FROM DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM: ANDREW D. WHITE AND THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM

Historians of science and religion have given little attention to how historical‐critical scholarship influenced perceptions of the relationship between science and religion in the nineteenth century. However, the so‐called “cofounders” of the “conflict thesis,” the idea that science and religion are fundamentally and irrevocable at odds, were greatly affected by this literature. Indeed, in his two‐volume magnum opus, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896), Andrew D. White, in his longest and final chapter of his masterpiece, traced the development of the “scientific interpretation” of the Bible. In this article, I argue that developments in biblical criticism had a direct impact on how White constructed his historical understanding of the relationship between science and religion. By examining more carefully how biblical criticism played a significant role in the thought of White and other alleged cofounders of the conflict thesis, this article hopes to relocate the origins, development, and meaning of the science–religion debate at the end of the nineteenth century.     

"For God and for the Crown": Contemporary Political and Social Attitudes among Orange Order Members in Northern Ireland

The Protestant Orange Order is the largest organization in civil society in Northern Ireland. From 1905 until 2005, the Order was linked to the Ulster Unionist Party, until recently the dominant local political force. However, widespread Unionist disenchantment with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement led to a shift in the votes of Orange Order members, in common with other Protestants, to the anti-Agreement Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which traditionally has had no links to the Order. This article examines the political, religious, and cultural attitudes of Orange Order members that prompted such a switch. It suggests that a combination of cultural and political insecurities over the fate of Protestant-British-Unionism has led to a realignment of Orangeism towards the stronger brand of Protestant and Unionist politics offered by the DUP.     

Christian Engagement with Public Bioethics in Britain: The Case of Human Admixed Embryos

This paper offers an assessment of the prospects for Christianengagement with public bioethical debates in a contemporaryBritish context. One recent example, the debate provoked byproposed legislation for research involving human admixed embryos,is examined briefly. It is argued that this debate has someproblematic features that are characteristic of public ethicaldebates in this context. Next, a proposal is offered as to howsuch bioethical questions may be approached from within a Christiantheological tradition (specifically, a Reformed Protestant tradition).This proposed approach makes use of four "diagnostic questions"to assess whether technological proposals and practices suchas the creation of human admixed embryos can be consistent withthe distinctive Christian narrative of creation, sin, salvationthrough Christ, and promised future hope. The final sectionoffers some reflections on how Christians and churches mightengage, on the basis of this theological approach, with publicethical debates such as the one about admixed embryos.     

God's Country?

Abstract : Religion has always been a major force in U.S. politics, but the recent surge in the number and the power of evangelicals is recasting the country's political scene—with dramatic implications for foreign policy. This should not be cause for panic: evangelicals are passionately devoted to justice and improving the world, and eager to reach out across sectarian lines.     

The World in Theology

This article focuses on the activity of French Protestant theologian Georges Casalis as a co‐editor of the French journal Christianisme social (Social Christianity) in the turbulent period between 1965 and 1970. The journal reflected the conflicts of the times on issues such as relations with Eastern Europe, Christian–Marxist dialogue, the new impulses coming from revolutionary movements of the South, and the events of May 1968.     

Petro-theology: Critical engagement with theologies of energy and extraction

This essay serves as a more extended introduction to many of the themes, concerns, and aims of this issue. Along these lines, key terms and discourses like extractivism, energy humanities, and petroculture studies are introduced. The essay elaborates two key claims: energy has been theological (and not just techno-scientific) and analysis of current energy concerns (including climate change) need to be theorized and addressed in relation to land. These claims call for approaches to an energy-driven climate crisis that attend to theo-philosophical assumptions of energy and extraction and point to the significance of energy humanities approaches. Engagement with energy and extractivism humanities leads to a call for further attention to three different areas within Christian energy ethics and Religion & Environmentalism scholarship: (1) an approach to Christian energy ethics that better accounts for the theo-philosophical gendered, racialized, and colonial implications of energy concepts, (2) closer attention to mineralogies and geologies among ecotheologians and 3) critical assessment of convergences of creation and redemption theologies for extractive aims.     

The protestant secular in the study of American religion: reappraisal and suggestions

This article provides a theoretical and historiographical overview of secularism in the study of American religion. It focuses on how scholars have used the concept of the ‘Protestant secular’ in works on law, politics, and culture. Although it has been useful, we argue that this concept has lost some of its analytical utility in the effort to explain secularism predominantly in terms of its Protestant nature. In turn, this article looks to literature on secularism globally in order to suggest ways forward. Refocusing on secularism as a strategy of state governance ought to bring precision to both ‘Protestantism’ and ‘the secular,’ as well as shift attention toward state power and the high stakes of classification. An analysis of this strategy requires investigation into how states produce and police the category ‘religion’ and its neighboring concepts – for example, the ‘secular’ and the ‘superstitious’ – in order to render, manage, and colonize various populations.     

Protestantism and Mysticism from the Perspective of Neuroscience

Abstract

Protestantism has always been suspicious about a mystical encounter with the Divine. Although the early Luther was influenced by mystical writers like Johannes Tauler the subsequent dogmatic evaluation of mystical forms of religiosity remained ambiguous. Nevertheless the real nature of mystical experience is still unclear and therefore the dogmatic judgments about mystical encounters with the Divine are based on unsound arguments like self-salvation. In this article we want to show that modern neuroscience can help to understand the nature of mystical experiences better and based on this we come to a new dogmatic appreciation of mysticism.