CFP: Religions: "Natural Sciences as a Contemporary Locus Theologicus"

We welcome submissions to a special issue of the open access journal Religions (ISSN 2077-1444) https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/286348L728 entitled “Natural Sciences as a Contemporary Locus Theologicus”.

Deadline for the submissions  November 15, 2024.

Special issue editors:

• Jacek Rodzeń (ORCID 0000-0002-5321-4104)
• Paweł Polak (ORCID 0000-0003-1078-469X)

Science, and especially the natural sciences, has proven to be a particular challenge for the realm of faith and theology. Thus, a study of the relationship between science and faith (i.e., science–theology) seems to be a relevant and urgent research perspective. Nevertheless, a study of the mutual relations will not exhaust the issue. Indeed, it seems appropriate to raise deep philosophical questions about science from the perspective of theology itself, so in theological language, the idea is to consider science as a new locus theologicus.

Such a perspective has been proposed by several scholars, but the question of a strictly theological reflection on science, especially the natural sciences, has not yet been discussed more widely. We are concerned here with the very existence of science and the conditions of its existence (i.e., natural and subject–human). It is worth emphasizing that from such a theological perspective, we are not interested in specific scientific theories or research results, which may be subject to various revisions, but rather in science as a specific human endeavor.

Our aim here is to start a discussion by contrasting different points of view on the topic of interest and taking into account different religions, different cultures, and different concepts of theology. We believe that the well-respected, peer-reviewed academic journal Religions is the best place to initiate this discussion. We also hope that with the support of this thriving open access journal, which is indexed by major bibliographic databases (e.g. WoS Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Scopus), the discussion will have a greater impact (in 2023, it attained a first impact factor of 0.9) and become a catalyst for further papers, discussions, and conferences.

Areas of research may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Natural sciences as a form of human cognitive activity in light of theology

• The very existence of the natural sciences

• The philosophical and theological conditions of scientific knowledge (especially scientific rationality)

• Science as value, as well as values in science from a theological perspective

• The goals of the natural sciences from a theological perspective

• Theological uses and abuses of the scientific worldview, both past and present

Some examples of inspiring publication in this field (in order of publication):

1. Heller, Michael. 1996. The New Physics and a New Theology. Vatican City: Vatican Observatory Publications, pp. 97-99.
2. Heller, Michael. 2010. The Sense of Life and the Sense of the Universe. Studies in Contemporary Theology. Kraków: Copernicus Center Press, pp.164-166.
3. Kaiser, Christopher B. 2021 Toward a Theology of Scientific Endeavour: The Descent of Science. London and New York: Routledge, 2nd ed.
4. Sierotowicz, Tadeusz. 2023. Theology of Science: Its Collocation and Critical Role for Understanding of Limits of Theological and Scientific Investigations, „Philosophical Problems in Science (Zagadnienia Filozoficzne w Nauce)”, 75 https://doi.org/10.59203/zfn.75.637
5. Kaiser, Christopher B. 2024. The Agencies of God’s Word and Spirit: Modern Science as a “Sacred Reminder”, “Religions” 15(3); https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030367