Worlds within Worlds: Kabbalah and the New Scientific Paradigm

Beginning with relativity and quantum theory, the deterministic view that has dominated and shaped Western culture for more than 2,500 years has begun to unravel, leading to the emergence of a new paradigm. This new paradigm effectively reformulates the project of science, conceiving of existence as an interpenetrating web of coevolving, cocreative relationships. By exploring Kabbalah and the new scientific paradigm within the context of shared evolutionary principles, I seek to demonstrate a viable alternative to the prevailing deterministic worldview. By going beyond the limits of determinism and re–visioning existence as an evolutionary, emergent phenomenon, we can establish a new basis for an authentic dialogue between science and religion.     

Judaism and the Dialogue of Religion and Science: A Personal Journey

ABSTRACT

Through a personal narrative about my own entry into the field of science and religion, the essay reflects on the interplay of religion and science in Judaism. In addition to documenting my involvement with the dialogue of religion and science, the essay provides a brief historical overview of the interplay of the relationship between science and religion in the case of Judaism and considers diverse approaches toward technoscience among the main strands of Judaism today. The essay ends by recognizing the importance of science in Jewish intellectual history and the potential contribution of Judaism to the field of religion and science.     

关于弘扬和培育民族精神的几个理论问题

弘扬和培育民族精神 ,有必要从把握一些重要的、基本的关系入手 ,加深对民族精神内涵的认识和理解 ,解决一些人们容易产生困惑的深层次问题 ,即 :宽与窄、古与今、旧与新、内与外、名与实等。     

Quantum Theory and the Resurrection of Jesus

Abstract :  Ever since the time of Hume it has been a truism that the worldview of empirical science, and Christian assertion of the resurrection of Jesus, are antithetical to each other. Yet post‐Newtonian science, and especially quantum theory, suggests the need for a reappraisal of this truism. This reappraisal will first examine the implications of the indeterminism of the quantum world, to consider the physical possibility of Jesus' resurrection. Second, an appraisal of the historical evidence will suggest the likelihood of Jesus' resurrection. Finally, I will consider some implications of all this for contemporary Christian thought.     

Mobility: Disability and Life in the Spirit

Abstract : The author employs the narrative of his own personal experience of disability as an entry to several large issues: the place of body; the challenge of mobility; the processes of medical treatment, therapy, and fitness training; the network of dependence upon family, friends, and society; and the challenge to actively avail oneself of the resources of this network. The power of the human spirit is affirmed as the prerequisite for moving the body and attaining the possibilities of one's life. This power is the work of God's Spirit. A concept of body‐spiriting is suggested. The argument is framed in two parts: (1) in the world in my own skin, and (2) living in the presence of God.     

论医学教育中医学科学精神与人文精神培养之统一

培养出医术精湛、医德高尚的全面发展的医学人才是现代医学教育的目标。现代医学的发展,要求厘清现代医学教育中医学科学精神与人文关怀精神的概念,探析现代医学教育中科学精神与人文关怀精神的矛盾冲突,适应经济与社会的发展要求,实现现代医学教育中科学精神与人文关怀精神培养的统一。     

从与"非典"的斗争中理解"科学精神"的内涵

通过分析与“非典”斗争中表现出来的科学精神,来理解其深刻而广泛的哲学内涵,它包括探索、求实、怀疑、合作、创新等精神,以及科学精神在社会生活中的重要作用和重大意义,从而动员在全社会提倡科学精神。     

转型时期的民间信仰:现状与思考

民间信仰历史悠久,在普通民众生活中有着顽强的生命力和持久广泛的影响力,具有文化传承的强大惯性。本文从民间信仰的概念、现状趋势等方面进行了一些分析,并就民间信仰研究和民间信仰事务管理工作做了一些思考,认为在新时期新阶段,对民间信仰的研究和民间信仰事务管理工作,都需要结合时代发展和社会进步的要求,进行新的探索。     

在科学与人文之间保持必要的张力--科学精神与人文精神研讨会综述

20 0 2年 8月 2 5日～ 2 8日 ,由澳门中国哲学会举办 ,中国社会科学院哲学研究所、中国人民大学哲学系、台湾辅仁大学哲学系协办的“科学精神与人文精神研讨会”在澳门召开。来自澳、港、台和内地的 50多位学者参加了会议 ,围绕科学精神与人文精神的基本内涵、科学与人文在社会发展中的地位及相互关系、中国传统中的科学精神与人文精神、以及新时代科学精神与人文精神的发展趋势等论题 ,进行了热烈、认真的研讨。一、对于科学精神与人文精神的基本内涵的界定既是讨论的基础 ,也是与会学者们探讨的重点许多学者认为 ,在长期科学活动中所形成…     

Schrödinger's Cat and Divine Action: Some Comments on the Use of Quantum Uncertainty to Allow for God's Action in the World

I present results of recent work in the field of quantum optics and relate this work to discussions about the theory of quantum mechanics and God's divine action in the world. Experiments involving atomic decay, relevant to event uncertainty in quantum mechanics, as well as experiments aimed at elucidating the so–called Schrödinger's–cat paradox, help clarify apparent ambiguities or paradoxes that I believe are at the heart of renewed attempts to locate God within our constructed physical theories and tend to narrow the gaps proposed as an opening for divine action. Some problems arise because of imprecise use of nonmathematical language to force quantum mechanics into an intuitive "classical" framework.     

