EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Ten, Number Three March/April 2001 SCIENCE AND RELIGION Authentic Personhood needs reason and virtue It seems to me that both the exercise of reason, as so profoundly characterized by science, and the nurturing of virtue, as so compellingly demanded by religion, are irreducible components of what constitutes authentic personhood, and gets at a part of what theology means by the Image of God. Each contributes to what personhood means, and neither is sufficient without the other. I am reminded of the famous quotation by Einstein: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." In similar vein, Pope John Paul II, in a recent text, wrote: "Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish." Together I see them forming a mutual partnership that can aid us immeasurably, individually and as a society. I would even take this a step further by insisting that the practice of science is inherently guided by the requirement of virtue, and the adherence to religion demands a rigorous engagement with rationality. If this is true, science and religion are internally intertwined within the double province of reason and morality which, through the empowering and transformative grace of God, work to form human character. Excerpt from How the Heavens Have Changed, by Robert J. Russell, CTNS Bulletin 19.3/Summer 1999. Dr. Russell, a Professor of Theology and Science at the Graduate Theological Union, is Founder and Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS), Berkeley CA. Home     Table of Contents