Science and the Sacred: Beyond the Gods in Our Image

In this beautifully written book, an atheist and a theist explore the intersection points of science and the Sacred. Honestly acknowledging their differences, they discover unexpected common ground across every branch of science and many of the most urgent ethical and spiritual questions humanity now faces. While science may be incompatible with some ancient beliefs about God, the authors show why it is fully compatible with belief in an all-pervading divine presence. Indeed, we will only be able to steer our way safely through the complexities of the modern world when we draw on the best of scientific knowledge as well as the deepest insights of the world’s spiritual traditions past and present.
This unique exploration by a theologian and a well-known science journalist offers a highly accessible overview of the most complex issues arising at the intersection of science, belief, and hope. The two authors dive into debates normally deemed too sensitive to discuss, identifying common sense ways that science and human values can guide each other. Their emerging friendship and their new insights offer a pathway toward a world no longer plagued by religiously motivated violence and environmental crisis.

C.S. Pearce is a writer whose work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and newspapers across the country. Her book This We Believe: The Christian Case for Gay Civil Rights was a finalist for the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Awards.

Philip Clayton is Ingraham Professor at Claremont School of Theology and president of the environmental organization EcoCiv.org. He has written or edited twenty-five books on science, the world's religions, and ecology.


Philip Clayton is the Ingraham Professor of Theology at Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA.