Mark A. Noll, eds., Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective (Oxford University Press, 1999)
- Russell Re Manning, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology (Oxford University Press, 2013)
- Mary Jo Nye, Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science (University of Chicago Press, 2011).
- Richard Olson, Science and Religion, 1450-1900: From Copernicus to Darwin (Greenwood, 2004)
- Derrick Peterson, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of How the Conflict of Science and Christianity Was Written Into History (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2020); #2020-DP-1.
- Bruce Ritchie, T. F. Torrance in Recollection and Reappraisal (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2021); #2021-BR-1
- James Ungureanu, Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019)
- Etc.
Note on reviews: In a typical journal issue, book reviews (1) canvas books recently published (2) in the discipline or sub-field. The book review section of this workshop differs on both counts: (1) Rather than being a list of recent publications, the book review section is a curated assessment of books of enduring value that cohere with the theme of the workshop track. We encourage reviewers to consider writing an essay review which places some of the older titles in conversation with recent ones. (2) Rather than canvasing books solely within the discipline of theology or which focus upon Torrance per se, these book reviews will be exercises in theological interdisciplinary dialogue. For both of these reasons, the book review section of the workshop proceedings will convey a curated list of titles of enduring value for any Torrance scholar on the history of science and religion.
- 71 views