Description
Book SynopsisThis book offers a new direction for scholarship on science and religion that centers social, political, and ecological concerns. Featuring a diverse array of contributors, it draws on three vital schools of thought: critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and postcolonial theory.
Trade ReviewCritical Approaches to Science and Religion is a marvelous advance of interdisciplinary scholarship that charts foundational themes for interpreting the cultural dimensions of science and religion. The authors elucidate epistemological tensions and methodological resonances to inform future scholarship. This is essential reading for scholars across multiple disciplines. -- Sylvester A. Johnson, coeditor of
Religion and US Empire: Critical New HistoriesI will return repeatedly to this volume to think with these diverse authors. Their disciplinary languages are not mine although they attentively converse with my discipline of Critical Indigenous Studies, among others. I am eager for vital conversations that I and others will have with these ideas that feed my radical hope for the implosion of the white and settler supremacist worldview. In order to live better with one another in
this world, we need this conversation. -- Kim TallBear, author of
Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic ScienceWith its inclusion of vital perspectives from critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and postcolonial and Indigenous studies, this volume transforms the conversation about religion and science by making issues of difference central to these discussions. These essays are invaluable. -- Randall Styers, author of
Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern WorldA joyful intellectual exercise. I highly recommend this book. You likely won’t agree with all of it—perhaps even none of it. But you will nevertheless be changed by the experience of reading it. * Reviews in Science, Religion, and Theology *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction, by Myrna Perez Sheldon, Terence Keel, and Ahmed Ragab
Part I. ValuesIntroduction, by Terence Keel, Ahmed Ragab, and Myrna Perez Sheldon
1. Scripture of False Smiles: Scholarship and Lying with Erving Goffman, by Kathryn Lofton
2. Nihilism, Race, and the Critical Study of Science and Religion, by Terence Keel
3. A Feminist Theology of Abortion, by Myrna Perez Sheldon
4. Can Originalism Save Bioethics?, by Osagie K. Obasogie
Part II. BoundariesIntroduction, by Myrna Perez Sheldon, Terence Keel, and Ahmed Ragab
5. Spiriting the Johnstons: Producing Science and Religion Under Settler Colonial Rule, by Tisa Wenger
6. Dark Gods in the Age of Light: The Lightbulb, the Japanese Deification of Thomas Edison, and the Entangled Constructions of Religion and Science, by Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm
7. Questioning the Sacred Cow: Science, Religion, and Race in the United States and India, by Cassie Adcock
8. “And God Knows Best”: Knowledge, Expertise, and Trust in the Postcolonial Web-Sphere, by Ahmed Ragab
Part III. NarrativesIntroduction, by Ahmed Ragab, Terence Keel, and Myrna Perez Sheldon
9. Secular Grace in the Age of Environmentalism, by Erika Lorraine Milam
10. Performing Polygenism: Science, Religion, and Race in the Enlightenment, by Suman Seth
11. Out of Africa: Where Faith, Race, and Science Collide, by Joseph Graves Jr.
Part IV. CoherenceIntroduction, by Ahmed Ragab, Terence Keel, and Myrna Perez Sheldon
12. Kānaka Maoli Voyaging Technology and Geography Beyond Colonial Difference, by Eli Nelson
13. Speculation Is Not a Metaphor: More than Varieties of Cryobiological Experience, by Joanna Radin
14. Maroon Science: Knowledge, Secrecy, and Crime in Jamaica, by Katharine Gerbner
15. Obeah Simplified? Scientism, Magic, and the Problem of Universals, by J. Brent Crosson
Conclusion, by Myrna Perez Sheldon, Terence Keel, and Ahmed Ragab
Index
