Science and Religion. A Historical Introduction

Gary B. Ferngren, ed., Science and Religion. A Historical Introduction. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. xiv+401 pp.

This collection of articles is a "by-product" (to use the perfectly appropriate industrial term) of The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland, 2000), also edited by Gary B. Ferngren. Of the latter's 103 articles, 27 are reproduced here unaltered, two are expanded versions, and one is new. The title arouses great expectations for a synthesis of, or at least a comprehensive introduction to, the subject of the complex relationships between science and religion. The two short introductory essays seem quite unsatisfactory to me. Most of...