Science and religion are two major forces shaping our world. How do they relate to each other? Some people think of science and religion as separate domains, of reason versus faith, facts versus values, or an emphasis on the material versus the spiritual world. Others think of science and religion as overlapping domains, marked either by warfare arising from conflicting claims, or harmony arising from similar claims. Whether separate or overlapping, one important and often neglected similarity is the human face of science and religion: both operate in, yet seek to reach beyond, specific historical, political, ideological, and psychological contexts defining the human experience. How may we understand science and religion as arising from, yet somehow transcending, the human experience?

Science, Religion, and the Human Experience features the perspectives of a distinguished and diverse group of scholars. Their essays proceed from the fundamental, though often neglected, point of departure that both science and religion are, in important respects, inextricably human endeavors. Yet this is not all there is to science and religion. The essays explore implications for scientific knowledge, religious meaning, and the relationship between the two. Each essay has the flavor of a scholarly yet personal reflection on the paradox of how science and religion are enmeshed in the human experience.

Click here for an introductory overview to the volume, and here for a listing of the book on Amazon.com. Contributors, all of whom participated in UC Santa Barbara's three-year distinguished lecture series, include:

• Pascal Boyer, Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory, Washington University in St. Louis, and author of The naturalness of religious ideas (California, 1994) and Religion explained (Basic Books, 2001).
• John Hedley Brooke, Oxford University historian of religion and science, and author of Science and religion: Some historical perspectives (Cambridge, 1991) and Reconstructing nature: The engagement of science and religion (Oxford, 1998)
• Thomas Carlson, professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, and author of Indiscretion: Finitude and the naming of God (Chicago, 1999), as well as numerous translations of French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
• Anne Harrington, historian of science at Harvard University, and author of Medicine, mind and the double brain (Princeton, 1987) and Reenchanted science: Holism and German culture from Wilhelm II to Hitler (Princeton, 1997).
• Bruno Latour, sociologist of science at Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation, École des Mines de Paris, and author of We have never been modern (Harvard, 1993) and Pandora's hope: Essays on the reality of science studies (Harvard, 1999).
• Daniel Matt, scholar of Jewish mysticism and author of The essential Kabbalah (HarperSanFrancisco, 1995) and God and the Big Bang (Jewish Lights, 1996).
• Ronald Numbers, University of Wisconsin historian of American science and religion, and author of The creationists (UC Press, 1993) and Darwinism comes to America (Harvard, 1998).
• Harold Oliver, professor emeritus of theology, Boston University, and author of A relational metaphysic (M. Nijhoff Publishers, 1981)
• James Proctor, professor of geography at UC Santa Barbara, director of the Science, Religion, and the Human Experience lecture series, and editor of Geography and Ethics: Journeys in a Moral Terrain (Routledge, 1999).
• Hilary Putnam, professor emeritus of philosophy, Harvard University, and author of Reason, truth, and history (Cambridge, 1981) and Realism with a human face (Harvard, 1990).
• Michael Ruse, philosopher of science, Florida State University, and author of Mystery of mysteries: Is evolution a social construction? (Harvard, 1999) and Can a Darwinian be a Christian? The relationship between science and religion (Cambridge, 2000).
• Jeffrey Burton Russell, professor emeritus of history at UC Santa Barbara, and author of seventeen books, including The devil: Perceptions of evil from antiquity to primitive Christianity (Cornell, 1987) and A history of heaven (Princeton, 1998).
• Evan Thompson, philosopher of mind, York University, and author of The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience (MIT, 1993) and Colour vision: A study in cognitive science and the philosophy of perception (Routledge, 1995).
• Alan Wallace, former professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara and author of Choosing reality: A Buddhist view of physics and the mind (Snow Lion, 1996), and The taboo of subjectivity: Toward a new science of consciousness (Oxford, 2001).