Theology, Imagination and the Arts
Eric Priest, FRS, is Emeritus Professor in the Mathematics Department in St Andrews, where he researches on theoretical solar physics at the junction between mathematics, physics and astronomy. He has produced 470 refereed research papers and written or edited 20 books, including “Reason and Wonder: Why Science and Faith Need Each Other” SPCK (2016). In the area of Science and Religion, he is on the Board of Trustees of the John Templeton Foundation, the Board of the Faraday Institute and the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Doctrine Committee. Since 2007 he has also helped run the James Gregory Public Lectures on Science and Religion in St Andrews.
Four models about the relation between science and religion have been proposed (Barbour, 1997): Conflict; Independence; Dialogue; and Integration (Fig. 1). The conflict model…