Polarization and division are widely lamented features of both Western societies and the churches in the 21st century. Yet even across the board of our fragmented Western (sub)cultures, there remain common (and hence somewhat unifying) phenomena – for instance, the need for references to certain sources of authority, by which a given claim or agenda is supposed to be justified. This transdisciplinary study takes into focus two powerful discourses within Western societies – two academic disciplines which exercise / have exercised extensive authority (or “Deutungsmacht”) over one of the most fundamental questions these societies have wrestled with: What does it mean to be human? The presentation shows how both the life sciences and protestant theology currently seek to shape the thinking of the next generation in each given field, closing in on how any given data is construed towards a specific image, and what can be learned from the processes of such construals. It argues that images and theories of what it means to be human in both disciplines are not fully validated by their own sources and methods, but that both in the construction of the authorities coined as science or theology imaginaries (Charles Taylor) are in play. The presentation concludes that (sub)cultures play a vastly underestimated role both in the construction of scientific and theological conceptions, and that hence both references to science and/or theology must be rethought.
Bibliography
I. General
Alma, Hans, and Guido Vanheeswijck. “Introduction to Social Imaginaries in a Globalizing World.” In Social Imaginaries in a Globalizing World. Edited by H Alma and G Vanheeswijck. Vol. 5. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018.
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Cowles, Henry M. The Scientific Method. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2020.
Fuchs, Eckhardt, and Annekatrin Bock. “Introduction.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Textbook Studies. Edited by Eckhardt Fuchs and Annekatrin Bock. London: Palgrave, 2018.
Hadorn, Gertrude Hirsch, Holger Hoffmann-Riem, Susette Biber-Klemm, Walter Grossenbacher-Mansuy, Dominique Joye, Christian Pohl, Urs Wiesmann, and Elisabeth Zemp. Handbook of Transdisciplinary Research. Vol. 10. Cham: Springer, 2008.
Hansson, Sven Ove. “Science and Non-Science.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Science. Edited by Paul Humphreys. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Hansson, Sven Ove. “Science and Pseudoscience.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2021. Accessed 06.02.2022, 2022. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2021/entries/pseudo-science/.
Harrison, Peter. “The Territories of Science and Religion.” In The Territories of Science and Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.
Hüttemann, Andreas. Zur Deutungsmacht Der Biowissenschaften. Paderborn: Mentis, 2008.
Lennon, Kathleen. Imagination and the Imaginary. London: Routledge, 2015.
McGrath, Alister. Enriching Our Vision of Reality: Theology and the Natural Sciences in Dialogue. West Conshohocken: Templeton Foundation Press, 2017.
McGrath, Alister E. Natural Philosophy: On Retrieving a Lost Disciplinary Imaginary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
McGrath, Alister E. Science & Religion: A New Introduction. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2020.
McIntyre, Lee. The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience. Cambridge, Massachussetts: MIT Press, 2019.
Miedema, Frank. Open Science: The Very Idea. Dordrecht: Springer, 2022.
Psillos, Stathis. “Having Science in View: General Philosophy of Science and Its Significance.” In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Science. Edited by Paul Humphreys. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Rath, Imke. “Schulbuchforschung Als Herausforderung Für Qualitative Methoden.” In Methoden Und Theorien Der Bildungsmedien Und Bildungsforschung – Ein Werkstattbericht Von Nachwuchswissenschaftlerinnen Und‐Wissenschaftlern Des Georg‐Eckert‐Instituts. Edited by Imke Rath. Vol. 14: Georg-Eckert-Institut für Internationale Schulbuchforschung, 2017.
Taylor, Charles. Modern Social Imaginaries. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.
Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.
Taylor, Charles, Patrizia Nanz, and Madeleine Beaubien Taylor. Reconstructing Democracy: How Citizens Are Building from the Ground Up. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2020.
ten Kate, Laurens , Hans Alma, Carolina Suransky, and Ernst van den Hemel. Simagine: Social Imaginaries between Secularity and Religion in a Globalizing World. Position Paper May 2018. 2018.
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II. Based on Life Sciences Textbooks
Campbell, Neil A., Lisa A Urry, Michael Lee Cain, Steven Alexander Wasserman, Peter V Minorsky, and Jane B Reece. Biology: A Global Approach. 11th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited, 2018.
Freeman, Scott, Kim Quillin, Lizabeth Allison, Michael Black, Greg Podgorsky, Emily Taylor, and Jeff Carmichal. Biological Science. 6th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited, 2017.
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Sadava, David E., William K. Purves, David M. Hillis, H. Craig Heller, Sally D. Hacker, and Marta J. Laskowski. Life: The Science of Biology. 12th ed. London: WH Freeman, 2020.
III. Based on Protestant Theology Textbooks
Barth, Hans-Martin. Dogmatik: Evangelischer Glaube Im Kontext Der Weltreligionen. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2008.
Danz, Christian. Systematische Theologie. Tübingen: utb. basic, 2016.
Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology. Ada: Baker Academic, 1998.
Frame, John M. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief. Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2013.
Gerrish, Brian Albert. Christian Faith: Dogmatics in Outline. Louisville: Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, 2015.
Grudem, Wayne A. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2020.
Härle, Wilfried. Dogmatik. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018.
Jenson, Robert W. Systematic Theology, Volume 1: The Triune God. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Jenson, Robert W. Systematic Theology: Volume 2: The Works of God. Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Leonhardt, Rochus. Grundinformation Dogmatik: Ein Lehr-Und Arbeitsbuch Für Das Studium Der Theologie. Vol. 2214: UTB, 2022.
McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology: An Introduction. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2014.