Boston University has for some years offered MA and PhD degrees investigating the interface of Science, Philosophy, and Religion. This program was initiated by Bob Cohen, from the Department of Philosophy within what is now known as the College of Arts and Sciences, and Harry Oliver, from the School of Theology. Both have retired and the program is now carried on by Wesley Wildman, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, Alisa Bokulich, James Burns, Christopher Lehrich, Robert Neville, Jon Roberts, Chris Schlauch, and a large group of affiliated faculty from departments across the university.

The characteristic emphases of the Boston University Religion & Science program are described on this page, especially under Guiding Principles and Degree Requirements. If you are wondering whether you are ready for this program, see the discussion of Prerequisites. For a list of the core faculty and faculty associated with the Religion & Science program, see Faculty Resources. The Boston University Religion & Science program is enriched by the academic environment in Boston. There are links to these and other resources under Associated Program Resources.

For an indication of how the Religion & Science program fits into Boston University administrative structures, see Appendix A. For a brief description of the Religion & Science program's place in the doctoral educational marketplace of the United States, see Appendix B. For an assessment of placement realities for graduates of the Religion & Science program, see Appendix C. If you have further questions or would like to request application forms, see the information under Appendix D.

The Martin Luther King Memorial Statue in front of the building
housing the Division of Religion and Theological Studies

For a fuller list of available faculty, see the faculty profiles for the following departments, each of which is closely associated with the Religion & Science program on the humanities side:

The Religion & Science programs are administered by a specialization within the Division of Religious and Theological Studies (DRTS) of Boston University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. DRTS is not associated exclusively with any one of the schools or departments of the university. Rather, its core faculty members are appointed from many university departments and schools, including especially the Departments of Religion, Philosophy, Sociology, and History within the College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Theology. Numerous other faculty are associated with DRTS. This is especially so in the Religion & Science program, which draws heavily on science faculty. The administrative location of the Religion & Science program can be represented as follows, with more encompassing administrative units toward the top of the table:

Literature

In the last three or four decades, a distinctive literature in science, philosophy, and religion has appeared, primarily in English, with some books in German and Dutch. This literature really begins with Ian Barbour’s Issues in Religion and Science (1966), building on the many books before this time with a concern to analyze the respective cognitive claims of the natural sciences and intellectual work in religion (theology). The recent literature is usually more refined in its handling of methodological questions than these earlier works and a series of relatively stable typologies and distinctions have become widely used in the recent literature as a result. There is a sense of progress in this literature, albeit in most cases progress associated with increasing clarity of organization rather than with problems solved and discoveries made.

An functional canon of literature in religion and science has been established by the International Society for Science and Religion through its Library Project. This selection of 250 books is a foundational library spanning all important areas and disciplines as well as key international and multicultural voices.

Journals

Several journals are devoted to the area, again primarily in English. Arguably the most important is Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science (est. 1966), now published out of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science with Philip Hefner at the editorial helm. This journal arose from the work of Ralph Wendell Burhoe, its founding editor, and continues to publish diverse articles examining the interface of many religious viewpoints with many aspects of the natural and social sciences. Other important periodicals of extremely diverse kinds include:

• Theology and Science, edited by Ted Peters and Robert Russell, is the successor journal to the CTNS Bulletin (est. 1981) as of 2002. It is produced by the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, Berkeley;
• Studies in Science and Theology (est. 1994), produced by the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology, Geneva; and
• Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (formerly Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, est. 1949, edited by Roman J. Miller), produced by the American Scientific Affiliation.
• Religion, Brain, and Behavior, edited by Patrick McNamara, Richard Sosis, and Wesley J Wildman (est. 2010), produced by the Institute for the Bio-Cultural Study of Religion in Boston and published by Taylor & Francis.

Centers

A number of centers with research and educational missions in science, philosophy, and religion have been created in the last two decades. One of the most productive of these is the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences (CTNS), founded in Berkeley in 1981 by Robert John Russell. There are also established centers of various sorts in Boston, Chicago, New York, Notre Dame, Philadelphia, Princeton, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, and elsewhere; and a slew of new centers have begun in the last couple of years. In addition to these, there are a number of organizations with a chiefly public mission, strong web presences, and a concern to sponsor events in a variety of places. Especially notable among these are Counterbalance and Metanexus.

