Both Scripture and science are concerned with truth, yet the truths revealed in the Bible often seem to contradict the truths discovered by science and contemporary exegetical research. How can faithful Catholics reconcile these differences? We must begin by recognizing that Scripture and science are looking at different aspects of the same reality. Scripture considers God's revelation of the path to salvation, and science looks at the mathematical-physical intelligibility of the observable universe.
The Science, Reason, and Faith Catholic Study Bible delves into the seemingly irreconcilable differences between these pursuits and responds to modern questions about the Bible from science, history, and scriptural interpretation. Topics include:
- The existence of God
- The existence of a transphysical soul made in the image and likeness of God
- The veracity of the Bible
- The Genesis account of creation in light of the scientific view of Big Bang cosmology and evolution
- The possibility and reality of miracles in light of contemporary scientific, philosophical, and historical criticism
Scientific, historiographical, and exegetical research do not run contrary to the existence of God, the reality of the soul, and the truths of the Bible. Rather, reason and faith complement and elucidate one another. Science and reason can tell us much about how the observable world operates, but revelation alone -- seen through the eyes of faith -- can tell us why we and the world exist.
Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, SJ, PhD, is a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order and president of the Spitzer-Magis Institute of Reason and Faith (magiscenter.com). Fr. Spitzer is also the president, master of ceremonies, and speaker at the Napa Institute. He was president of Gonzaga University from 1998 to 2009. He currently hosts a weekly EWTN television program, Father Spitzer's Universe, and has made multiple media appearances, including Larry King Live (debating Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow, and Deepak Chopra on God and modern physics), the Today Show (debating on the topic of physician-assisted suicide), the History Channel in God and the Universe, and a multiple-part PBS series Closer to the Truth. He has also appeared on dozens of nationally syndicated radio programs.
His academic specialties are philosophy of science, particularly space-time theory and transcendent implications of contemporary big bang cosmology; metaphysics, particularly the theory of time and philosophy of God; and biblical apologetics concerned with science, reason, and faith. He founded five major national institutes: 1) The Spitzer-Magis Institute, 2) the Spitzer Center, 3) Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education, 4) Healing the Culture, and 5) University Faculty for Life. He is the author of fifteen books, including New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy (Eerdmans, 2010), for which he won the Catholic Press Association's Award for best book in faith and science.
