内容简介

The conflict between science and religion seems indelible, even eternal. Surely two such divergent views of the universe have always been in fierce opposition? Actually, that’s not the case, says Peter Harrison: our very concepts of science and religion are relatively recent, emerging only in the past three hundred years, and it is those very categories, rather than their underlying concepts, that constrain our understanding of how the formal study of nature relates to the religious life.

In The Territories of Science and Religion, Harrison dismantles what we think we know about the two categories, then puts it all back together again in a provocative, productive new way. By tracing the history of these concepts for the first time in parallel, he illuminates alternative boundaries and little-known relations between them—thereby making it possible for us to learn from their true history, and see other possible ways that scientific study and the religious life might relate to, influence, and mutually enrich each other.

A tour de force by a distinguished scholar working at the height of his powers, The Territories of Science and Religion promises to forever alter the way we think about these fundamental pillars of human life and experience.

作品目录

作者简介

Peter Harrison is a former Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford and is presently Research Professor and Director of the Centre for the History of European Discourses at the University of Queensland. He was the 2011 Gifford Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and holds a Senior Research Fellowship in the Ian Ramsey Centre at Oxford.

精彩摘录

在教父时代和中世纪，自然之书的观念以及如何读这本‘书’的问题与诠释另一本书《圣经》的理论密切相关。一些教父遵循奥利金的做法，提出了圣经诠释的三重和四重方案。最常见的中世纪分类区分了《圣经》的四种意义：字面的或历史的、道德的（tropological）、神秘的（anagogical）和寓意的（allegorical）。字面意义多多少少是毋需解释的；道德意义是指对文本的道德运用，即如何将它付诸实践；神秘意义是指《圣经》的应许和天堂的预示，即所希望的东西；最后，寓意意义是把基督置于历史的中心。最早使用这一方案的人之一约翰·卡西安（JohnCassian）给出了一个实际的例子，他解释了“耶路撒冷”的不同含义。《圣经》对这个地方的附注会说，“耶路撒冷”在字面意义上是犹太人的城市；在道德意义上是人的灵魂；在神秘意义上是神的天国；在寓意意义上是基督的教会。

——引自章节：第三章象征和原因

由此可见，如果不加批判地把现代范畴运用于过去的活动，我们便会扭曲过去．因为从事这些活动的人是以完全不同的方式来理解它们的。我们还可以说，无论对当代的“科学宗教”关系作何种解释(也就是说，无沦是作正面解释还是负面解释)．这种关系在很大程度上都取决于使学科边界得以起源和发展的历史条件。

——引自章节：科学与宗教的领地