Other Signs of an Emerging Field

These are all markers of what can fairly be called a field, providing that this designation is understood in terms of a set of characteristic questions loosely bounded by the intersection of science, philosophy, and religion, rather than in any more exact sense. Other signs of this field include the following.

• the International Society for Science and Religion (founded 2002), administered from Cambridge, England, under the guidance of founding president Sir John Polkinghorne.
• international research projects, such as that on the ethical and religious impact of Human Genome Initiative and the ten-year project focusing on the meaning of religious language about divine action in relation to contemporary scientific accounts of nature, both initiatives involving CTNS (see the Publications page of CTNS and the Interdisciplinary Studies page of the Vatican Observatory);
• a section devoted to research in science and religion within the sprawling American Academy of Religion, which sponsors several sessions each year at the annual meeting of the Academy;
• the "Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion" under the auspices of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (headed up by Audrey Chapman) that sponsors consultations, publications, conferences, and public awareness;
• academic appointments and professorial chairs in various aspects of science and religion, including positions of various sorts at the Graduate Theological Union (Russell), Princeton Seminary (van Huyssteen), Cambridge University (Watts), and Oxford University (Brooke);
• numerous longstanding courses taught in the area by faculty with a spontaneous fascination with the area, such as the courses taught over the years here at Boston University (see the Science and Religion Course Program at CTNS for a longer list);
• an intense investigation of the history of relations between science, philosophy, and religion that has led to the abandonment among informed scholars of the inadequate "conflict" model that has dominated historiography in science and religion until thirty years ago; and
• in recent years, sponsorship by the John Templeton Foundation of a number of initiatives, including student essay contests, scholarly book and essay prizes, and a science and religion course program involving competition and workshop components.

For these and other reasons, the academic leaders of science, philosophy, and religion, located primarily in the centers mentioned above, tend to argue that a new field has been born, one they usually refer to as "science and religion." They promote the literature described above as the contemporary canon of this new field and argue that familiarity with this literature is necessary to avoid naïve reinventing of wheels in specific inquiries. In this they are quite correct, for the naïveté of some popular books in religion and science relative to this new body of literature is painfully obvious.

A Wider View

As impressive as these considerations are, I would urge that the so-called "new field" of religion and science be interpreted against the background of the long history in the West of explicit reflection on questions for which solid knowledge of each of science, philosophy, and religion are essential. This tradition of interdisciplinary inquiry has been especially in evidence since the seventeenth century but it extends back to antiquity in a variety of forms. With that caveat, and tolerating a rather vague usage of the word "field", it is appropriate so to call the area of science, philosophy, and religion. Nonetheless, I shall avoid using the word "field" and speak of an interdisciplinary area of inquiry.

Undergraduate Education in Science, Philosophy, and Religion

Undergraduate majors in Science and Religion are not common but they are coming on line, one by one, across the United States and elsewhere. One of the best organized is that of Columbia University in New York, where Dr. Bob Pollack leads the way with considerable administrative ingenuity. After all, it is difficult to pull together both the teaching resources and the administrative support necessary to make an new undergraduate major in a large university. For more information about the Columbia venture, see Bob Pollack's web site, as well as the site for the Center for the Study of Science and Religion.

There are a number of institutions of graduate education that offer programs with some connection to the interdisciplinary confluence of science, philosophy, and religion. Typically these programs are in one of the contributing disciplines—usually theology or the philosophy of religion, sometimes in philosophy or history of science, and in no case (to my knowledge) in the sciences. Under these circumstances, interested students are able to take advantage of courses in science, philosophy, and religion offered by faculty. In the majority of cases where this procedure is effective, faculty members are active in a Center whose focus is science and religion and have appointments in the relevant graduate school. In some cases, students in such degree programs proceed to write dissertations on topics in science, philosophy, and religion, even though the qualifying examinations and other requirements are those of the specialized, non-interdisciplinary degree program itself. In spite of the lack of interdisciplinary degree requirements, this procedure has produced impressive results when the students themselves have the initiative and previous background necessary to undertake serious interdisciplinary inquiry. Most of the younger scholars currently publishing in the field came through programs of this kind.

Excellent resources for programs of this kind exist at a number of graduate schools in the United States and abroad. Here is a sampling, including location, institution, and affiliated center. Note that there are other doctoral programs with less formally organized resources (such as the one in Cambridge University, England, led by Fraser Watts) not listed here. Likewise, programs not offering a doctoral degree (such as the MA from the Division of Comparative Studies at Ohio State University and the MA in Religion and Science at Leeds University, UK) are also not listed here.

