Two Books

In 1982 Olaf Pedersen gave a series of lectures at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and in 1988 at Cambridge University. In the course of those lectures he developed The Two Books: Historical Notes on Some Interactions between Natural Science and Theology. After Pedersen's death in 1997, the work was prepared for publication, making available in English as complete and accurate a version as possible of Pedersen's monumental work. There is a lingering impression that the field of natural science and theology is new and that, except for such passing episodes as those associated with such figures as Galileo Galilei, Giordano Bruno, and Charles Darwin, there is little or no historical continuity to the science-religion dialogue. This book by Olaf Pedersen definitively corrects that impression by tracing with scholarly precision the historical roots from pre-Socratic times to today's pursuit of the interactions between the natural sciences and religion. In doing so it makes a unique and important contribution to the field.