cover image Questions of Truth: Fifty-One Answers to Questions About God, Science, and Belief

Questions of Truth: Fifty-One Answers to Questions About God, Science, and Belief

Karen E. Spierling, . . Westminster John Knox, $16.95 (253pp) ISBN 978-0-664-23341-9

This book grew out of questions generated at a Web site that management consultant Beale organized to communicate the ideas of Polkinghorne (Faith, Science, and Understanding ), a physicist and Anglican priest, who maintains that science and religion are complementary modes of thought. It organizes selected questions under seven topics. Each question is followed by the responses of Beale and Polkinghorne, sometimes as a single answer and sometimes by the authors individually. Its three appendixes (“Anthropic Fine-Tuning,” “Brain and Consciousness” and “Evolution”) are substantial, constituting a third of the book, although they repeat some material from earlier chapters. True to the book’s subtitle, not all of the dialogue includes science, such as “How much do you need to believe to be a Christian?” and “What place do non-Christians have in God’s universe?” While many of the questions and the authors’ answers are informed by Christian assumptions, topics such as human consciousness and suffering are of universal interest.Many readers will welcome this accessible format, but some may find the blurring of science and theology confusing. (Jan.)