God's Action in Nature's World:
Essays in Honour of Robert John Russell

ISBN 0754655563
Ashgate
2006
264 pages

In 1981 Robert John Russell founded what would become the leading center of research at the interface of science and religion, the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. Throughout its twenty-five year history, CTNS under Russell's leadership has continued to guide and further the dialogue between science and theology. Russell has been an articulate spokesperson in calling for "creative mutual interaction" between the two fields.

God's Action in Nature's World brings together sixteen internationally-recognized scholars to assess Robert Russell's impact on the discipline of science and religion. Focusing on three areas of Russell's work - methodology, cosmology, and divine action in quantum physics - this book celebrates Robert John Russell's contribution to the interdisciplinary engagement between the natural sciences and theology.

Contents

Preface
Nathan Hallanger

Robert John Russell's contribution to the theology & science dialogue
Ted Peters

Part I: Creative Mutual Interaction Between Science and Theology

Relating the natural sciences to theology: levels of creative mutual interaction
William R. Stoeger, SJ

Creative mutual interaction: Robert John Russell's contribution to theology and science methodology
Nancey Murphy

'Creative mutual interaction' as manifesto, research program, and regulative ideal
Philip Clayton

'Creative mutual interaction' as an epistemic tool for interdisciplinary dialogue
J. Wentzel van Huyssteen

The sciences and the religions: some preliminary East Asian reflections on Christian theology of nature
Heup Young Kim

Part II: Quantum Physics and Divine Action

Atoms may be small, but they're everywhere: Robert Russell's theological engagement with the quantum revolution
Kirk Wegter-McNelly

Indeterminacy, holism and God's action
Ian G. Barbour

Basic puzzles in science and religion
Charles H. Townes

Quantum theology
John Polkinghorne

Robert John Russell's theology of God's action
Wesley J. Wildman

Part III: Cosmology and God's Action in Nature's World

Today's playing field: theology and science
George V. Coyne, SJ

Emergent realities with causal efficacy – some philosophical and theological applications
Arthur Peacocke

Non-interventionist divine action: Robert Russell, Wolfhart Pannenberg and the freedom of the (natural) world
Lou Ann Trost

How many universes?
Paul Davies

Bodies matter: a new fad and a fallacy in the name of science
Noreen Herzfeld

Published works of Robert John Russell

Index