Respectfully Catholic and Scientific traces the unexpected manner in which several influential liberal-progressive Catholics tried to shape how evolution and birth control were framed and debated in the public square in the era between the World Wars-- and the unintended consequences of their efforts. A small but influential cadre of Catholic priests professionally trained in social sciences, Frs. John Montgomery Cooper, John A. Ryan, and John A. O’Brien, gained a hearing from mainline public intellectuals largely by engaging in dialogue on these topics using the lingua franca of the age, science, to the near exclusion of religious argumentation. The Catholics’ approach was more than just tactical. It also derived from the subtle influence of Catholic theological Modernism, with its strong enthusiasm for science, and from an inclination toward scientism inherited from the Progressive Era’s social science milieu. All three shared a fervent desire to translate the Catholic ethos, as they understood it, into the vocabulary of the modern age while circumventing anti-Catholic attitudes in the process. However, their method resulted in a series of unintended consequences whereby their arguments were not infrequently co-opted and used against both them and the institutional church they served. Alexander Pavuk considers the complex role of both liberal religious figures and scientific elites in evolution and birth control discourse, and how each contributed in unexpected ways to the reconstruction of those topics in public culture. The reconstruction saw the topics themselves shift from matters considered largely within moral frameworks into bodies of kno

What is the origin of life? Hasn't the Catholic Church always been hostile to science? Can a Christian accept the scientific theory of evolution? How can you, as a Catholic, explain what the Church teaches about the relationship between science and faith? Scientist, writer, and scholar Stacy Trasancos gives us ways we can talk about how science and our Catholic faith work together to reveal the truth of Christ through the beauty of his creation. As a scientist who was led to Catholicism through her work, Stacy Trasancos has confronted some of the basic questions we all face. In Particles of Faith, she teaches us how to explain the symbiotic beauty between our curiosity expressed through science and our love of Christ and his Church. Trasancos uses her own story, as well as encyclicals such as Pope Francis's Lumen Fidei, the deep reflections of theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas, and the exacting work of Catholic scientists like Rev. Georges Lemaître (who proposed the game-changing Big Bang theory), to show how science and faith are interwoven and meant to guide us on the path to truth. By the time you finish reading Particles of Faith, you'll be able to answer questions about, generate discussion on, and explain why science helps deepen your faith.

When most people think about Catholicism and science, they will automatically think of one of the famous events in the history of science - the condemnation of Galileo by the Roman Catholic Church. But the interaction of Catholics with science has been - and is - far more complex and positive than that depicted in the legend of the Galileo affair. Understanding the natural world has always been a strength of Catholic thought and research - from the great theologians of the Middle Ages to the present day - and science has been a hallmark of Catholic education for centuries. Catholicism and Science, a volume in the Greenwood Guides to Science and Religion series, covers all aspects of the relationship of science and the Church: How Catholics interacted with the profound changes in the physical sciences (natural philosophy) and biological sciences (natural history) during the Scientific Revolution; how Catholic scientists reacted to the theory of evolution and their attempts to make evolution compatible with Catholic theology; and the implications of Roman Catholic doctrinal and moral teachings for neuroscientific research, and for investigation into genetics and cloning. The volume includes primary source documents, a glossary and timeline of important events, and an annotated bibliography of the most useful works for further research

Were the Middle Ages dark for science? Did the pope say Darwin was right? From the Big Bang to Galileo, from the origins of life on Earth to the existence of life on other planets, The Catholic Church and Science clears away the fog of falsehood and misunderstanding to reveal a faith whose doctrines do not contradict the facts of science, but harmonize with them and a universe whose uncanny order and precision point not to chance assemblage by random forces, but to the purpose-built design of an intelligent creator. Author Ben Wiker (The Darwin Myth, A Meaningful World) takes on the most common errors that modern materialistic thinkers, convinced that faith and science must be mortal enemies, have foisted into popular culture. With great learning, clarity, and wit he tackles stubborn confusions many people have about the relationship between Christianity especially Catholicism and the empirical sciences, and separates truth from lies, the factual from the fanciful.

Ask a young Catholic why they are walking away from the Church and one of the main reasons is usually a perceived conflict between science and Christianity. The student edition of Particles of Faith: A Catholic Guide to Navigating Science aims to help Catholic high school students find real answers to real questions about the interaction of science and faith. What is the origin of life? Does the Big Bang prove God? Can a Christian accept the theory of evolution? Teacher and scientist Dr. Stacy A. Trasancos—who converted to Catholicism while confronting similar concerns about science and faith—addresses these and many other probing questions in the student edition of Particles of Faith, a book designed for use in a high school theology or science course. At the end of the book, students will be able to not only answer key questions about the faith but also to explain those answers to others. The Particles of Faith Teacher Resource Guide can be found online in the Classroom Resource section of the Ave Maria Press website and helps teachers adapt the book’s material as a separate unit in regularly-scheduled courses such as morality, social justice, life science, or in in chemistry and physics courses. Lesson plans in the Particles of Faith Teacher Resource Guide include quizzes and tests. Trasancos also has produced videos with related content in conjunction with Bishop Robert Barron and Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. She employs encyclicals such as Pope Francis’s Laudato Sí, the deep reflections of theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas, and the exacting work of Catholic scientists such as Fr. Georges Lemaître—who proposed the game-changing Big Bang theory—to show how science and faith are interwoven lights meant to guide students on the path to truth. Trasancos also explains how the Catholic faith and science work together to reveal the truth of Christ through the beauty of his creation. She leads with the understanding that science awakens the wonders of the foundational statement of the faith: that God is Creator of all, seen and unseen.

Excerpt from Catholic Science and Catholic Scientists This volume is-composed of articles, revised and augmented, which originally appeared, the first two in the Ave Maria, the last two in the American Cal/zo/z'c Quarterly srez/iew. They are republished in book form in response to numerous requests from patrons of the Catholic Summer School, from members of various Reading Circles, and from distinguished representatives of the hie rarchy. The object of the book, as will appear from its perusal, is to exhibit in a brief compass the relation of the Church to science, and to show that, in the words of Cardinal Newman, Relig ious truth is not only a portion but a condition of knowledge; that there is not, and cannot be, a conflict between real science and true religion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Modernity, academia, and the media perceive and relentlessly advance a dichotomous, contradictory relationship between faith and science. However, from the time of Aristotle, it has been demonstrated that man is a rational being who reasons intellectually in a way that animals and technology cannot. Man is also a religious being, correlating himself to what is above and seeking answers to the ultimate questions of transcendence. In this definitive book on the subject, Dr. Gerard Verschuuren draws from the reflections of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, St. John Paul II, Dr. Perer Kreeft, and such scientists as Albert Einstein and Gregor Mendel to reveal the essential connection between reason and religion. Dr. Verschuuren confirms the necessity of reasoning in scientific theory. Relying on true stories from scientific developments in medicine, astronomy, and physics, he asserts that the scientific method alone can't explain the origins of the universe. By the same token, he decries blind faith and shows how science doesn't threaten the Church. On the contrary: it confirms those truths that Christians have always believed- which is why the Father of Lies has always sought to pit faith against reason and science against revelation. Clarifying the assumptions upon which science and religion are based, this cogent book reflects on how: Authentic reasoning inevitably leads us closer to God and belief in His attributes, Christianity helped produce modern scientific advancements, The New Atheism, including the views of Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins, is erroneous, Faith needs science to avoid fideism, and science requires belief Book jacket.