Wisdom or Knowledge?: Science, Theology and Cultural Dynamics

The book will consider science and the nature of knowledge. Is scientific knowledge wisdom, or is it more limited - effective, useful, applicable, but not what we mean by wisdom? And is the wisdom of ages past embodied in the great religious traditions still wisdom for our time, as we have to face new challenges, opportunities and responsibilities? To what extent are science and theology determined by their cultural setting? To what extent do they influence the development of culture? Thus, the reader herself or himself will be encouraged to 'drink' from the streams of wisdom and knowledge which will be investigated in the book in order to think anew about the rather simple separation between two cultures which has prevailed for a rather long time in scientific, theological and cultural thinking.

Willem B. Drees is professor of philosophy of religion and ethics at Leiden University, the Netherlands, President of ESSSAT, and author of Religion, Science and Naturalism (Cambridge UP, 1996), and Creation: From Nothing until Now (Routledge, 2001).

Zbigniew Liana is Lecturer of Philosophy of Science, Pontifical Academy of Theology.

Hubert Meisinger, Ph.D., is director for environmental affairs at the Center Social Responsibility in Mainz, associate director of studies for science and theology at the Protestant Academy Arnoldshain, associate lecturer in Systematic Theology at Darmstadt University of Technology and Vice-President of ESSSAT. He wrote a study on theological and sociobiological views of altruism: Liebesgebot und Altruismusforschung (Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht, 1996) and co-edited Physik, Kosmologie und Spiritualität (Lang, 2006).