Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP, PhD University of Dallas Second
Summer Term 2010 Description: this course will examine the
often-times tumultuous relationship between religious believers
in the West and advocates of the empirical scientific method. We
will focus particularly on the various philosophical/rhetorical
strategies that have been used to help believers and scientists
cooperate in the common pursuit of verisimilitudinous truth.
Fundamental to our discussion is the ancient notion that faith
and reason are not only not incompatible but perfectly suited,
in virtue of their common origin, to serve as complementary
workers in the task of investigating, describing, and explaining
the “One World” of creation. Week One: What is religion? What is
science? Religion: revealed relationship with divinity
(theological) Science: discovery and explanation of materiality
(scientific) Limits of revelation and reason Week Two: Conflict,
cooperation, or mutual ignorance? History of the relationship
between religion and scie