Review of Second Friends: C. S. Lewis and Ronald Knox in Conversation

Review of: Milton T. Walsh, Second Friends: C. S. Lewis and Ronald Knox in Conversation (San Francisco, 2008). 360 pages. $16.95. ISBN: 9781586172404

The art of memory and the art of salvation : a study with reference to the works of Lancelot Andrewes, John Donne and T.S.Elliot.

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The re-discovery of contemplation through science : with Tom McLeish, “The Re-Discovery of Contemplation through Science: Boyle Lecture 2021”; Rowan Williams, “The Re-Discovery of Contemplation through Science: A Response to Tom McLeish”; Fraser Watts, “Discussion of the Boyle Lecture 2021”; and Tom McLeish, “Response to Boyle Lecture 2021 Panel and Participant Discussion.”

Some of the early-modern changes in the social framing of science, while often believed to be essential, are shown to be contingent. They contribute to the flawed public narrative around science today, and especially to the misconceptions around science and religion. Four are examined in detail, each of which contributes to the demise of the contemplative stance that science both requires and offers. They are: (1) a turn from an immersed subject to the pretense of a pure objectivity, (2) a turn from imagination as a legitimate pathway to knowledge, (3) a turn from shared and participative science to a restricted professionalism, and (4) an overprosaic reading of the metaphor of the “Book of Nature.” All four, but especially the imperative to consider reading nature as poetry, and a deeper examination of the entanglements between poetry and theoretical science, draw unavoidably on theological ideas, and contribute to a developing “theology of science.”

RESPONSE TO BOYLE LECTURE 2021 PANEL AND PARTICIPANT DISCUSSION : with Tom McLeish, “The Re-Discovery of Contemplation through Science: Boyle Lecture 2021”; Rowan Williams, “The Re-Discovery of Contemplation through Science: A Response to Tom McLeish”; Fraser Watts, “Discussion of the Boyle Lecture 2021”; and Tom McLeish, “Response to Boyle Lecture 2021 Panel and Participant Discussion.”

The online panel discussion following the 2021 Boyle Lecture, “The Re-discovery of Contemplation through Science” was very rich, both in terms of the topics raised by the panel members, and the extensive list of questions and suggestions posed by the online participants. Here, I record some initial thoughts in response, grouped under the following headings: Overall Rationale and Purpose, Contemplative Methodologies in Scientific Insight and Broader Practice, Science Culture and Politics, Psychological and Meditative Consequences, Natural Theology of Old and New Kinds, New Atheism, Education, Christian Practice, and Lessons from the History of Science and Technology