For some time now, there have been two main routes to research and publishing within areas related to science, philosophy, and religion. One begins from the science side, in which a working scientist with religious connections explicitly engages in religious training at some point during his or her career, often though not always with the aim of becoming a priest. This phenomenon lies at the root of the formation by Arthur Peacocke of the Society of Ordained Scientists and describes the path of many of the leading figures in science and religion research and publishing (the Albrights, Barbour, Gingrich, Haas, Peacocke, Polkinghorne, Rolston, Russell, Smith-Moran, …).

Boston University’s Strategic Position

The Boston University Religion & Science program adopts a strategy that assures it a distinctive place in the doctoral educational marketplace. The strategy is simple: intense and even-handed interdisciplinary training and examinations. This is hard to arrange and execute, both because of the demands it makes of students and because of the necessity for close cooperation across university departments and their faculty.

One of the most important dimensions of success of graduate education, and thus a crucial area of program self-evaluation, is student placement. The arguments against interdisciplinary programs are chiefly two: supposedly unavoidably low standards in the individual guild disciplines over which interdisciplinary inquiry arches, and the anticipated difficulty of placing graduates in suitable appointments. While other remarks on this page are directed to the standards issue, this section offers a number of reasons to expect that prospects for placement of graduates should be no worse than for graduates in specialized guilds and perhaps much better in the long run.

• All DRTS students (including all Religion & Science students) are required to take a one-year course in theories of religion in which they read classics in the field of religious studies. In addition, all Religion & Science students are required to take a one-year course in the core texts and motifs of the world’s religious traditions. Together, these requirements ensure that Religion & Science graduates have the professional preparation required to teach the "Religion 101" course in a Religious Studies Department.
• Religion & Science students pass examinations in the history and philosophy of science and in the philosophy of religion and philosophical theology at the level of expertise required of students specializing solely in one of those two disciplines. Being able to teach these subjects at the college and university level gives Religion & Science students plausible candidacy for an unusually large range of job searches.
• Many colleges have general studies departments that often seek to fill positions with people capable of teaching in a number of disciplines. Religion & Science graduates could scarcely be better positioned for winning such positions.
• Interdisciplinary research appears to be increasingly valued in many university settings. Religion & Science graduates will be well-placed in job searches for which established interdisciplinary skills are sought.
• The "field" of science and religion is steadily achieving a higher profile to the point that a few recent jobs have even listed it as a sought-after specialty. It is reasonable to assume that Religion & Science graduates should fill the majority of such positions in due course. Kirk Wegter-McNelly has compiled a summary of positions advertised in this interdisciplinary specialty in recent years.

Several strategic planning initiatives for graduate placement are already in place, some to be implemented as soon as possible. Here is a short list:

• The Division of Religious and Theological Studies has now appointed a senior faculty member specifically responsible for student placement.
• Religion & Science graduates will have contact with professors from a wide range of disciplines. Students are educated in the importance of cultivating such contacts to the point that informed references can be written on their behalf.
• The involvement of Religion & Science students in relevant research projects based in Boston University or in the wider Boston region is important for making contact with leaders in the field. To that end, research projects under design usually include a student-support and employment dimension.
• Solid financial support for students, especially during the coursework phase of their degrees, helps to ensure that students can finish quickly with skills unattenuated by drawn out programs, thereby leaving them better placed to win jobs.

All this focuses on academic placements. We believe that we are entering a new era of interdisciplinary, cross-cultural inquiry oriented to solving problems. If this is so, then other types of intellectual employment are likely to become increasingly important, such as think-tank positions, post-doctoral research positions, consultative careers, and leaders of public policy initiatives. Religion & Science graduates are in a good position to lead the way into filling and even helping to define this new intellectual employment territory.

Appendix D: Applications and Further Information

Applications and financial aid information can be obtained from Karen Nardella (kcn@bu.edu) at the Division of Religious and Theological Studies, 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215; 617/353-2636. You can also get application forms online. You may request a printed copy of the bulletin/application by contacting the Graduate School Office at 617/353-2696, or by placing a request here.

To obtain more information about this exciting program, or to inquire about your suitability, contact me directly at the feedback email address (in the left column) or Prof. Wesley J. Wildman, Boston University School of Theology, 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, 617/353-6788.

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