What is the biggest problem facing religion in the world today? Each of us would undoubtedly have a different answer. Some of us would highlight the need for helping to solve some of the world's overriding problems of hunger, disease, exploitation, militarism and terror, and many others that could be named. Others would focus on the need for deepening personal spiritual and ethical values, rather than on social issues.
However, I would suggest that whatever one's orientation about the social versus personal dimensions of religion, the most important problem for modern religion is relevance. If religion is not made relevant to modern people, it can not meet our human needs, whether those needs be personal or social. Such religion would be a sterile enterprise, bearing no fruit in our complicated world.
Undoubtedly the biggest intellectual barrier to making religion relevant to a secular world hinges on the "conflict between science and religion". We have almost reached the point at which secular society does not understand or accomodate spiritual experience in life. That may be one of the most significant factors fueling a resurgence of fundamentalism in all of the monotheistic religions, but fundamentalistic rigidity can only make the problem worse.
Religion Confronting Science seeks to show that spiritual experience can be harmonized with scientific knowledge, and enriched by the process. The hope has been to make readily available to religious people -- the people in the pews -- some of the major concepts from science, concepts which must necessarily reshape the way we look at our world. It would also be very gratifying if the book is also of value to people "not in the pews", who are seeking a satisfactory spiritual expression that is relevant to modern intellectual life.
Why should such a work be written by a practicing physician rather than a research scientist or a theologian? The practice of medicine gives a rare privilege to see the interaction of scientific theory and human nature, and has been, for me, a powerful catalyst for seeking a workable synthesis. Indeed, my own intellectual and spiritual history has been energized by the tension between science and religion.
Even though my approach might raise some orthodox eyebrows, I consider my religious stream of thought to flow with the mainstream of Christian tradition. However, truth is generic. I hope that these essays will also hold much meaning for people of other religious faiths, and might help us find the common ground at which our goals and understandings of spiritual experience merge.
Since the essays were originally developed for a seminar, they are short and direct in style, and informational rather than technical or scholarly. It is an approach that seeks to show "the picture" rather than "brush strokes". I did not want to burden the text with footnotes, but I did want to develop some ideas in more detail than could be accomodated in the main body of an essay. Therefore, the Notes section contains more than just notes. It is a hodgepodge of additional explanatory material, quotations, bibliographic references, and opinions, but it is also a guidebook for further exploration. Some readers might well prefer to ignore them entirely, but I hope many will find the notes a valuable supplement, to be read after finishing the main body of essays.
The seminar on which these essays are based was held at Christ Church, Greenville SC in the fall of 1990. I very much appreciate the clergy and staff at Christ Church for their cooperation and support, especially Fr. Dennis Maynard and Fr. Stephen Williams. They and I value our Episcopal Church tradition of open inquiry. However, I do want to stress that the theological formulations presented here are personal ones. It would be unfair of those who might disagree to blame the parish or diocese for them.
There are many others who deserve thanks for help. First, the probing questions of enthusiastic seminar participants led to expanding the original material. Conversations with Sandy Brooks, Tom Faulkner, and Eric Dudley encouraged me to persist in turning the project into a book. The thoughtful manuscript critiques by Dr. Joseph J. Nannarello and The Reverend Dr. David F. McNeeley are especially valued, as are my wife's helpful suggestions on a number of details, and the special assistance of Pat Shufelt and Howard Pitts. It also seems appropriate here to thank Major Lee, the biology teacher in my (public!) high school who suggested to the class, more or less casually, that there is no necessary conflict between belief in evolution and divine creation.
Most of all, I thank my parents for making possible my further liberal arts and medical education, and for the grounding in spiritual realities which has sustained me through the intellectual and personal challenges that are inherent in being human, particularly in the late twentieth century. It is to them, in love and gratitude, that I dedicate this effort.
Donivan Bessinger
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