Fr. Bud Grant
“What has Jerusalem to do with Athens?” So snapped Tertullian with pithy acerbity when dispensing with philosophical inquiries into the nature of God (“Prescription against Heretics,” 7).
We can ask a parallel question: “What need has science of religion?” Environmental theologians tend to get that more-than-rhetorical barb from both the science community and the religious. It is as if two camps had achieved some uneasy detente. Some devoutly religious are convinced that science is a threat to faith, since it seems that for the past several-hundred years and several times a day since, some new discovery punches yet another hole in religious convictions: heliocentric universe? Blasphemy. Evolution? Heresy. Libido? Pornography. Reproductive advancements? Sodom and Gomorrah. Mention “climate change” and one can still expect pushback, albeit residual and diminishing.
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