The Evolution of Rationality

How can science and religion move together toward a collegial future? J. Wentzel van Huyssteen has spent decades developing an interdisciplinary platform for the fruitful engagement of science and religion. Compiled to celebrate van Huyssteen's 65th birthday, The Evolution of Rationality gathers a stellar roster of scholars in van Huyssteen's main areas of philosophy, science, and theology. The contributors -- some of them Gifford lecturers and Templeton Prize winners -- offer significant new methodological and material proposals, giving evidence of van Huyssteen's impact on the shape and texture of interdisciplinary conversation itself. Their essays are arranged in three parts: modern and postmodern philosophical challenges to our understanding of rationality, scientific, evolutionary perspectives on the nature and development of human rationality in relation to religion, religious and theological explorations of the evolution of rationality. However, because the authors are all involved in interdisciplinary dialogue, this philosophical-scientific-theological arrangement of chapters is not hard and fast. Virtually every essay engages issues that overlap all three fields, forming an extremely rich blend of thought. A creative interdisciplinary collection written by world-renowned philosophers, scientists, and theologians, The Evolution of Rationality renders fitting tribute to pioneering scholar-mentor J. Wentzel van Huyssteen.