Protecting God from Science and Technology: How Religious Criticisms of Biotechnologies Backfire

Many religious critics argue that biotechnology (such as cloning and genetic engineering) intrudes on God's domain, or plays God, or revolts against God. While some of these criticisms are standard complaints about human hubris, I argue that some of the recent criticism represents a "Promethean" concern, in which believers unreflectively seem to fear that science and technology are actually replicating or stealing God's special deity–defining powers. These criticisms backfire theologically, because they diminish God, portraying God as an anthropomorphic superbeing whose relevance and special nature are increasingly rivaled by human power.     

Appreciating a Scientist-Theologian: Some Remarks on the Work of John Polkinghorne

Perhaps the greatest irony about the contemporary religion-science dialogue is the fact that, despite their own strongly articulated denials, many thinkers implicitly accept the "warfare" thesis of A. D. White—that is, they agree with White that traditional theology has proved unable to engage science in fruitful conversation. More than most others, John Polkinghorne understands just how badly White misread the history of Christianity and science, and how much theology has been impoverished by its failure to challenge this core assumption of modernity.     

Sacred space: function and mission from a sociological and theological perspective

Drawing on interviews with 21 individuals who attend religious services mainly for religious holidays and rites of passage and case studies with a Christian and Missionary Alliance congregation and a Roman Catholic congregation, we offer a sociological and theological discussion of ‘sacred space’. Sociologically, we argue that sacred space is an important reason for why annual attenders attend religious services when they do, mainly because sacred space helps to centre them with some semblance of meaning and direction, transition and transformation in life. Theologically, we show that church leaders, when thinking about and creating sacred space relative to the mission of their church, give importance to individuals' religious journeys and transformation. However, they appear to give greater ascendancy to the missional belief that sacred space should facilitate horizontal relationships between humans more so than vertical relationships between humans and God.     

一与多:"宗教性"的现象学的进路、预设与时代精神

本文在勾勒出自Schleiermacher、Rudolf Otto到John Hick对宗教性探究的发展线索的基础上,揭示了这一宗教性的现象学进路的时代精神与理论预设,并进而检讨了其中的理路上的缺憾以及可能的出路。     

Theory as a Tool in the Social Scientific Study of Religion and Martin Riesebrodt's The Promise of Salvation

No single paradigm or debate currently orients the social scientific study of religion. Because of this, those engaged in the multidisciplinary study of religion find that a public conversation is often difficult. In this article and the Forum it introduces, we explore Martin Riesebrodt's recently published book, The Promise of Salvation: A Theory of Religion. Responding to the inadequacies of secularization paradigms, rational choice models, and postmodern criticism, Riesebrodt proposes an approach that ideal‐typically reconstructs the subjective meanings of institutionalized religious practices (liturgies). These subjective meanings center on the prevention and management of crises—social, natural, and bodily—through appeal and access to superhuman powers. This pragmatic emphasis on the superhuman defines religion as a distinct sphere of social action transhistorically and transculturally. Riesebrodt's theory creates new analytical possibilities, especially for understanding the modern resurgence of religion under conditions of secularization.     

Conflict and Compatibility: Some Thoughts on the Relationship between Science and Religion

Scholarly studies of the science and religion question tend to take their cue from the subjective attitudes of individual writers. A potentially more useful approach focuses instead on the logical relationship between scientific and religious statements. Such a strategy generates two main types: a compatibilist model concerned only to show that religious and scientific claims are mutually consistent and an integrationist model that posits a strong correlation between theological and scientific language. Investigation of the two models' strengths and weaknesses suggests that a compatibilist approach is more consistent with the way in which Christian language is deployed on the ground.     

先秦儒家伦理精粹与中华民族精神

本文认为先秦儒家伦理精粹在中华民族精神的形成发展过程中发挥了骨干作用。并从其崇仁重义、尚礼贵诚、重智尚勇、贵和执中、与其倡导的自强厚德、爱国奉献、治世理想、内圣外王以及其思想特征等方面加以论述。     

Religion and Science in Taiwan: Rethinking the Connection

The author draws upon his experience in teaching courses in religion and science in Taiwan, as well as more traditional sources in the history of Chinese religions and the history of science in China, to discuss the relationship of religion and science in contemporary Taiwan. Various aspects of Chinese and Taiwanese understandings of both science and religion are discussed. It is suggested that the nexus for the science-religion dialogue does not lie in a doctrine of creation, which is noticeably absent in Buddhism and most Chinese religions, but rather in the human person who seeks personal health and wholeness, right relations with fellow human beings, and harmony with the cosmos. The author notes that many of these ideas are not unique to China and Taiwan and that in considering other cultures, our understanding of our own culture is enriched.     

现代医学科学和人文精神的统一与临床医生综合素质的培养

运用医学哲学的原理,分析了现代医学模式存在的弊端,阐述了现代医学精神是科学和人文精神的统一,结合临床医生综合素质的培养,指出了现代医学科学和人文精神统一的重要性.